Isabel Bayrakdarian ~ Pauline Viardot-Garcia (Lieder, Chancon, Canzoni, Mazurkas)

Isabel Bayrakdarian ~ Pauline Viardot-Garcia (Lieder, Chancon, Canzoni, Mazurkas)

Isabel Bayrakdarian ~ Pauline Viardot-Garcia (Lieder, Chancon, Canzoni, Mazurkas)
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CD Details

Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-04-03
Music Label: Analekta
Soundtracks:
  1. Serenade
  2. Bonjour Mon Coeur
  3. Hai Luli !
  4. L'enfant Et La Mere
  5. Havanaise
  6. Madrid
  7. Filles De Cadix
  8. Des Nachts
  9. Rathsel
  10. Die Sterne
  11. Die Beschworung
  12. Seize-Ans, D'apres La Mazurka No.31 An La Bemol Majeur, Op.50 No.2 De Frederic C
  13. Aime-Moi, D'apres La Mazurka No. 23 En Re Majeur, Op.33 No.2 De Frederic Chopin
  14. Fete, D'apres La Mazurka No.4 En Mi Bemol Mineur, Op.6 No.4 De Frederic Chopin B
  15. Plainte D'amour, D'apres La Mazurka No.1 An Fa Diese Mineur, Op.6 No.1 De Freder
  16. Chanson De La Pluie
  17. Grands Oiseaux Blancs
  18. Desespoir
  19. Sylvie
  20. Moriro
  21. L'afflitta
  22. Chevelure, Chanson Napolitaine
  23. Ti Voglio Amar, Canzone D'amore

Music reviews of Isabel Bayrakdarian ~ Pauline Viardot-Garcia (Lieder, Chancon, Canzoni, Mazurkas)

Music Review: Charming Songs Charmingly Sung
Rating: 5 Stars

I've been a fan of the Armenian-Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian from the first moment I heard her voice. Just now thirty, she has exploded onto the operatic and recital stage in the last two or three years, singing at many of the world's opera houses (e.g., two roles thus far at the Metropolitan) and foremost recital halls. And she has recorded for just as long. Her story is all the more amazing in that she didn't study singing until she had just about finished her degree with honors in Biomedical Engineering at a Canadian university. I have reviewed two earlier CDs ('Azulão' and 'Cleopatra,' both available here at Amazon) and not surprisingly gave them both raves.

Here we have a collection of songs by another remarkable woman, Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1821-1910) who was a world-famous singer whose voice comprised the range from contralto to high coloratura soprano. She was from what has been called the Royal Family of Singing of the 19th century. Her father was singer and singing teacher (and the first-ever Figaro in Rossini's 'Barber of Seville') Manuel Garcia Sr, her sister the legendary Maria Malibran, her brother Manuel Garcia Jr. As a physician I am always pleased to note that Manuel Jr, aside from being a singer and then a teacher of such singing stars as Jenny Lind and Mathilde Marchesi, was also the inventor of the laryngoscope, that medical instrument that allows one to see the vocal cords. Wouldn't you know it was a singing teacher who came up with that idea!

As a composer, Viardot wrote well over 100 songs in at least five languages to texts by such writers as Turgenev, Musset, Pushkin, Gautier, Goethe and Mörike. She set twelve of Chopin's mazurkas to texts by Louis Pomey, and Chopin is reported to have been delighted with them. Four of those are included on this disc. Her music is expertly crafted but makes no pretensions of being much more than exceedingly charming salon music. I will admit that I had not known more than a few of them, but I've been listening to this disc repeatedly over the last few days and keep finding delightful things in them. The songs are helped by the simply lovely singing of Miss Bayrakdarian. She has a silvery, flexible, lyric soprano that is even from top to bottom. The quality of her voice reminds me, if I had to compare her with anyone, of Elly Ameling, a long-time favorite of mine (and the world's). She has something else that Ameling had--a smile in the voice. I cannot explain what that means technically but I know it when I hear it. One has the sense that Bayrakdarian has enormous pleasure from singing and that comes across.

Some highlights on this disc: 'Havanaise' with its feathery coloratura (how does any singer manage to sing florid triplets at such a speed?), the four Chopin mazurkas included here, the utterly sweet lullaby 'L'Enfant et la Mère,' the lover's plaint 'Haï Luli,' the pastorale 'Chanson de la Pluie,' the nocturnes 'Des Nachts' and 'Die Sterne,' the desperate cry of the jilted lover, 'Morirò' ('I shall die'). If I had to place the musical style of Viardot-Garcia, I'd put it in the general ambit of Gounod and Bizet, with a bow to Mendelssohn.

Bayrakdarian's performances are nuanced but not overly so. These are not deathless poems and they don't require that sort of emphasis. As far as I can tell the only defect, if you call it that, in her voice is that her trill is just a bit rudimentary. But this is definitely a voice to treasure. Not having heard her live, I don't really know how big the voice is, but its purity and sheen almost certainly would help make it heard in a larger house. Her pianist is a fellow Armenian-Canadian, Serouj Kradjian. He is a sensitive accompanist and his piano is recorded very well. [Bayrakdarian and Kradjian, I've just learned, were married in the summer of 2004.]

I can't wait for Bayrakdarian's next recording.

TT=69:06

Scott Morrison
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