_______
Jorge
Hilary Summers, mezzo-soprano
Alex Rigas
>> According to Boulez himself (in the recent DG's Artist Discussion),
>> he has just recorded Le Marteau sans maître (and also Dérive I and
>> II) for DG. Do you know who is the soloist?
>
> Hilary Summers, mezzo-soprano
Thanks, Alex.
It's great to know that Boulez has made a new recording (9/2002) of
this emblematic work. I recall him saying, about a year ago, that he
was not interested in performing this composition again, so this
recording is, at least for me, something of a pleasant surprise. I
suppose that his performance will be more soft-edged (or with a "more
consistent sound", according to Boulez himself), than in earlier
recordings, which wouldn't be wrong bearing in mind the synthesis
between Webern's serialism and Debussy's impressionism which Boulez
proposed in this work.
_______
Jorge
That's interesting. I heard her in Carter's What Next? with the CSO. She
has a very particular voice.
--
Nic
I reserve the right to use irony and obscure forms of humour without warning
>>Hilary Summers, mezzo-soprano
>
>That's interesting. I heard her in Carter's What Next? with the CSO. She
>has a very particular voice.
Hah. Is that an 'obscure form of humor'? If not, you might explain for
other abusers of the language.
bl
"At the zenith of his powers"
Could have been, but wasn't. From what I've heard (two different
performances of the Carter, also her in the Lambert 'Rio Grande' of all
things....) it's a very dark voice with not much presence. I initially
didn't like it much because of that, but in the end I decided it was
actually very expressive: she knows how to utilise its particularities
to good advantage (hence my use of the word).