Soirée

Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená is accompanied by Sir Simon Rattle, making his recording debut as a pianist, in a selection of songs that evoke the informal domestic atmosphere of a soirée. Composers featured include Dvořák, Ravel, Brahms and Janáček. Many of the songs are for voice and chamber ensemble, and the couple are joined by a selection of their closest colleagues.

Featuring

Magdalena Kožená
Sir Simon Rattle
Wolfram Brandl
Rahel Maria Rilling
Yulia Deyneka
Dávid Adorján

Kaspar Zehnder
Andrew Marriner
Ernest Chausson
Antonín Dvořák
Johannes Brahms
Igor Stravinsky
Maurice Ravel
Leoš Janáček
Richard Strauss

Did you know?

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Compositional Technique

Igor Stravinsky's Three Songs from William Shakespeare mark his return to song composition after 1919 and his adoption of twelve-tone music, a method previously associated with Arnold Schoenberg.

Composition History

Johannes Brahms's Two Songs, Op. 91, were written for his friends, the singer Amalie Schneeweiss and violinist Joseph Joachim, whose marriage was in trouble.

Interpretation

Magdalena Kožená had to persuade her colleagues with a couple of drinks to sing the Janáček songs in Czech.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Maurice Ravel's Chansons madécasses explores colonial oppression, exoticism, and eroticism, using an 18th-century text by Evariste de Forge de Parny to create intriguing contradictions.

Compositional Technique

Leoš Janáček's Říkadla (Nursery Rhymes) invented a new song archetype, creating a whimsical world where animals often dominate humans, set to infinitely free rhythms.