Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous Sheherazade, 29 Sep 2007
Well, after all these years, Crespin's Scheherazade still leads the field. Her voice is absolutely right for this cycle, from the glorious moment in the first song, when the orchestra erupts at her third cry of "Asie!", to the wonderfully enigmatic and ambivalent tone she adopts for the final song "L'Indifferent". She is superbly seconded by Ansermet and the Suisse-Romande Orchestra.There have been may excellent versions of this cycle, but Crespin's air of suave sophistication is perfectly suited to it, as it is to the Poulenc songs with piano included on this reissue. So why only 4 stars? Well, I know this is going against the grain, but I have never found this version of "les Nuits d'Ete" as satisfactory as it's coupling. Crespin's civilised, cool singing, to my mind, never engages with the songs as deeply as do singers such as Baker (with either Barbirolli or Giulini), De Los Angeles, Eleanor Steber and, more recently, Brigitte Bailleys. Contrary to the previous review here, I find no "hush and trembling anticipation" in "Le Spectre de la Rose", but rather find the rose's arrival from paradise somewhat earthbound. Any of the other singers I mentioned sing with greater abandon and radiance. The most successful of the songs is the final "L'Ile Inconnue", in which she finds just the right mixture of the playful and the passionate. That said, this is a disc I would never want to be without. Sheherazade alone makes it a must for any library.
|
|
|
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
unparalleled berlioz, 23 Dec 2006
The Crespin version of 'Nuits d'Ete', old as it is, is as good as you can get in quite a strongly competitive field. She had a big and very beautiful voice and an ability to project the line and words of a song quite rivetingly, especially in French repertoire. She makes the 'Nuits' sound like the most beautiful orchestral song-cycle ever written ; maybe it is! The hush and trembling anticipation in 'La Spectre de la Rose' have to be heard to be believed. Equally, her voice was agile and flexible where necessary, so the livelier songs are just as good. The recording is excellent and the accompaniment good. The other songs are equally well served, and there should be no hesitation in sampling this CD. It is quite an event.
|
|
|
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Famous - but over-rated, 8 Jan 2008
I'll risk being shot down in flames for criticising this much-reviewed and often-praised version of Berlioz' wonderful song cycle and Ravel's "Sheherazade" (plus other Poulenc songs not much to my taste). I really do not think it is as good as some say and I am heartened to find that David Cairns - as famous and trustworthy a critic of the voice as you can get - agrees with me in "Song on Record", edited by Alan Blyth. First of all, Crespin is often rather imperious and detached in manner; secondly, her voice often has a rather grainy, gritty quality which is not at all pleasing when compared with the warmth and roundness of singers such as Janet Baker, Eleanor Steber or Frederica Von Stade. All bring more emotion and beauty of tone to their interpretions; Steber's performance, in particluar, is transcendent. I bought this record in great expectation and ultimately gave it away because I found I did not want to listen to it when I could hear those other artists. So there; I'll stick my neck out and say caveat emptor; listen before you buy, and if you like her - well, fine, but I'd recommend several performances before this one and I speak as one who loves great voices and thinks this the finest of all song cycles.
|
|
|
|
~ Sir Edward Elgar
~ Angela Gheorghiu
~ Alison Balsom
~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
~ Richard Wagner
