Christiane Karg, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra & David Afkham - Parfum (2017) [Official Digital Download]

This album is pure poetry – taking its spark from Christiane Karg’s engagement with the poetical works of Charles Baudelaire, Leconte de Lisle, Paul Verlaine, Tristan Klingsor and Victor Hugo. A poetry in diction that has a wonderful affinity with Impressionist music at the turn from the 19th to the 20th century. Christiane Karg finally decided upon works by Duparc, Koechlin, Debussy and Ravel for her new album. Her selection also includes an early composition by Benjamin Britten, which in its turn was inspired by Debussy and Ravel. Christiane Karg’s voice wafts this poetic scent, these colours in sound, aloft. Poetry and music, words and voice blend into Parfum!

“This selection of French poems from the second half of the nineteenth century is influenced by the Impressionism and Symbolism of that era.

Most of them are snapshots, though the authors were not simply interested in a simple and realistic reproduction of what they had experienced: in fact, they contain a host of symbols and linguistic images that lend the event being described a special and unique character that goes far beyond the reality: like the aroma of a costly perfume that evaporates and leaves behind just a hint of elegance. And since the poetry loves that word so much and the setting of these poems emphasises evanescence and the intangible, Parfum seemed to me to be the ideal title for this recording.

That gives a lovely sense of melancholy that evaporates as soon as one is aware of it, and only blossoms in the poetry and the music through memory and refinement, obliging listeners to give free rein to their imaginations.”

Christiane Karg is one of the most-sought-after lyric sopranos of the present day, acclaimed for her embodiment of operatic roles and as a lieder, concert and oratorio singer. She can be seen and heard all around the world: at lieder recitals in New York’s Carnegie Hall and in the Vienna Konzerthaus, at La Scala in Milan with her 2016 debut in “Der Rosenkavalier”, at regular guest appearances at the Munich State Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera House, at the Salzburg Festival and at the Royal Opera House London. At the end of 2017 she will give her debut at the famous MET Opera in New York (The Marriage of Figaro) and the Vienna State Opera.

TRACKLIST

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Shéhérazade
1 I. Asie 10:10
2 II. La flûte enchantée 03:00
3 III. L'indifférent 03:50

Claude Debussy (1862-1918): / John Adams (1947- )

Le livre de baudelaire
4 I. Le balcon 08:28
5 II. Harmonie du soir 04:19
6 III. Le jet d'eau 05:47
7 IV. Recueillement 05:06

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Quatre chansons françaises
8 I. Nuits de juin 02:44
9 II. Sagesse 02:54
10 III. L'enfance 04:35
11 IV. Chanson d'automne 02:32

Charles Koechlin (1867-1950)

12 Trois mélodies, Op. 17/3: Épiphanie 07:01

Henri Duparc (1848-1933)

13 L'invitation au voyage 04:33
14 La vie antérieure 04:17
15 Phidylé 05:06

PERSONNEL
Christiane Karg, soprano
Bamberger Symphoniker
David Afkham, conductor