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AJ 0581
Paradise Lost
Label Catalogue Number:
ALPHA 581
ALPHA 581
Running Time: 63:57
Release Date: April 2020
Originally recorded in 2019
Originally recorded in 2019
Genre:
Classical
Classical
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About
The gestation of this project lasted two years. Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake finally concentrated their research on the themes of Eve, Paradise and banishment. Some songs were obvious choices, such as Fauré’s Paradis, in which God appears to Eve and asks her to name each flower and animal, or Purcell’s Sleep, Adam, sleep with its references to Genesis. But Anna Prohaska also wished to illustrate the cliché of the woman who brought original sin into the world and her status as a tempter who leads man astray, as in Brahms’s Salamander, Wolf’s Die Bekehrte or Ravel’s Air du Feu. In Das Paradies und die Peri, Schumann conjures up the image of Syria’s rose-covered plains. Bernstein also transports us to the desert with Silhouette. . . John Milton’s seventeenth-century masterpiece Paradise Lost was the inspiration for Charles Ives and Benjamin Britten, also featured in this very rich programme that constitutes an invitation to travel and reflection
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Reviews
Nominee in the Song category
Gramophone Awards 2021
Top 10 Classical Albums of 2020
"... This album made me cry, laugh, dream, yearn, and think hard about what life demands from us. It’s far and away the best vocal music I’ve heard in a long time." — Jonah Pearl
TheClassicReview.com - 16 December 2020
Nominee in Vocal Category
International Classical Music Awards 2021
“Prohaska and Drake's intriguing programme of songs tells us all about Eve.” *****
Steve Moffatt – Limelight.com.au – 28 August 2020
*** Good Album
Olivier Brunel - Classica magazine (France) - June-August 2020
"... A heady selection of songs to intoxicate the senses; vivid storytelling and musicality." ****
Michael Beek - BBC Music magazine (Brief Notes section) - July 2020
“… Prohaska’s Eisler is excellent, and we could perhaps do with a whole disc of it... He, [Drake], characteristically, is exemplary throughout, beautifully expressive and always alert to the subtle shifts of meaning of each song. It’s a challenging recital that in some ways surveys a greater subject than can adequately be contained on a single disc. But the best of it is very fine and infinitely rewarding.”
Tim Ashley - Gramophone magazine - July 2020
"... In 25 carefully chosen songs we receive a kaleidoscope of disparate moods, styles and messages that hang together remarkably seamlessly. At the same time each song is a valuable gem in its own right, and the playing and singing is overwhelmingly sensitive and expressive. I do urge readers to listen to the cycle from beginning to end without interval for the overall experience. After that: feel free to pick and choose individual numbers, even though I believe many will want to play it all over again from the beginning. Most of all I urge all readers to invest in this disc without delay. You won’t regret the outlay."
Goran Forsling - MusicWeb-International.com - 2 June 2020
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