{"id":42627,"date":"2017-02-05T17:23:18","date_gmt":"2017-02-05T22:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=42627"},"modified":"2017-02-05T17:23:18","modified_gmt":"2017-02-05T22:23:18","slug":"record-keeping-two-deft-sopranos-take-on-handel-and-both-seize-his-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/02\/05\/record-keeping-two-deft-sopranos-take-on-handel-and-both-seize-his-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"RECORD KEEPING | Two Sopranos Take On Handel And Seize His Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ALMA
ALMA OPPRESSA. Arias by Vivaldi and Handel. Julie Boulianne, mezzo-soprano. Clavecin en Concert\/Luc Beaus\u00e9jour. Analekta AN2 8780. Total Time: 59:00.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canadian singer Julie Boulianne has quickly become an international star. She performs regularly at the Met, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and throughout Europe. She has an extraordinarily wide repertoire from Bach to Ad\u00e8s, and in this, her latest recording, she shows us what she can do with Vivaldi and Handel. For this CD, she is joined by long-time collaborators, harpsichordist Luc Beaus\u00e9jour and his small period instrument group, Ensemble Clavecin en Concert. Although much of the music on this CD is pretty obscure, it is performed with enthusiasm and expertise, and in Boulianne\u2019s case, with an extraordinary beauty of sound.<\/p>\n

The CD is comprised of three Vivaldi arias and six by Handel. There are also two Vivaldi Sinfonias or opera overtures, and an excerpt from the overture to Handel\u2019s opera Lotario<\/em>. None of the instrumental music is particularly memorable, but it helps to break up the succession of vocal numbers.<\/p>\n

Boulianne is absolutely superb in her command of the numerous up-tempo melismatic passages in the music of both Vivaldi and Handel. The beauty of her voice is even more impressive, from the lowest register to the very top of her range. In the aria \u201cAlma oppressa\u201d (a soul oppressed) from Vivaldi\u2019s La fida ninfa<\/em>, Boulianne is in total command. The music is florid, with wide leaps and surprisingly chromatic passages; Boulianne and the ensemble meet every challenge. Their performance of the aria \u201cSovvente il sole\u201d (from Vivaldi\u2019s Andromeda liberata<\/em>) \u2014 \u201cthe sun shines more brightly and pleasantly when it has previously been obscured by a dark cloud\u201d \u2014 with its long lyrical lines and important violin obbligato is equally impressive.<\/p>\n

\"HANDEL:
HANDEL: Early Italian Works. Julia Lezhneva, soprano. Il Giardino Armonico\/Giovanni Antonioni. Decca 478 6766. Total Time: 69:50.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva, who has become a specialist in Eighteenth Century music and has already made many recordings for Decca, concentrates on the music of Handel on this CD. Taking note of the fact that Lezhneva is a soprano and Boulianne a mezzo-soprano \u2014 the two singers could hardly be more different. While Boulianne takes great care over correct ornamentation and other niceties of historically informed performance, she aims for a beautiful sound in everything she does. Lezhneva, on the other hand, while often dazzling in her virtuoso passage work, cultivates a sound very much like a boy soprano. Indeed, she seems to like to show off her vibratoless sound on long held notes. It may come down to a matter of taste: either you like Lezhneva\u2019s sound or you don\u2019t. Personally, I prefer Boulianne\u2019s idea of what a baroque vocal sound ought to be.<\/p>\n

That said, there is no doubt that Lezhneva is an exciting performer. She often tears into the rapid passage work like a woman possessed. Just check out the two fast and furious arias from Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno<\/em>. Lezhneva\u2019s Italian is often incomprehensible, but she certainly generates excitement in her fearless approach. Il Giardino Armonico\u2019s ferociously intense playing is equally fearless.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, there is one instance of repertoire overlap in the two recordings. Handel\u2019s \u201cLascia ch\u2019io pianga\u201d from his opera Rinaldo <\/em>is featured on the Boulianne recording, and another version of it \u2014 Handel often borrowed from himself \u2014 the aria \u201cLascia la spina\u201d from the oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo a del Disinganno<\/em>, appears on the Lezhneva CD. Both are fine, deeply felt performances, but again, I prefer the unique richness of sound produced by Boulianne.<\/p>\n

One curious difference between the two recordings: both conductors use harpsichords to lead the continuo group but while Beaus\u00e9jour opts for an archlute as a fretted continuo partner, Antonini chooses the larger theorbo. Whether it is to the credit of the conductor or the engineers, the theorbo has an appealing and important up front presence on the Decca recording.<\/p>\n

For more RECORD KEEPING, see HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two recordings by Canadian Julie Boulianne and Russian Julia Lezhneva offer a fascinating look into the diverging approaches to the baroque voice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":42628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,75,5739,51,52],"tags":[9447,6297],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/02\/julie-boulianne-mezzo-soprano-alma-oppressa.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-b5x","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42627"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42633,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42627\/revisions\/42633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42627"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=42627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}