Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Burnished Gold (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Burnished Gold (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:54 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Orchid Classics

Soprano Robyn Allegra Parton and pianist Simon Lepper perform an album inspired by the burnished gold leaf and sensual contours of Klimt’s Art-Nouveau ‘Vienna Secession’ movement, with music reflecting that aesthetic including songs by Richard Strauss, Alma Mahler, Johanna Muller-Hermann, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alban Berg and Joseph Marx – a composer about whom Lepper recently curated a series at Wigmore Hall. These are works that occupy a fascinating realm between the romantic and the modern, so that sensuous, brooding and dark-hued atmospheres are blended with rich textures and radiant harmonies. Described by Opernwelt as ‘captivating, astonishing, overwhelming’, award-winning British soprano Robyn Allegra Parton specialises in this repertoire, and Simon Lepper is one of the finest song accompanists in the world.

The title of this release by soprano Robyn Allegra Parton refers not only to a general mood of circa-1900 Vienna but specifically to the frequent use of burnished gold-leaf in the paintings of Gustav Klimt, whose Vienna Secession movement in art had many affinities to what was happening in the musical world. Parton uses the gold as lipstick in the graphics; one may or may not go for this, but the package here is coherent and satisfying in several ways. Richard Strauss is present on the program, and Parton, writing her own notes, correctly points out that his influence loomed large on all the composers heard here. But in a way, the interest of Parton’s program lies in the differences among the styles of the composers on the program. Parton puts the listener in the place of an audience member at a vocal recital of the time, hearing the Impressionist hints of Joseph Marx, the new simplicity of the young Erich Korngold, the decisive steps toward atonality in the Seven Early Songs of Berg (at the time Schoenberg’s student), and the works of two female composers, the quite playful experimental Johanna Müller-Hermann and Alma Mahler-Schindler, both of whom were heard fairly frequently at the time but were later forgotten. Parton’s voice is an absolutely distinctive soprano, with a bit of rough texture flashing unexpectedly into a brilliant top. Quite a few recordings lately have explored the rich repertory of Austrian vocal music of this period, but this one is especially well thought-out and executed; it appeared on classical best-seller charts in the summer of 2023.
– James Manheim

Tracklist:
01. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Marx: Nocturne (03:42)
02. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Marx: Und gestern hat er mir Rosen gebracht (02:08)
03. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Marx: Hat dich die Liebe berührt (02:47)
04. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Marx: Windräder (03:21)
05. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Marx: Waldseligkeit (01:42)
06. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Strauss: Das Rosenband, Op.36 No.1 (03:21)
07. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Strauss: Leises Lied, Op.39 No.1 (02:34)
08. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Strauss: Ich schwebe, Op.48 No.2 (02:07)
09. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Strauss: Morgen! Op.27 No.4 (03:58)
10. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Korngold: Schneeglöckchen, No.1 (03:14)
11. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Korngold: Das Ständchen, No.3 (02:20)
12. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Korngold: Liebesbriefchen, No.4 (02:26)
13. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Korngold: Sommer, No.6 (03:01)
14. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Berg: Nacht (03:58)
15. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Berg: Schilflied (02:00)
16. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Berg: Die Nachtigall (02:09)
17. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Berg: Traumgekrönt (02:12)
18. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Berg: Im Zimmer (01:14)
19. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Berg: Liebesode (01:49)
20. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Berg: Sommertage (01:36)
21. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Muller-Hermann: Nähe des Geliebten, No.1 (02:02)
22. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Muller-Hermann: An die Entfernte, No.2 (01:40)
23. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Mahler: Licht in der Nacht (03:28)
24. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Mahler: Waldseligkeit (02:07)
25. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Mahler: Ansturm (02:04)
26. Robyn Allegra Parton & Simon Lepper – Mahler: Erntelied (04:39)

Download: