ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG Vier Lieder, Op.2 (1899)
ANTON WEBERN Fünf Lieder nach Gedichten von Richard Dehmel für Stimme und Klavier (1906-1908)
ALBAN BERG Sieben frühe Lieder (1907)
ALEXANDER VON ZEMLINSKY Lieder
ALMA MAHLER Fünf Lieder (1910)
HUGO WOLF Goethe-Lieder (1888)
After the huge success of her GRAMMY Award-winning first album for Alpha, Crazy Girl Crazy, Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan is back with her longtime collaborator and mentor, the great figure of twentieth-century music, Dutch pianist Reinbert de Leeuw.
For this new recital album, the duo explores the roots of modern music with composers who went on to lead a musical revolution: Arnold Schoenberg, Hugo Wolf, Anton Webern, Alexander Zemlinsky, Alma Mahler and Alban Berg. Vienna: Fin de Siècle presents a vision of Vienna at the height of late Romanticism, when music was at its most lush and decadent, at the edge of tonality and full of voluptuous beauty. Featuring composers for whom text and song were inseparable, the album captures the rich and intense moment before the disruption of the harmonic language of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hannigan and de Leeuw have long championed the exquisite repertoire from this époque.
Vienna: Fin de Siècle
Label: ALPHA393 1 CD
ALPHA432 2 LP double vinyl collectors’ edition
Digital release: 24 August 2018
Intl. release: 14 September 2018
Awards
2019 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral
Nominee: Gramophone Award 2019, Vocal
REVIEWS
The Times (5 out of 5 stars)
Geoff Brown, 21 September 2018
Feverish poetry performed by a seriously sensuous soprano
“Barbara Hannigan and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw cast a spell withVienna: Fin de Siècle”
“It’s clear from this hypnotic and lovely album that the Canadian soprano is a powerful singer of late romantic lieder”
“De Leeuw’s piano playing, gently crisp and penetrating, casts its own spell”
“Highlights? The rich, rotting tonality of Schoenberg’s Op 2 songs; the half voice showcased in Webern’sAm Ufer; the pungent variety of the Zemlinsky selection; and Hannigan’s expressive intensity in Hugo Wolf. Listener concentration is needed, and the furrow the album ploughs is narrow. Even so, great rewards await.”
Financial Times (4 out of 5 stars)
Richard Fairman, 05 October 2018
“Hannigan, with her angelic voice, is always ready to go where other angels fear to tread.”
“Tactfully accompanied by Reinbert de Leeuw, a modern music specialist (though usually as a conductor), she brings to them a delicacy that is at once fragile and tremulously intense.”
“the Webern, her seven Zemlinsky songs and four by Alma Mahler have an intoxicating beauty. Hannigan’s hypnotic singing makes fin de siècle Vienna feel like a city of dreams. Freud would be proud of her.”
Le Monde
Pierre Gervasoni, 14 September 2018
“Leur mise en perspective dans le genre du lied est encore plus édifiante qu’à l’accoutumée, car Barbara Hannigan aborde chaque monologue poétique comme une prise de rôle à l’opéra. L’identification la plus forte s’effectue au bénéfice d’Alban Berg (dont la chanteuse a incarné sur scène une Lulu d’exception), mais la restitution des autres formes de lyrisme (ample avec Arnold Schoenberg, trouble avec Anton Webern, fiévreux avec Alexander von Zemlinsky) repose aussi sur un vécu authentique (approfondi avec Hugo Wolf, immédiat avec Alma Mahler). Et sur le piano de Reinbert de Leeuw, véritable Pygmalion de la soprano canadienne tant il l’a dirigée, comme chef d’orchestre, depuis leur première rencontre dans les années 1990 aux Pays-Bas.”
Volkskrant Top 50 best albums of 2018, all genres
December 2018
#10: Barbara Hannigan – Vienna: Fin de Siècle (Classical)
“A regular guest in our annual list, and often also in the top ten. We can’t help it either, but we have Barbara Hannigan again. The Canadian soprano and conductor scores this time in collaboration with our own classical giant Reinbert de Leeuw. Together they make the difficult, sultry repertoire from the fin de siècle beautifully translucent. And to get into the atmosphere of these top ten: Alma Mahler, the woman, beats the gentlemen on this album.”
NPR Music Best Classical Music Albums of 2018
December 2018
“Arnold Schoenberg’s “Schenk mir deinen goldenen Kamm” (Give Me Your Golden Comb) offers a kind of sacred sensuality, as Jesus shares an intimate moment with Mary Magdalene. Hannigan’s tone at the final cry of “Magdalene” is an object lesson in how to color the voice with emotion. She sweetens her sound in Zemlinsky’s gorgeous “Empfägnis” (Conception), while in Anton Webern’s compact “Am Ufer” (On the Shore), every overripe note is charged with anticipation. Songs by Alma Mahler are a welcome addition, especially “Licht in der Nacht” (Light in the Night), where Hannigan offers a beautiful, darkly colored singing line. With painter-like touches, pianist Reinbert de Leeuw excels in every searching harmony, every lonely pause between notes.”
Opera Now (5 out of 5 stars)
Album of the month, November 2018
November 2018
“The force of nature that is Barbara Hannigan – performer, conductor, mentor, director – pauses long enough to provide us with one of the most delicious recitals of the year. Fin de Siècle focuses on the final Viennese swoon of tonality before musical revolution gate-crashed the party; songs from Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Zemlinsky, Alma Mahler and Wolf. Exquisitely overwrought poetry set to the most luscious music, and, with 31 items, a generous offering. Hannigan and her pianist, Reinbert de Leeuw, work seamlessly together to create a magical sound world. Her voice has a surprising richness, almost voluptuous, for the Schoenberg and Berg, but she adopts a far more blanched tone for the Webern. And she certainly isn’t afraid to use portamenti but resists swooping and scooping, always maintaining a sense of line and destination. It would be easy for the whole exercise to become syrupy, but Hannigan provides a certain welcome astringency to keep things sharp. In this she is abetted by de Leeuw, who is happy to fade into the background when highlighting his soprano, or to take centre stage with a judicious effect. What could become drowsy or blowsy is given a clean and elegant reading, a real case of intelligent performance proving that sometimes less really can he more.”
The Guardian (4 out of 5 stars)
Andrew Clements, 27 September 2018
“Hannigan’s voice wraps itself lovingly around these vocal lines, savouring every chromatic morsel, and sometimes bleaching her tone until it comes close to sprechgesang.”
“she conveys the trembling fragility and pastel colours of this music with such perfect tact, and De Leeuw measures the accompaniments so precisely, leaving their unresolved dissonances hanging in space, that a whole expressive world seems perfectly evoked.”
NRC Handelsblad (5 out of 5 stars)
10 October 2018
“Since their internationally acclaimed Satie CD (2016), Barbara Hannigan and Reinbert de Leeuw are known as an exceptional song duo. On their long-awaited second album Vienna: Fin de Siècle, they more than live up to their reputation.”