Carolyn Sampson: Fleurs

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Richard Strauss, Gabriel Fauré, Charles-François Gounod, Francis Poulenc, Claude Debussy, Robert Schumann, Lili Boulanger, Benjamin Britten, Roger Quilter, Henry Purcell, Franz Schubert, (Alexis-)Emmanuel Chabrier, Reynaldo Hahn

Genre:

Vocal

Label: BIS

Media Format: Super Audio CD

Media Runtime: 68

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: BIS2102

BIS2102. Carolyn Sampson: Fleurs

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Pausanias, Movement: Sweeter than roses (song) Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Henry Purcell, Composer
Joseph Middleton, Piano
(6) Gedichte und Requiem, Movement: No. 2, Meine Rose Robert Schumann, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Robert Schumann, Composer
(6) Gesänge, Movement: No. 6, Röselein, Röselein! Robert Schumann, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Robert Schumann, Composer
(7) Elizabethan Lyrics, Movement: Damask roses (wds. Anon) Roger Quilter, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Roger Quilter, Composer
The Nightingale and the Rose Benjamin Britten, Composer
Benjamin Britten, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
(Le) Temps des roses Charles-François Gounod, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Charles-François Gounod, Composer
Joseph Middleton, Piano
(4) Songs, Movement: No. 4, Les Roses d'Ispahan (wds. de Lisle) Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Joseph Middleton, Piano
(4) Lieder, Movement: No. 1, Das Rosenband (wds. Klopstock: 1897, orch 1897) Richard Strauss, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Richard Strauss, Composer
Mädchenblumen Richard Strauss, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Richard Strauss, Composer
(Die) Blumensprache Franz Schubert, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Franz Schubert, Composer
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Im Haine Franz Schubert, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Franz Schubert, Composer
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Lieder und Gesänge I, Movement: No. 4, Jasminenstrauch (wds. Rückert) Robert Schumann, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Robert Schumann, Composer
(3) Gesänge, Movement: No. 2, Die Blume der Ergebung (wds. Rückert) Robert Schumann, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Robert Schumann, Composer
Lieder-Album für die Jugend, Movement: Schneeglöckchen (wds. Rückert) Robert Schumann, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Robert Schumann, Composer
Fleurs Francis Poulenc, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Francis Poulenc, Composer
Joseph Middleton, Piano
(2) Songs, Movement: No. 1, La papillon de la fleur (1861) Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Joseph Middleton, Piano
(4) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Fleur jetée (wds. Silvestre) Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Offrande Reynaldo Hahn, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Reynaldo Hahn, Composer
Proses lyriques, Movement: De fleurs Claude Debussy, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Claude Debussy, Composer
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Clairières dans le ciel, Movement: Les lilas qui avaient fleuri Lili Boulanger, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Lili Boulanger, Composer
Toutes les fleurs (Alexis-)Emmanuel Chabrier, Composer
(Alexis-)Emmanuel Chabrier, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
Amid a clutch of floral favourites – say, Purcell’s ‘Sweeter than roses’ (in Britten’s flamboyant arrangement), Schumann’s ‘Jasminenstrauch’ and Fauré’s ‘Les roses d’Ispahan’ – Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton range well off the beaten track to embrace such rarities as Lili Boulanger’s dreamy, liquescent ‘Les lilas qui avaient fleuri’ and Strauss’s beguiling Mädchenblumen songs. Always a lovely Baroque singer, Sampson vividly suggests the mounting erotic excitement of ‘Sweeter than roses’, often sung merely as a sweet love song. But with hints of deeper colours in her vernal soprano, she is hardly less persuasive in Romantic song. She sings Schubert’s ‘Die Blumensprache’ and ‘Im Haine’ with fresh, smiling tone, gracefully negotiating the ornamental turns and melismas. To Schumann’s fragile, self-communing miniatures she brings an ideal delicacy and Innigkeit, not least in the gently floated high notes and magical pianissimo close of the rare ‘Die Blume der Ergebung’. Here and elsewhere Middleton creates limpid, luminous textures and reveals a subtle feeling for Schummanesque rubato.

If Sampson sounds slightly stretched by the climax of ‘Mohnblumen’, most extrovert of the Mädchenblumen songs, her silver-spun lines and radiance in alt make for enchanting performances of ‘Kornblumen’, with its long, Italianate cantilena, and the mysterious ‘Wasserrose’. In Britten’s unquiet Pushkin setting ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ her purity of timbre and relative restraint are just as moving as the more unbridled performance by Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich (Decca, 6/70). In French song, too, Sampson is in her element, whether in the blithe, seductive grace of Gounod’s ‘Le temps des roses’ or the hothouse torpor of Debussy’s ‘De fleurs’, where she and Middleton respond sensitively to the sultry, shifting harmonies. After so much languor and wistfulness, the mingled passion and playful mockery – nicely caught by Sampson – of Chabrier’s ‘Toutes les fleurs!’ provides a delectable envoi to an imaginatively planned, beautifully executed recital that charms and touches by turns.

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