Parfum Christiane Karg, Bamberger Symphoniker & David Afkham

• Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): Shéhérazade:
• 1I. Asie10:10
• 2II. La flûte enchantée03:00
• 3III. L'indifférent03:50
• Claude Debussy (1862-1918): / John Adams (1947- ): Le livre de baudelaire:
• 4I. Le balcon08:28
• 5II. Harmonie du soir04:19
• 6III. Le jet d'eau05:47
• 7IV. Recueillement05:06
• Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): Quatre chansons françaises:
• 8I. Nuits de juin02:44
• 9II. Sagesse02:54
• 10III. L'enfance04:35
• 11IV. Chanson d'automne02:32
• Charles Koechlin (1867-1950):
• 12Trois mélodies, Op. 17/3: Épiphanie07:01
• Henri Duparc (1848-1933):
• 13L'invitation au voyage04:33
• 14La vie antérieure04:17
• 15Phidylé05:06
• Total Runtime01:14:22

Info for Parfum

This album is pure poetry – taking its spark from Christiane Karg’s engagement with the poetical works of Charles Baudelaire, Leconte de Lisle, Paul Verlaine, Tristan Klingsor and Victor Hugo. A poetry in diction that has a wonderful affinity with Impressionist music at the turn from the 19th to the 20th century. Christiane Karg finally decided upon works by Duparc, Koechlin, Debussy and Ravel for her new album. Her selection also includes an early composition by Benjamin Britten, which in its turn was inspired by Debussy and Ravel. Christiane Karg’s voice wafts this poetic scent, these colours in sound, aloft. Poetry and music, words and voice blend into Parfum!

“This selection of French poems from the second half of the nineteenth century is influenced by the Impressionism and Symbolism of that era.

Most of them are snapshots, though the authors were not simply interested in a simple and realistic reproduction of what they had experienced: in fact, they contain a host of symbols and linguistic images that lend the event being described a special and unique character that goes far beyond the reality: like the aroma of a costly perfume that evaporates and leaves behind just a hint of elegance. And since the poetry loves that word so much and the setting of these poems emphasises evanescence and the intangible, Parfum seemed to me to be the ideal title for this recording.

That gives a lovely sense of melancholy that evaporates as soon as one is aware of it, and only blossoms in the poetry and the music through memory and refinement, obliging listeners to give free rein to their imaginations.”

Christiane Karg is one of the most-sought-after lyric sopranos of the present day, acclaimed for her embodiment of operatic roles and as a lieder, concert and oratorio singer. She can be seen and heard all around the world: at lieder recitals in New York’s Carnegie Hall and in the Vienna Konzerthaus, at La Scala in Milan with her 2016 debut in “Der Rosenkavalier”, at regular guest appearances at the Munich State Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera House, at the Salzburg Festival and at the Royal Opera House London. At the end of 2017 she will give her debut at the famous MET Opera in New York (The Marriage of Figaro) and the Vienna State Opera.

Christiane Karg, soprano
Bamberger Symphoniker
David Afkham, conductor

Christiane Karg
Born in Feuchtwangen, Bavaria, Christiane Karg studied singing at the Salzburg Mozarteum and at the Music Conservatory in Verona. She is a member of the ensemble of the Frankfurt Opera where her roles include Susanna, Musetta, Pamina, Servilia, Zdenka (Arabella), the title role of La Calisto. She returns to Frankfurt this season to sing Mélisande in a new Claus Guth production of Pelléas and Mélisande and for her role debut as Adele (Die Fledermaus).

In 2006 she made her auspicious debut at the Salzburg Festival and has returned to sing Amor/Orfeo ed Euridice with Riccardo Muti and Zerlina/Don Giovanni with Yannick Nezet-Seguin.

She is a regular guest at the Theater an der Wien where she has sung Ismene/Mitridate and Telaire/Castor and Pollux. She will return this season to sing Hero/Beatrice et Benedict. At the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich she has sung Ighino/Palestrina, at the Komische Oper Berlin, Musetta/La bohème and Norina/Don Pasquale, and at the Opera de Lille, Anne Trulove/The Rakes Progress.

A prestigious concert singer, Christiane Karg has recently appeared with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Concentus Musicus Wien, Daniel Harding and the Dresden Staatskapelle, Yannick Nézet-Séguim and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Marek Janowski and the OSR, and Laurence Equilbey at the Salzburg Festival. She has also sung with Emmanuel Krivine in Paris, Josep Pons in Madrid, Paul McCreesh in London and Paris (Haydn's Seasons), Jonathan Cohen and Les Arts Florissants in Paris, and Thomas Hengelbrock for the opening of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (Solveig/Peer Gynt).

Her concert engagements this season include the Salzburg Easter Festival with Christian Thielemann and the Dresden Staatskapelle (Brahms Requiem), the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra and Mariss Jansons in Tokyo (Beethoven 9) and Daniel Harding in Munich (Schumann Faustszenen), the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Mahler 4), the RSO Wien and Cornelius Meister at the Vienna Konzerthaus (Brahms Requiem), and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and Jonathan Nott on tour in Spain (Mahler 4).

Christiane Karg is a committed and distinguished recitalist and has made excellent recital debuts at the Vienna Musikverein, Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Wigmore Hall and Edinburgh Festival. Other recent appearances include the Mozarteum Salzburg, Philharmonie Essen, Philharmonie Köln, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Innsbruck. In 2012/13 she will make recital debuts at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Wien, Oper Frankfurt, and Musikfest Stuttgart.

Booklet for Parfum