Das Rosenband: Richard Strauss, Janis Medins, Alfreds Kalnin

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Cat No: LMIC083

Release Date: 15 January 2021

Label: Skani

Packaging Type: Digipak

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 4751025440529

Genres: Classical Vocal

Description

Das Rosenband traces Art Nouveau aesthetics in the form of an art song by Richard Strauss and his lesser known Latvian contemporaries Alfreds Kalnins and Janis Medins, some of which are recorded here for the first time.

In a recent interview Hamburg based Latvian soprano Inga Kalna described the programme as "musical Art Nouveau about the theme of love with extremely poetic imagery. Lots and lots of nature: evening, morning, sunny daytime, night. Autumn leaves and the groaning sea, moonlit waters and a summer evening's breeze. Of course, there are lots of flowers characteristic of Art Nouveau: roses, water lilies, ivy. It has love poetry in all of its aspects: general, sensual and even religious. Love for nature and one's homeland. Love for one another, for the seasons and for the whole world embracing us. Lots of melancholy longing. Everything we imagine when we hear the word 'love' is included in this programme! I think this is an elegant programme, stylistically presented in a unified palette of colour. Here, the national and international are entwined. This aspect of music fascinates me tremendously â€“ how what is unique to each nation is preserved, yet at the same time it addresses a very broad range of people, and everyone can find something of themselves in it. [..] Richard Strauss is very operatic and very intellectual. He is operatic in his largesse. His music is vivid: generous texture, rich harmonies, extremely broad phrases, an understanding of all the instruments. For singers, this music demands an unusual amount of breath control and absolute, 100% conviction. Strauss' music is like an opera house with its wine-red seats and dark-red curtain with a golden fringe â€“ lavish, velvety, golden, lustrous, rich and intellectual. But I also very much like the music written by the Latvian masters Janis Medins and Alfreds Kalnins. For example, Medins immediately makes me think of Art Nouveau. I see Albert iela and Riga's Art Nouveau buildings."

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Tracklisting