Joseph Middleton & Louise Alder – Lines Written During a Sleeplesss Night: The Russian Connection (2020) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Joseph Middleton & Louise Alder – Lines Written During a Sleeplesss Night: The Russian Connection (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96kHz | Time – 01:13:25 minutes | 1,15 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Booklet & Front cover | © Chandos

The soprano Louise Alder has been described as ‘the brightest lyric soprano of the younger generation’ (The Arts Desk), ‘a born actress’ (Opera), and as having ‘a voice of sparkling beauty’ (Gramophone).

In this her debut recording for Chandos, she and her pianist, Joseph Middleton, have devised an unusual but rewarding programme that explores the works of six contrasting composers. As she writes in her booklet note: ‘When Joseph suggested making a CD of Russian songs, including Russian composers who set poems in other languages, I jumped at the challenge. The more we discussed the repertoire, the more amazed I was to see how well it fitted with my own family history. In 1916 (the same year that Rachmaninoff composed the Opus 38 songs), huge political unrest forced my great-grandparents and family to flee, shutting up the house in Odessa, travelling 1,687 km north by rail to St Petersburg, and then by sleigh into Finland, through Norway, and back to Britain. It is my pleasure to be able to honour my family’s Russian connection with this meandering sleigh ride through Russia, with songs in Russian, French, and German, into Finland, in Swedish, and Norway, in German, back to the UK for a cycle of Britten songs in Russian.’

Tracklist:
01. 6 Songs, Op. 38: No. 1, In My Garden at Night
02. 6 Songs, Op. 38: No. 2, To Her
03. 6 Songs, Op. 38: No. 3, Daisies
04. 6 Songs, Op. 38: No. 4, The Rat-Catcher
05. 6 Songs, Op. 38: No. 5, A Dream
06. 6 Songs, Op. 38: No. 6, A-u!
07. 7 Songs, Op. 13: No. 4, Våren flyktar hastigt
08. 6 Songs, Op. 36: No. 4, Säv, säv, susa
09. 5 Songs, Op. 37 (Excerpts): No. 5, Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte
10. 5 Songs, Op. 37 (Excerpts): No. 4, Var det en dröm?
11. 6 Songs, Op. 48: No. 1, Gruß
12. 6 Songs, Op. 48: No. 2. Dereinst, Gedanke mein
13. 6 Songs, Op. 48: No. 3, Lauf der Welt
14. 6 Songs, Op. 48: No. 4, Die verschwiegene Nachtigall
15. 6 Songs, Op. 48: No. 5, Zur Rosenzeit
16. 6 Songs, Op. 48: No. 6, Ein Traum
17. 6 Mélodies, Op. 65, TH 108: No. 1, Sérénade
18. 6 Mélodies, Op. 65, TH 108: No. 2, Déception
19. 6 Mélodies, Op. 65, TH 108: No. 3, Sérénade
20. 6 Mélodies, Op. 65, TH 108: No. 4, Qu’importe que l’hiver
21. 6 Mélodies, Op. 65, TH 108: No. 5, Les larmes
22. 6 Mélodies, Op. 65, TH 108: No. 6, Rondel
23. 9 Goethe-Lieder, Op. 6: No. 2, Mailied
24. 12 Goethe-Lieder, Op. 15: No. 7, Meeresstille
25. The Poet’s Echo, Op. 76: No. 1, Echo
26. The Poet’s Echo, Op. 76: No. 2, My Heart
27. The Poet’s Echo, Op. 76: No. 3, Angel
28. The Poet’s Echo, Op. 76: No. 4, The Nightingale and the Rose
29. The Poet’s Echo, Op. 76: No. 5, Epigram
30. The Poet’s Echo, Op. 76: No. 6, Lines Written During a Sleepless Night