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艺术家:安娜·普罗哈斯卡、朱利叶斯·德雷克
专辑名:《失乐园》
发行年份:2020年
厂牌:阿尔法
音乐类型:古典声乐
音质:FLAC(分轨)[96千赫兹/24比特]
总时长:63分57秒
总大小:968兆字节
网站:专辑预览
女高音安娜·普罗哈斯卡与钢琴家朱利叶斯·德雷克的新作《失乐园》,是一套非凡独特的小品集。这些歌曲通过隐喻、含沙射影和象征手法讲述夏娃受诱惑的故事,巧妙地摒弃了连贯叙事。出色的曲目编排、强烈的默契以及真挚的音乐演绎,让这个创意在他们手中,从可能杂乱无章的拼凑,成长为一部成熟动人的艺术作品。
随着专辑从伊甸园过渡到苹果,再到尘世,普罗哈斯卡明智地为每个部分选择了连贯的音乐风格。描绘如田园诗般朦胧却孤寂的“天堂的清晨”,还有谁能比福雷、德彪西、拉威尔和梅西安这些晚期浪漫主义时期的法国作曲家更合适呢?雨果·沃尔夫充满欲望的笔触之后,是勃拉姆斯、布里顿和赖曼越来越现实且天真的描绘。堕落之后是心碎与迷茫(舒伯特和舒曼),最后是幻灭(艾斯勒为布莱希特诗作谱曲)与痛苦(马勒)。自始至终,苹果从未出现在夏娃手中;相反,一个小孩想用东西换苹果(“给我苹果,/我给你无花果” ),另一个年轻女孩咬苹果时掉了颗牙,哭了起来。我们无需被告知夏娃发生了什么,折射后的故事仍保留着原著的力量。
令人欣喜的是,这张专辑除了精妙的曲目编排外,还有更多值得喜爱之处。专辑前半部分充满温暖与丰富情感,堪称杰作。仅在开场曲目拉威尔的《三只美丽的天堂鸟》中,他们就创造了一个小奇迹。普罗哈斯卡用饱满的元音和流畅的连奏营造出充满惊奇的场景,同时用空灵的音色预示着夏娃即将到来的失落,德雷克则以恰到好处的色彩渲染辅助。在福雷长达七分钟描绘伊甸园一天的作品中,普罗哈斯卡用歌声勾勒出一幅幅画面,“世界如美好的梦境般铺展开来” 。沃尔夫的《悔悟者》很少能如此清晰地从森林中的田园风光过渡到情色的内省,她的声音完全沉浸其中。赖曼的《给我苹果》是一幅近乎十二音体系的滑稽画像,描绘了一个蹒跚学步的孩子,吵着要交换东西,天真地描述着世界,但这也是一首极具难度的作品。普罗哈斯卡的头声是恰当的选择,德雷克断断续续、急促的伴奏亦是如此。
专辑后半部分开场的拉赫玛尼诺夫、艾夫斯和珀塞尔的作品,即便在这不拘一格的曲目中,也显得有些格格不入。在欧洲浪漫主义作品的环绕下,拉赫玛尼诺夫的作品缺乏紧迫感,艾夫斯的作品则显得平淡。珀塞尔的作品显然没有巴洛克风格,也许是因为钢琴踏板的使用,也许是乐句中间过于灵活的节奏伸缩。不过在这之后,二人又恢复了最佳状态。舒伯特的《解脱》恰到好处地呈现出狂热之感。艾斯勒灰暗、愤世嫉俗的短曲会让你感到沮丧,德雷克的钢琴演奏格外慵懒,普罗哈斯卡采用炽热的无颤音唱法,辅音夸张且带有讽刺意味。马勒的《尘世生活》有一种令人恐惧的美感。专辑收尾曲目,由德雷克改编的民歌《我将给我的爱人一个苹果》,动人得难以言表,它是专辑开场拉威尔作品的合适呼应,也是对听众的巧妙致意。
贯穿这张专辑的两个共同特质使其格外出众:普罗哈斯卡和德雷克对节奏的敏锐直觉,以及亲密的音效。从最短的气口到多段式的节奏变化,二人对节奏的把握无懈可击。他们在慢速歌曲结尾处悠然延长,毫无说教式的刻板(如第1、3、7首曲目),而快速歌曲充满活力却不过于急切(如第2、8、14、18首曲目)。音质干净流畅,柔和有光泽,混响短且不突兀。这让普罗哈斯卡的歌声与德雷克的演奏清晰可辨。其最佳范例是梅西安的《早安,你好》;除了普罗哈斯卡唱出的一只绿色小鸽子,整个世界仿佛空无一物。
这张专辑强烈推荐,我会将其列入年度专辑候选名单。配合歌词欣赏效果最佳,所以建议购买专辑而非在线收听(26首不同歌曲,逐一查找歌词会很麻烦)。普罗哈斯卡和德雷克有着非凡的艺术默契,创作出了极为特别的作品。
曲目列表
1. 《三首歌曲,作品69号:第二首,三只美丽的天堂鸟》(2分39秒)
2. 《剪影(加利利)》(1分54秒)
3. 《哈瓦伊:第二首,早安,绿色鸽子》(3分45秒)
4. 《夏娃之歌,作品95号:第一首,天堂》(7分20秒)
5. 《幻影,第一首,53号》(3分34秒)
6. 《如白昼般明亮:第一首,亚当对夏娃说的话》(4分33秒)
7. 《田园曲》(1分33秒)
8. 《歌德歌曲:第二十六首,倔强》(1分52秒)
9. 《歌德歌曲:第二十七首,悔悟者》(2分50秒)
10. 《五首歌曲,作品107号:第二首,蝾螈》(0分51秒)
11. 《儿童歌曲:第六首,给我苹果》(1分01秒)
12. 《威廉·布莱克的歌曲与谚语,作品74号:毒树》(3分12秒)
13. 《古老旋律,作品33号:第六首,玫瑰轻咬苹果》(0分43秒)
14. 《孩子与魔法,作品71号:第一幕,第一场,火之咏叹调》(1分50秒)
15. 《六首浪漫曲,作品38号:第六首,啊 - 呜》(2分15秒)
16. 《114首歌曲:第二首,傍晚》(1分44秒)
17. 《睡吧,亚当,睡吧,Z195号》(1分37秒)
18. 《解脱,作品807号》(2分11秒)
19. 《晚星,作品806号》(2分25秒)
20. 《天堂与精灵,作品50号:第二十一首,如今,傍晚金色的光辉渐暗》(4分35秒)
21. 《歌曲集,作品24号:第六首,等待,等待,狂野的水手》(2分06秒)
22. 《五首挽歌:第二十三首,每天清晨,为挣得我的面包》(1分10秒)
23. 《五首挽歌:第二十四首,这座城市给我上了一课》(1分19秒)
24. 《少年魔角之歌:第五首,尘世生活》(2分46秒)
25. 《三首早期歌曲:第三首,风之挽歌》(2分53秒)
26. 《我将给我的爱人一个苹果》(1分19秒)
Artist: Anna Prohaska & Julius Drake
Title: Paradise Lost
Year Of Release: 2020
Label: Alpha
Genre: Classical, Vocal
Quality: FLAC (tracks) [96kHz/24bit]
Total Time: 63:57
Total Size: 968 mb
WebSite: Album Preview
“Paradise Lost”, the new release from soprano Anna Prohaska and pianist Julius Drake, is an extraordinary, unique series of miniatures. The songs tell the story of Eve’s temptation through metaphor, back-handed insinuation and symbolism, cleverly forgoing any continuous narrative. Excellent programming, a strong rapport, and heartfelt music-making take an idea that, in other hands, could become an erratic hodgepodge, and grow it into a mature, moving work of art.
As the album moves from Eden to apple to Earth, Prohaska wisely chooses cohesive musical styles for each segment. Who better to depict an idyllic, hazy, yet lonely “Morning in Paradise” than late Romantic Frenchmen like Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, and Messiaen? Splashes of lust (Hugo Wolf) are followed by more and more disastrous realism and naïveté (Brahms, Britten and Reimann). After the fall comes heartbreak and confusion (Schubert and Schumann), and finally disillusionment (Eisler setting Brecht) and suffering (Mahler). All along, the apple never appears in Eve’s hands; instead, a young child wants to trade for one (“Give me the apple, / I’ll give you the fig”), and a different young girl loses a tooth upon biting into one, causing her to burst into tears. We don’t need to be told what happens to Eve, but the refracted story retains the original’s power.
Happily, there’s even more to love on this album than programmatic brilliance. The first half of the program is a tour de force of warmth and rich emotions. In the first track alone, Ravel’s “Trois beaux oiseaux de Paradis,” they perform a small miracle. Prohaska sets a scene full of wonderment with rich vowels and mellifluous legato, while also foreshadowing Eve’s forthcoming loss with her ghostly tone, and Drake assists with measured dashes of color. In the Fauré, a seven-minute long depiction of a day in Eden, Prohaska paints landscapes with her voice, “the world spreading out like a lovely dream.” Wolf’s “Die Bekehrte” has rarely gone so clearly from pastoral scene in the woods to erotic introversion, her voice becoming utterly wrapped up in itself. Reimann’s “Gib mir den Apfel” is a hilarious, almost-twelve-tone portrait of a child tottering around, demanding trades and naïvely describing the world, but it is also a devilishly difficult piece. Prohaska’s head voice is an apt choice, as is Drake’s halting, jerky accompaniment.
The Rachmaninov, Ives, and Purcell that open the second half of the program feel a bit out of place, even in this eclectic program. Surrounded by European romance, the Rachmaninov lacks urgency, and the Ives feels mild. The Purcell is decidedly un-Baroque, perhaps from the piano’s pedal, perhaps from an overly flexible rubato in the middles of phrases. After those, though, the duo is back in top form. Schubert’s “Auflösung” is perfectly frenzied. Eisler’s gray and cynical shorts will leave you feeling downtrodden, Drake’s piano playing particular lethargic, Prohaska with a searing non-vibrato and withering, sarcastically over-emphasized consonants. Mahler’s “Das irdische Leben” is frightening in a good way. And the closing song, the folksong “I Will Give My Love an Apple,” arranged by Drake, is moving beyond words, a fitting bookend to the Ravel that opens the album, and a clever wink to the listener besides.
Two common denominators across the album help make it exceptional: Prohaska and Drake’s intuitive sense of timing, and the intimate acoustics. From the shortest luftpausen to multi-track tempo arcs, the duo’s rhythmic choices are infallible. They draw out the ends of the slower songs luxuriously, without any trace of didactic rigidity (e.g. tracks 1, 3, or 7), while the faster ones have energy without pressing (e.g. tracks 2, 8, 14, or 18). The sound quality is dry and smooth, with a soft lustre and a short, unobtrusive reverb. This allows Prohaska’s voice and Drake’s touch to come through clearly. The best example of what it accomplishes is Messaien’s “Bonjour Toi;” the world feels entirely empty except for what Prohaska sings into being, in this case a little green dove.
This album can’t be recommended too strongly; I’ll be short-listing it for my pick for album of the year. It’s best experienced with the lyrics, so prefer buying the album over streaming it (With 26 different songs, you’ll be hard pressed to look up each one separately). Prohaska and Drake have remarkable artistic chemistry, and have created something quite special.
:: TRACKLIST ::
1. Trois chansons, M. 69: II. Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis (2:39)
2. Silhouette (Galilee) (1:54)
3. Harawi: II. Bonjour toi, colombe verte (3:45)
4. La chanson d'Ève, Op. 95: I. Paradis (7:20)
5. Apparition, I. 53 (3:34)
6. Clair comme le jour: I. Ce qu'Adam dit à Ève (4:33)
7. Pastorale (1:33)
8. Goethe Lieder: XXVI. Die Spröde (1:52)
9. Goethe Lieder: XXVII. Die Bekehrte (2:50)
10. 5 Lieder, Op. 107: II. Salamander (0:51)
11. Kinderlieder: VI. Gib mir den Apfel (1:01)
12. Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, Op. 74: A Poison Tree (3:12)
13. Alte Weisen, Op. 33: VI. Röschen biẞ den Apfel an (0:43)
14. L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, M. 71: Acte I, Tableau I. Air du feu (1:50)
15. 6 Romances, Op. 38: VI. A-oo (2:15)
16. 114 Songs: II. Evening (1:44)
17. Sleep, Adam, Sleep, Z195 (1:37)
18. Auflösung, D. 807 (2:11)
19. Abendstern, D. 806 (2:25)
20. Das Paradies und die Peri, Op. 50: XXI. Jetzt sank des Abends goldner Schein (4:35)
21. Liederkreis, Op. 24: VI. Warte, warte wilder Schiffmann (2:06)
22. Fünf Elegien: XXIII. Jeden Morgen, mein Brot zu verdienen (1:10)
23. Fünf Elegien: XXIV. Diese Stadt hat mich belehrt (1:19)
24. Lieder aus, Des Knaben Wunderhorn': V. Das irdische Leben (2:46)
25. Three Early Songs: III. Wind Elegy (2:53)
26. I Will Give My Love an Apple (1:19)
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