La figura del genial bardo ha sido una presencia permanente en las artes anglófonas, de forma que cuando a fines del XIX se desarrolla la canción culta inglesa, como fruto local y postrero del lied alemán, fue de lo más natural servirse de Shakespeare para los textos. Esta grabación ofrece una amplia selección de los más variados autores británicos, con el vínculo común de los textos shakesperianos, desde los grandes nombres consagrados de la música orquestal, Elgar, Delius, o Waughan Williams, hasta lideristas natos como Quilter o Britten, pasando por nombres poco difundidos como Del Riego o Harrison. Michele Breed se mueve con soltura entre unas músicas británicamente comedidas, que evitan los grandes gestos, para centrarse en un melodismo tonal que se ajusta a la prosodia del idioma, desarrollando las pequeñas historias de cada canción, con una voz penumbrosa, de emisión heterodoxa y tímbricamente no muy agraciada, sobre la que se impone un intérprete sensible, que sabe aprovechar sus carencias en unas lecturas bien delineadas, de sutiles contrastes y claroscuros, apoyada por una pianista de sonoridad sombría que empasta bien con la voz y se conoce los requerimientos del canto.

Breedt is a South African singer with good technique that relies heavily on letting phrases trail off, a touch that most of the time works in the service of the song. She has excellent vocal agility, shimmering soft singing, and a wonderful ability to float high notes. Her diction is clear…Schumann’s accompaniment is excellent, and the recorded sound is very present…here is a chance to discover rare repertoire that will be familiar in style; it’s a well-planned program performed with great elegance.

To read the complete review, please visit American Record Guide online.

Michelle Breedt was born in South Africa and began her voice studies there. Next came a spell at London’s Guildhall, where she presumably encountered a few of the songs in the second part of this programme. English is therefore one of her mother tongues. However, her career has basically taken place in Germany and in opera, though without neglecting lieder. My first encounter with her was “Dvorák und seine Zeit”, a programme masterminded by Thomas Hampson for the 2004 Salzburg Festival and issued by Orfeo (C 656 0521). Breedt’s principal contribution was Dvorák’s “Love Songs” op.83 sung in English. This curious decision was made by Hampson who seemingly thought, on the basis of an edition with English words, that these songs were actually written in that language. In reality, and in spite of the high opus number, they were culled from Dvorák’s very early cycle “Cypresses” and were written in Czech. I dredge this up again—I discussed it when reviewing the set—because Breedt seems to have learnt from the episode a tendency to equate musicology with spending half-an-hour in a music store. In speaking of a “daunting task” she conjures up visions of hours spent in libraries grubbing through long-out-of-print scores. In actual fact she has not, so far as I can see, “discovered” anything that isn’t currently in print. Eric Coates in serious vein, Julius Harrison and Stuart Findlay sound mouth-wateringly rare but in fact an anthology of Shakespeare settings currently available from Boosey & Hawkes contains these and many other songs in the programme. But I don’t want to labour the point since the programme was basically aimed at a public with zero knowledge of the repertoire. And in any case, the availability of those particular songs doesn’t seem to have stimulated anyone to record them ere now. Breedt also writes enthusiastically and often perceptively about a number of the songs. Somewhat sloppily, though, she twice refers to Findlay as “Finley”.

A similar mix of inspiration and approximation seems to have gone into the preparation of the performances themselves. She rightly remarks that “it was of the utmost importance to me to stick as closely as possible to the dynamic markings cited by each and every composer in this selection”. But it’s worth getting the notes right too. On the last page of Harrison’s “I know a bank”, the two semi-quavers to the word “musk” are sung a tone lower than written. At the beginning of the last line but one of Parry’s “Willow, willow, willow”, she shifts the descent of the vocal line, before the pause, to the beginning of the following bar. Sung and played as written a curious passing dissonance is created, for which reason Breedt maybe took it upon herself to correct the poor nut, but I happen to think Parry knew what he was doing. In Head’s “The homecoming of the sheep”, inmore....

I drammi di William Shakespeare sono pieni di musica. E spesso il celebre autore cita brani musicali che all’epoca erano famosi. Un’operazione curiosa: presentare un repertorio di musiche ispirate al mondo shakespeariano. Musiche antiche, come la settecentesca «When daisies pied» di Thomas Arne con la sua imitazione del cucù, che viene presentata anche nella versione di Mervin Horder. Musiche ottocentesche e novecentesche come «I know a bank» tratto dal Sogno di una notte di mezza estate e musicata da Julius Harrison. Il mezzosoprano Michelle Breedt e la pianista Nina Schumann li interpretano in modo eccellente. © 2011 Bresciaoggi.it

VIVALDI, A.: 4 Seasons (The) / PIAZZOLLA, A.: Las 4 Estaciones Portenas (Vivaldi and Piazzolla, Seasons) (Rowland, Stellenbosch University Camerata) TP1039015
Piano Duo Recital: Magalhaes, Luis / Schumann, Nina - BRAHMS, J. / ARENSKY, A. / LUTOSLAWSKI, W. / COPLAND, A. TP1039022
RACHMANINOV, S.: Piano Duos (Complete) (Magalhaes, Schumann) TP1039039
BEETHOVEN, L. van: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1-5 (Martens, Magalhaes) TP1039053
href="/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=TP1039060" target="_blank">TCHAIKOVSKY, P.I.: Piano Concerto No. 1 / RACHMANINOV, S.: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Du Toit, Cape Town Symphony, Hadari) TP1039060
Vocal Recital: Breedt, Michelle - ELGAR, E. / ARNE, T.A. / HORDER, M. / QUILTER, R. / COATES, E. / HARRISON, J. (Shakespeare Inspired) TP1039077
Violin Recital: Stadler, Frank - JANACEK, L. / SCHUMANN, R. / SCHUBERT, F. TP1039084
MENDELSSOHN, Felix: Violin Concerto in D minor / Sinfonia No. 10 / Concerto for Violin and Piano (Beyers, Magalhaes, Stellenbosch University Camerata) TPD1039046
LISZT, F.: Apres une lecture du Dante / Vallee d`Obermann / Les jeux d`eau a la Villa d`Este / Piano Sonata in B minor (Schoeman) TP2039091

Un sello que acaba de lanzarse al mercado como Two-Pianists no está aun consolidado, pero poco a poco va aumentando la nómina de artistas y ampliando el número de discos. Para comenzar, vamos a hacer un repaso por los artistas que graban para Two-Pianists. Entre los pianistas están Luis Magalhães, Nina Schumann, François du Toit, Konstantin Scherbakov (un especialista reconocidísimo en Shostakovich y en la música rusa, cuyos registros en Naxos han sido muy premiados) y Ben Schoeman. Daniel Rowland (con un violín cremonés de Lorenzo Storioni de 1793), Frank Stadler y Zoë Beyers son los violinistas, mientras que el resto de músicos son Michelle Breedt (mezzosoprano), Peter Martens (violoncello), Maria du Toit (clarinete) y la Camerata Stellenbosch, de la ciudad homónima de Sudáfrica, que es el centro administrativo del sello y donde se realizan las grabaciones, exactamente en el Endler Hall de la Universidad de Stellenbosch, una de las poblaciones con mayor tradición europea de Sudáfrica.

Dentro del catálogo de Two-Pianists nos encontramos con un disco dedicado a canciones con textmore....