Ruby Hughes - Clytemnestra - Import SACD Hybrid

Credits:

Ruby Hughes

Description:

British soprano Ruby Hughes performs three pieces with orchestra, including a world premiere recording! This is the third solo album on the BIS label by British soprano Ruby Hughes, who previously released "Christmas in Venice" (BIS SA 2089) and "Heroines of Love and Loss" (BIS SA 2248). In the previous album, she sang songs about "heroines of sorrow" such as the Virgin Mary, Dido, Queen of Carthage, Desdemona, and Anne Breen, as well as songs by 17th century Italian women composers, and was praised as "Ruby Hughes' soprano is casually beautiful. She was described by listeners as "supple, rich in fine expression, and not overpowering" (BBC MusicMagazine). On her new album, she presents three collections of orchestral works. Mahler's "Five Songs by Rückert," the "Altenberg Lieder," which Alban Berg composed from five poems written on postcards collected by Peter Altenberg, and the "Revelations," which she met when she was a BBC "New Generation Artist" from 2011 to 2013. The "Clytemnestra" by LeeAnne Samuel, which she encountered and considered a "revelation" while working as a "New Generation Artist" for the BBC from 2011 to 2013. LeeAnne Samuel (1944-) was born in Aberdare, Wales. She studied at Reading University in England and St. Louis Washington University in the United States, and has composed works for chamber music, voice, chorus, and orchestral music such as "Tirluniau/Landscapes," commissioned by the BBC. Clytemnestra, based on the story of Agamemnon, the Greek queen of Mycenae who led the Greeks in the Trojan War, consists of six songs and an "action" performed only with orchestra, based on her own English text from Aeschylus' "Oresteia" trilogy. The piece is "an incredibly visual piece that also recalls the music of 1950s Hollywood epic films... bright sunlit, big-line opulence" (Ruby Hughes).With the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Jacques Van Steen (Jak van Steen) (1956-) of the Netherlands, who served as principal guest conductor from 2005 to 2013. King International

Tracklisting:

1.Ruckert-Lieder~Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!
2.Ruckert-Lieder~Ich atmet' einen linden Duft!
3.Ruckert-Lieder~Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
4.Ruckert-Lieder~Um Mitternacht
5.Ruckert-Lieder~Liebst du um Schonheit
6.Altenberg Lieder, Op. 4~I. Seele, wie bist du schoner
7.Altenberg Lieder, Op. 4~II. Sahst du nach dem Gewitterregen den Wald?
8.Altenberg Lieder, Op. 4~III. Uber die Grenzen des All
9.Altenberg Lieder, Op. 4~IV. Nichts ist gekommen
10.Altenberg Lieder, Op. 4~V. Hier ist Friede (Passacaglia)
11.Clytemnestra for soprano and orchestra~I. The Chain of Flame
12.Clytemnestra for soprano and orchestra~II. Lament for his Absence
13.Clytemnestra for soprano and orchestra~III. Agamemnon's Return - attacca -
14.Clytemnestra for soprano and orchestra~IV. The Deed (orchestral)
15.Clytemnestra for soprano and orchestra~V. Confession
16.Clytemnestra for soprano and orchestra~VI. Defiance
17.Clytemnestra for soprano and orchestra~VII. Epilogue: Dirge