Eva Zalenga (soprano)
Varia bel
Doriana Tchakarova (piano)
Adam Ambarzumjan (clarinet)
Till Schuler (cello)
Victoria Wong (violin)
rec. 2024, Tonstudio Ölberg-Kirche, Berlin
Texts in the original language only
Genuin GEN25921 (53)
Last month I welcomed a disc of Lieder with various accompaniments by Fatma Said and here we have another for various forces, which, coincidentally, also includes Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen.
In April 2024, I praised Zalenga’s debut recital on the Hänssler label, and this new recital on the Genuin label is, if anything, even more successful. Variety is the key note of the disc, in the variety of music (from the 18th to the 21st centuries), the variety of styles from the intimate to the more extrovert, and the variety of instruments accompanying the voice, that nonetheless add up to a convincing whole.
We start with a world premiere recording of Ignaz Lachner’s An die Entfernte (In die Ferne) for soprano, violoncello and piano, in which Zalenga charmingly intertwines with the cello of Till Schuler. We stay with the combination of cello and piano for Schubert’s Auf dem Strom. There is just the suspicion of strain in the upper reaches of the song here, a slight impurity that obtrudes on the silvery beauty of the sound, but it is fleeting, and soon evaporates during the next song, Meyerbeer’s haunting Des Schäfers Lied, in which the cello is swapped for Adam Ambarzumjan’s clarinet.
We stick with this combination for Schubert’s more famous Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, which, whilst not plumbing the deeper meanings of the text, as Said and Meyer do in their version, is nonetheless a delightful and charming performance.
In their earlier recital, Zalenga and Tchakarova championed women composers and it is good to see that they do so here too, first with a lovely song by Pauline Viardot-Garcia, in which we return to the combination of soprano, cello and piano, and then, jumping ahead around a hundred years to Rebecca Clarke’s arrangement for soprano and violin of Three Irish Folk Songs. The tricky violin part is played by Victoria Wong. These are sung in English, and we stick with English for Arthur Bliss’s Two Nursery Rhymes, the first for soprano, clarinet and piano and the second for soprano and clarinet. Zalenga sings in perfectly accented English, and seems equally at home in French, which is the language of the next group of songs, four miniatures for soprano and violin by Darius Milhaud, Quatre Poèmes de Catulle.
Finally, all the forces come together for the last item, a new arrangement of contemporary composer Isabelle Aboulker’s Je t’aime, which Zalenga brings off with incredible wit, panache and style to bring this excellent recital to a riotous conclusion.
In all, Zalenga proves herself to be a most musical and intelligent singer, and I look forward to seeing where her next enterprise will take us.
Philip Tsaras
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Contents
Ignaz Lachner (1807-1895) An die Entfernte (In die Ferne), op. 23
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Auf dem Strom, D 943; Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D 965
Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) Des Schäfers Lied, op.111
Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1921-1910) Die Sterne VWV 1059
Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) Three Irish Country Songs
Arthur Bliss (1891–1975) Two Nursery Rhymes
Darius Milhaud (1982 -1974) Quatre Poèmes de Catulle, op. 80
Isabelle Aboulker (b. 1938) Je t’aime
