Verklärte Nacht Christine Rice, Stuart Skelton, The BBC Symphony Orchestra & Edward Gardner

• Franz Lehár (1870 - 1948): Aus eiserner Zeit:
• 1 Lehár: Aus Eiserner Zeit: No. 5, Fieber (Version for Voice & Orchestra) 12:36
• Oskar Fried (1871 - 1941): Verklärte Nacht, Op. 9:
• 2 Fried: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 9 08:31
• Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951): Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Version for String Orchestra):
• 3 Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Version for String Orchestra): Grave - Poco più mosso 02:43
• 4 Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Version for String Orchestra): Moderato - Calando 01:01
• 5 Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Version for String Orchestra): A tempo - Poco più mosso 05:01
• 6 Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Version for String Orchestra): Poco allegro - Pesante - Grave 04:06
• 7 Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Version for String Orchestra): Pesante - Grave 01:56
• 8 Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Version for String Orchestra): Adagio - Meno mosso - Più mosso moderato 06:03
• 9 Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Version for String Orchestra): Poco adagio - Calando 03:37
• 10 Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Version for String Orchestra): Adagio molto tranquillo - Largo - Calando 04:23
• Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 - 1957): Abschiedslieder, Op. 14 (Version for Voice & Orchestra):
• 11 Korngold: Abschiedslieder, Op. 14 (Version for Voice & Orchestra): No. 1, Sterbelied 03:37
• 12 Korngold: Abschiedslieder, Op. 14 (Version for Voice & Orchestra): No. 2, Dies eine kann mein Sehnen nimmer fassen 02:17
• 13 Korngold: Abschiedslieder, Op. 14 (Version for Voice & Orchestra): No. 3, Mond, so gehst du wieder auf 04:07
• 14 Korngold: Abschiedslieder, Op. 14 (Version for Voice & Orchestra): No. 4, Gefaßter Abschied 03:32
• Total Runtime 01:03:30

Info for Verklärte Nacht

Hot on the heels of their acclaimed recording of Brittens Peter Grimes, Stuart Skelton and Edward Gardner join forces with Christine Rice and the BBC Symphony Orchestra for this fascinating programme of early twentieth-century works. Schoenbergs Verklärte Nacht needs no introduction, but far rarer is Oscar Frieds contemporaneous setting of the same poem. Composed in 1901 for soloists and orchestra, Frieds version is a true setting of (as opposed to Schoenbergs reflection on) the text by Richard Dehmel. Lehár wrote Fieber in 1915 as the closing part of his song cycle Aus eiserner Zeit he then made the orchestral setting a year later. Korngolds Lieder des Abschieds (Songs of Farewell) date from the early 1920s, whilst he was still in Vienna, and shortly after he had completed the opera Die tote Stadt. Setting poetry by Christina Rossetti, Edith Ronsperger, and Ernst Lothar, the cycle is a poignant reflection on the Great War.

Christine Rice, mezzo-soprano
Stuart Skelton, tenor
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner, conductor

Christine Rice
is one of the leading British mezzo sopanos of her generation. A regular performer at the major European opera houses including Covent Garden; the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; Frankfurt Opera; the Teatro Real, Madrid and English National Opera she has built a reputation both as a singing actress and a Handelian of the highest order.

For the Royal Opera, Covent Garden her roles have included Judith Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Concepcion L’Heure Espagnol, the title role in The Rape of Lucretia, Giulietta Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Hansel, Carmen and she created the roles of Miranda and Ariadne in the world premieres of Adès’ The Tempest and Birtwistle’s The Minotaur. For English National Opera her roles include Dorabella Cosi fan tutte, Marguerite La damnation de Faust and Arsace Partenope. Other notable roles include Penelope Il Ritorno d’Ulisse for Frankfurt Opera; Diana La Calisto for Geneva Opera; Beatrice Beatrice et Benedict for the Opera Comique in Paris; Carmen for the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the title roles of Ariodante and Rinaldo for the Bayerische Staatsoper. She recently made her debut at The Metropolitan Opera, New York as Hansel and Giulietta Les contes d’Hoffmann.

Christine also has a very busy concert career, appearing throughout the UK, Europe, North America and at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International and Aldeburgh Festivals working with conductors that include Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Fabio Luisi, Sir Andrew Davis and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Stuart Skelton
Grammy nominee and 2014 International Opera Awards Male Singer of the Year, Stuart Skelton is one of the finest heldentenors on the stage today, critically acclaimed for his outstanding musicianship, tonal beauty and intensely dramatic portrayals.

Stuart has appeared in many of the world’s most celebrated opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Paris Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Dresden Semperoper and the Vienna State Opera. His roles include the title roles in Lohengrin, Rienzi, Parsifal, Dmitrij, Otello and Peter Grimes as well as Florestan in Fidelio, Laca in Jenufa, Erik in Der Fliegende Holländer, The Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten, Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos, Max in Der Freischütz, Canio in Pagliacci, Gherman in The Queen of Spades, and Siegmund in Der Ring des Nibelungen.

He continues to be in demand on concert stages around the world, having appeared with such orchestras as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich Radio Symphony Orchestras, London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Orchestras of Scotland and Wales and the Symphony Orchestras of Sydney, Melbourne, Western Australia and Tasmania. He has also appeared at the Edinburgh and Lucerne Festivals, and in the BBC Proms.

Throughout his career Stuart has been fortunate enough to work with many acclaimed conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Jiři Bèlohlavek, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Christoph Eschenbach, Asher Fisch, Edward Gardner, Daniele Gatti, Phillipe Jordan, Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, David Robertson, Sir Simon Rattle, Donald Runnicles, Simone Young and Jaap van Zweden.

The tenor made his debut at Teatro alla Scala in the 2017-18 season in Fidelio conducted by Myung-Whun Chung in a production directed by Deborah Warner. Stuart Skelton’s robust concert calendar included performances of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Asher Fisch and the Milwaukee Symphony, Adam Fischer and the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, and with Sir Simon Rattle and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the London Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Centre; Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Sir Andrew Davis and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and with Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Mr Skelton also joined the Dallas Symphony in the farewell performances of Jaap van Zweden in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, appeared in recital at the Melbourne Recital Centre with pianist Richard Peirson, followed by concert performances and recording of Tristan und Isolde with Western Australian Symphony Orchestra under Asher Fisch.

Stuart’s 2018/19 season saw him make his Royal Opera House debut as Siegmund in Der Ring des Nibelungen conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano and return to the Metropolitan Opera as Otello under Gustavo Dudamel and again as Siegmund in Die Walküre und Phillipe Jordan.

Siegmund featured again in London with the London Philharmonic under Vladimir Jurowski and again with Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle.

Mr Skelton returned to Otello with the Berlin Philharmonic at the Baden Baden Festival under Maestro Zubin Mehta before making his Budapest Wagner Festival debut as Siegmund under Adam Fischer.

Stuart continued his close relationship with David Robertson and Sydney Symphony in concert performances of Peter Grimes and with Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony, in a performance of Das Lied von der Erde at the BBC Proms.

Booklet for Verklärte Nacht