Composers: Robert Schumann, Gustav Mahler, Joseph Haydn
Artists: Alice Coote (mezzo), Julius Drake (piano)
Label: EMI
Recorded: 6 October 2003
Catalogue Number 0724358555929
ASIN: B0000BWTKI
Tracklisting
Mahler: Lieder aus ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn’
Rheinlegendchen
Nicht wiedersehen!
Das irdische Leben
Urlicht
Haydn: Arianna a Naxos
Largo e sostenuto
Aria – largo
Recitativo
Andante
Adagio
Aria – larghetto
Presto
Brahms: Frauenliebe und -leben Op. 42
Seit ich ihn gesehen
Er, der Herrlichste von allen
Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben
Du Ring an meinem Finger
Helft mir, ihr Schwestern
Süsser Freund, du blickest
An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust
Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan
Mahler: Rückert Lieder
Liebst du um Schönheit
Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft
Um Mitternacht
Ich bin der Welt
What the critics say
Edward Greenfield, The Guardian, 10 October 2003
EMI’s Debut series has brought to disc a formidable list of young artists, and here they have another winner, among the finest yet. Alice Coote’s choice of repertory could hardly be more challenging, inviting instant comparison with recordings by Janet Baker at her very finest.
Coote’s voice may not have the velvety warmth of Baker, but in its firmness and clarity it is distinctive, with a wide dynamic range perfectly controlled down to pianissimos of breathtaking intensity. In the Ruckertlieder and the Schumann song-cycle, Coote’s depth and range of feeling have one magnetised, with words finely pointed. A pity that, as in other EMI issues of lieder in this series, no texts or translations are given.
Alan Blyth, Gramophone Dec 2003
A debut disc of appreciable achievement and greater promise.
Alice Coote justifies her fast-growing reputation through a well-filled and profoundly satisfying recital in EMI’s Debut series. In a sensibly planned recital, the central items by Haydn and Schumann are framed by two groups of Mahler. In all she discloses her attractively warm timbre, innate musicianship and rewarding intelligence where interpretation is concerned. Above all, her rich tones ring out with youthful sap in them. Hers is an individual voice, both literally and metaphorically speaking.
In a note she tells us that her sympathetic partner suggested to her Haydn’s Arianna cantata. To it she brings a considerable feeling for Italian and for projecting the deserted heroine’s thoughts in recitative and aria alike. She is not at all put in the shade by comparisons with Janet Baker or Cecilia Bartoli in the same music. Not quite as dramatic as those two are in their different ways in their delivery, she achieves a great deal in a more restrained manner, saving histrionic immediacy for Ariadne’s most tormented outburst in the second half of the work. In the Schumann, Coote’s intimate tone and accomplishment of the protagonist’s ingenuous feelings is always apt, and there is much care over detail in terms of verbal acuity and dynamic shading. As yet the emotions don’t leap off the page in the way they do in Baker’s recently unearthed live account at Aldeburgh. Tempi are just a shade on the deliberate side so that the performance sounds a bit studied: the needed spontaneity will surely be added with experience. Sung in idiomatic German, it is already a lovely interpretation, one to which pianist Julius Drake contributes much.
Her Mahler readings are up there with the best. There is charm and a smile in the voice for the lighter songs, deep eloquence for `Ich bin der Welt’, earth-goddess tones for `Urliche and outgoing affirmation for ‘Um Mitternacht’. This is a voice one longs to hear in the two cycles and, ere long, in Das Lied von der Erde. In the meantime enjoy what is here so generously on offer. No marks at all for EMI’s exclusion of texts and translations, really essential here.
David Shengold, Operanews.com, July 2004
EMI Classics’s “Debut” series, a fine idea, has proved uneven in execution, so it’s a pleasure to welcome this rewarding disc by Alice Coote. The gifted young English mezzo, seconded with consistent artistry and tonal beauty by Julius Drake, justifies her growing reputation (though comparisons to Ferrier and Baker seem more a matter of nationality than of vocal likeness). Coote does show a fine line in sensitive Mahler interpretation, programming here the Rückertlieder and four Knaben Wunderhorn settings. “Um Mitternacht” seems a bit of a stretch tonally, but her German and her dramatic instincts are fine, the plangent accents apt, especially in a memorably rapturous “Urlicht.”
Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben is superb, with a tenderness and intimacy showcasing Coote’s superbly focused attacks and lovely liquid tone quality in sustained passages. Admirable fleetness in several Schumann passages reflects the technical security and finesse that make her such a promising Handelian. Drake judges the postludes exquisitely; this version ranks with that by Bernarda Fink and Roger Vignoles (Harmonia Mundi HMC 901753) as the most satisfying of recent recorded traversals.
One wonders what a Haydn cantata is doing on an album entitled Songs, but the title of the disc was presumably EMI’s decision. Coote and (particularly) Drake present a finely judged reading of Arianna a Naxos. Her vowels do take on a somewhat astringently Baker-ish coloration in the hurdles of the despairing final aria, “Ah, che morria vorrei” (as also in the tragic accents of Schumann’s “Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan,” where she narrowly avoids dramatic overstatement). Coote excels at demi-tints and soft-edged phrases (making “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” and the other restrained Mahler songs uncommonly attractive), but the timbre at full tilt is marginally less well-managed: perhaps it’s fortuitous that her San Francisco Didon has been postponed, as this young voice could profitably stick with the likes of Ascanio and Béatrice a while. Met audiences will first encounter her in the 2005-06 season, as Cherubino.
The booklet contains a pleasing short essay on the program by Coote, but for texts and translations one must go to EMI’s website – the height of absurdity in a series meant to interest new audiences in young artists and classical repertory, but increasingly the norm in this bottom-line-driven age.