***** Since winning first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition Singing in 2000, Marie-Nicole Lemieux has been a public favorite in Belgium. This will certainly have been evident again at her recent recital at De Munt / La Monnaie. Unfortunately, I was not present, but her latest cd on the theme of the sea, titled Mer(s) offers excellent compensation. A recording in which we can hear the contralto once again in all her glory and artistic integrity.
The program is anything but treading well-worn paths and is therefore all the more interesting. It offers three compositions with the sea as subject matter, with which the singer also confirms on this cd that she "likes to seek out unknown territories" (interview Véronique Rubens program Munt recital 15 November 2019). Sea Pictures is certainly one of the less popular works by Edward Elgar. Then follows the intimate and highly charged Poème de l'amour et de la mer by Ernest Chausson and as a third work she presents a world premiere: La Mer by Victorin Joncières. This latter is a discovery that is almost worth the recording by itself.
The three composers have in common that they are admirers of Richard Wagner, which is expressed in the dense and luxuriant orchestration characterized by chromaticism and recurring motifs. With her rather distinctive voice type as a contralto, the vocal color of Marie-Nicole Lemieux fits richly on the orchestral sound. Already in Sea Pictures by Elgar, the first work on the cd, it is striking what suppleness the singer still possesses. The color richness of Lemieux seems inexhaustible. The deep voice sounds nocturnal in Good night, alternates restraint with exuberance in In Haven, sings as a beseeching prayer in Sabbath Morning at Sea. In Chausson's La Mort de l'amour, sorrow and deep mourning resonate in the voice. In La Tempête from La Mer by Joncières she sounds threatening (Je suis la mort!), before resignation follows in the eternity of the sea. These are but a few examples of the pure poetry that characterizes Lemieux's singing and of the perfect emotional and vocal diversity to which the singer is capable.
Parallel with the personality and dedication with which Lemieux devotes herself to these three beautiful orchestral works, the Orchestre Nationale Bordeaux Aquitaine supports her under the direction of Paul Daniel. From Edward Elgar to Joncières it spans a beautiful arc of diversity and color richness. In Joncières, moreover, a foundation is laid by an ethereal choral part, making the work a kind of dramatic symphony, with the soloist setting the accents.
A beautiful cd, not only for Lemieux enthusiasts, but for lovers of different and little-known vocal repertoire.
- WHAT: Mer(s) – with music by Edward Elgar (1857-1934), Ernest Chausson (1855-1899), Victorin Joncières (1839-1903)
- WHO: Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto), Choeur de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine conducted by Paul Daniel
- RELEASE: Erato 0190295424336