The Album `Renée Fleming - Lieder' - CD Review, 30 November 2019

The CD was released on the Fourteenth of June, 2019

Everyone who admires Renée Fleming, the soprano, will enjoy listening to her last lieder album,
released under Decca`s trademark on 14th June, 2019. In this material you will find pieces of three
composers, recorded in two distinct periods - Johannes Brahms` selected lieder and the cycle
`Woman`s Love and Life` by Robert Schumann, in which Renée Fleming is accompanied by the
pianist Hartmut Höll, dates back to 2017, and the lieder cycle op. 44 on Friedrich Rückert`s lyrics
for voice and Gustav Mahler`s orchestra was accomplished in 2010 by virtue of the Munich
Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Christian Thielemann.

A soprano with such a distinct vocal presence, now being in her early sixties, still remains an
emblematic figure for all opera lovers, who surely, with each new discographic release of the artist
keep in their memory or in the subconscious the unforgettable Mozartian roles, Mnon, Rusalka, and
all other important roles in the works of Richard Strauss or Händel - just to name a few climatic
points of an extraordinary career. This time we shall listen to Renée Fleming singing lieder,
carrying a great legacy in her artistic DNA, and we cannot overlook the magnitude of this opera
singer, which infuse this grandeur even in some apparently mundane lieder. She is actually
criticised on this matter, without them having any clue that maybe this mighty modus vivendi
pervades everything, dominates through its utmost sensibility, effusion and dramatism every
musical fiber or nuance of even a simple Wiegenlied by Johannes Brahms.

As time is short, I suggest listening to a few selections signed by all these German composers
included in this lieder album - a chapter resumed by the American soprano after twenty years,
perhaps adding a touch of nostalgia with her tremendously nuanced and beautifully pitched voice in
a few stray Johannes Strauss lieder, in Schumann - `Woman's Love and Life`, a portrait we
remember through its exuberant parts and, in my opinion, the climax of this album- in the lieder for
voice and orchestra by Gustav Mahler, on lyrics by Friedrich Rückert. Right here, the soprano
Renée Fleming`s voice capacities seem to be most highlighted, in this luxurious orchestral scenario,
matching her majesty and character. We discover here the profound emotion, the inner warmth, and
above all, sonorities showing a refined conduct in ample and nuanced phrasing. Only the length of
these opuses is striking - because you instantly forget, in this pleasant ambiance, that you are
listening to a lieder cycle.

You will find this album too in the project `Discs of the Year 2019` at Radio România Muzical.