Anita Rachvelishvili – Elegie (2021) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Released on the ‘Sony Clasical’ label – “Élégie” is the second album from Anita Rachvelishvili, showcasing her in the song repertoire to which she has a special connection despite being best known as a star of the world’s greatest opera houses. Accompanied by acclaimed pianist Vicenzo Scalera, this album reveals another side to the Georgian singer; the repertoire is notable for its variety featuring five languages (Russian, Georgian, Italian, French and Spanish) and, correspondingly, five very different repertoire traditions. One of the fastest rising opera stars of recent years and winner of ‘Best Singer’ at the 2020 Oper! Awards, Anita has been described as Riccardo Muti as “without doubt the best Verdi mezzo-soprano today on the planet”. Echoing her debut album of operatic arias on Sony, she introduces listeners to a great if internationally neglected Georgian composer, in this case Otar Taktakisvili, heard in The Sun of October, a setting of the distinguished Georgian poet Galaktion Tabidze, as well as Rachmaninov’s setting of the Pushkin poem Oh never sing to me again and Tchaikovsky’s None but the lonely heart. “I really love this repertoire. It gives one more colours and more possibilities for expressing emotions with the voice”, says Anita Rachvelishvili. During Covid-19, she has remained in demand whether appearing in the Metropolitan Opera’s online At Home Gala or live with Greek National Opera in Athens. But in a year dominated by isolation, this album (recorded in her home city of Tbilisi just a few weeks before the shutters came down) shows that there is beauty in musical introspection.

Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili’s opulent voice saw her be offered the title role in Carmen at the age of 25, and then on to singing the awesomely challenging role of Amneris in Verdi’s Aida with well-deserved success. The overwhelming intensity of her voice and the musical power she gives to her characters quickly propelled her into the great international venues. After a first album devoted to her favourite opera arias, here she is with a recital in five languages, Georgian, Italian, French, Russian and Spanish, and several composers that she serves to perfection: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Tosti, Duparc and Falla, to which she adds Sun of Haying Month (Mzeo Tibatvis), a very melancholy romance by a composer from her country, Otar Taktakishvili (1924-1989), which tells of a young girl who dies with her eyes wide open in a foreign land.

Accompanied on the piano by Vincenzo Scalera, the young singer has devised a programme made up of her very favourite works, excluding the German Lieder, the language of which she modestly admits she has not yet perfectly mastered. However, as Duparc’s songs are similar to the German spirit of a Schumann or a Brahms, we can expect Anita Rachvelishvili sooner or later to tackle a repertoire where she will undoubtedly shine. For the time being, let’s taste the heady perfumes of her timbre in this album whose sensual musical colours are further enhanced by the exuberance of a cover whose heavy shades of red speak of an orientalism of an almost erotic intensity. – François Hudry/Qobuz

Details of original recording : Recorded on January 26–30, 2020 at at Lenø Records, Tbilisi, (Georgia)

Tracklist:

1. Anita Rachvelishvili – 6 Romances, Op. 6: No. 6 None but the Lonely Heart
2. Anita Rachvelishvili – 6 Romances, Op. 73: No. 2 Night
3. Anita Rachvelishvili – 6 Romances, Op. 25: No. 1 Reconciliation
4. Anita Rachvelishvili – 6 Romances, Op. 8: No. 2 Child, you are Beautiful as a Flower
5. Anita Rachvelishvili – 6 Romances, Op. 8: No. 4 I Fell in Love
6. Anita Rachvelishvili – 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 7 How Fair This Spot
7. Anita Rachvelishvili – 6 Romances, Op. 4: No. 4 Do not Sing to me, my Beauty
8. Anita Rachvelishvili – 12 Romances, Op. 14: No. 8 Oh, do not Mourn Me!
9. Anita Rachvelishvili – Sun of Haying Month
10. Anita Rachvelishvili – Non t’amo più!
11. Anita Rachvelishvili – Ideale
12. Anita Rachvelishvili – Tristezza
13. Anita Rachvelishvili – Élégie
14. Anita Rachvelishvili – Chanson triste
15. Anita Rachvelishvili – La vie Antérieure
16. Anita Rachvelishvili – No. 1 El paño moruno
17. Anita Rachvelishvili – No. 2 Seguidilla murciana
18. Anita Rachvelishvili – No. 3 Asturiana
19. Anita Rachvelishvili – No. 4 Jota
20. Anita Rachvelishvili – No. 5 Nana
21. Anita Rachvelishvili – No. 6 Canción
22. Anita Rachvelishvili – No. 7 Polo

Download:

mqs.link_AnitaRachvelishvililgie20212496.rar

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