Release Date: 28 February 2025
Label: Hyperion Records Ltd
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 034571284507
Composer/Series: Faure
Description
Faure's songs represent his art at its most radiant, demonstrating the composer's exceptional gift for melody as well as his acute sensitivity to the subtleties of the greatest French poets of the day.
In 'La bonne chanson', the result is a song cycle like few others: an ecstatic hymn to the beloved (the composer's mistress) which celebrates the triumph of love. Here, it provides a glorious opening to Nicky Spence and Julius Drake's all-Faure recital.
Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edige & other songs (CDA68378):
"The whole recital is mesmerising, I think."
BBC Record Review.
Leos Janacek: The diary of one who disappeared & other works (CDA68282):
"A magnificent realisation of a viscerally rewarding work."
BBC Music Magazine
'Spence, in wonderful voice here, sings with bronzed tone, a keen sense and a reined-in intensity that allows words and emotional shifts to register fully. […] The lyricism of Spence's singing impresses throughout, as does his understated way with words and meaning.' – Gramophone
'The cycle's nine songs form an irrepressible exclamation of love bursting through the composer's customary nonchalance. […] This is Fauré for the concert hall rather than the drawing room, big-hearted, yet with no lack of nuance.' – BBC Music Magazine (4 stars)
Featured on BBC Radio 3's Record Review on 22nd March: 'Utterly ecstatic. This is a superb Fauré recital from Spence whose ardent voice and emotional fearlessness fil these songs with life and colour and passion.'
Tracklisting
Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica
Laurence Perkins
Takacs Quartet, Marc-Andre Hamelin
English National Opera Orchestra / Martyn Brabbins
The Gesualdo Six / Owain Park
Steven Osborne
Stephen Hough, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Sakari Oramo
Steven Isserlis, Philharmonia Orchestra / Paavo Jarvi
Nicky Spence, Julius Drake
Nicky Spence, Julius Drake
