Marianne Crebassa / Fazıl Say SECRETS

Mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa and pianist Fazıl Say share some tantalising, captivating and sensuous Secrets in this album of songs, centred on Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Bilitis, Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Fazıl Say’s own Gezi Park 3 – which he and Crebassa premiered in 2014. Describing the recording sessions, Marianne Crebassa says: “Sometimes we worked in a kind of trance … there were some moments when nothing seemed to exist around us …”  

Secrets includes Debussy’s discreetly erotic Trois Chansons de Bilitis, settings of texts by Pierre Louÿs that were inspired by ancient Greek literature, and Ravel’s sumptuous Shéhérazade, three contrasting songs that conjure up exotic moods rather than retelling the stories of the 1001 Nights. They are joined by a work by Fazıl Say that is inspired by his native Turkey, but which moves away from the spirit of legend and fantasy: Gezi Park 3 belongs to a series of works that he composed in response to the momentous civil protests that took place in in Istanbul in June 2013. Say and Crebassa gave its premiere in Bremen in September 2014, where it was heard as a ‘Ballad for mezzo-soprano, piano and orchestra’. Crebassa’s part is a wordless vocalise and the work is recorded here in a version for voice and piano. (Warner Classics)

Véronique Gens / Susan Manoff HAHN - DUPARC - CHAUSSON Néère

The soprano Véronique Gens might be thought a natural for the French art song repertoire. But Néère, taking its title from the opening song by Reynaldo Hahn (the reference is to the Greek nymph known in English as Neaera, "white as a fine marble statue, with her rosy cheeks"), is one of just a few albums in the genre she has released. Get hold of it without delay: it's gorgeous. The French mélodie is not a high-register genre, and for a singer like Gens these songs reside in the lower part of her range, where she now brings just a bit of sultriness and smoke with devastating effect. The program includes three composers of the late 19th century who are closely related but contrasting in their individual styles: in the words of annotator Nicolas Southon "the melancholic Henri Duparc, the elegiac Ernest Chausson, the charmer Reynaldo Hahn." You could really dip in anywhere, but sample track 15, Hahn's A Chloris, for a taste of what Gens can do. The playing of accompanist Susan Manoff seems welded to Gens' vocal line, which even with all the voluptuous, erotic beauty has a kind of steely concentration that grows stronger and more impressive as the album proceeds. An absolute gem. (James Manheim)