Renée sings refugees
mainFascinating new release coming up from the Emerson Quartet and Renée Fleming, their first collaboration.
After the Berg Lyric suite, they perform Sonnets for Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Egon Wellesz and Komm, süsser Tod by Eric Zeisl.
Wellesz was a Viennese Hitler refugee who settled in England. Zeisl wound up in Los Angeles.
In the second half of the last century neither could get a mainstream hearing for their music anywhere on earth. Now, their time is coming round.
(Anybody seen my Klimt?)
Good to see top class artists exploring unknown music. I’d really like to hear this.
Wonderful to see these artists collaborating. Emerson consistently experiments and crosses boundaries, and it is amazing that, at 57(?), Fleming continues to search for new challenges.
I found this on Youtube – a trailer about the CD, concentrating on the Berg. Intriguing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca6r_adXNLo
Interesting then perhaps to compare :
here is the premiere recording by the Galimir Quartet ( with Felix Galimir’s 3 sisters Adrienne, Renée and Marguerite as members ) from 1935 ,they had worked the Suite with Berg in 1931, the recording recieved the Grand prix du Disque in 1937.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlXgwcRVWZg
Felix Galimir had joined the Vienna Philharmonic in 1936 before being expelled due to his Jewish background. After joining the Israel Philharmonic for 2 years, invited by Huberman he finally moved to New York in 1938.