Search - Christiane Karg :: Parfum

This album is pure poetry - taking its spark from Christiane Karg's engagement with the poetical works of Charles Baudelaire, leconte de Lisle, Paul Verlaine, Tristan Klingsor and Victor Hugo. A poetry in diction that has a wonderful affinity with Impressionist music at teh turn from the 19th to the 20th century. Christiane Karg finally decided upon works by Duparc, Koechlin, Debussy and Ravel for her new album. Her selection also includes an early composition by Benjamin Britten, which in turn was inspired by Debussy and Ravel. Christiane Karg's voice wafts this poetic scent, these colors in sound, aloft. Poetry and music, words and voice blend into ""Parfum""! This selection of French poems from the second half of the nineteenth century is influenced by the Impressionism and Symbolism of the era. Most of these pieces are snapshots, intended as simple yet realistic reproductions of the authors' experiences, each containing a host of symbols and linguistic imagery which suggests that their special, unique character goes far beyond reality: like the aroma of a costly perfume that evaporates and leaves behind it just a hint of elegance. These poems explore the intangible evanescence and so I though ""Parfum"" seemed the ideal title for this recording. Parfum gives a lovely sense of melancholy that evaporates as soon as one is aware of it, only blossoming in the poetry and music through memory and reflection, giving the listener's imagination free reign. The ""l'art pour l'art"" movement (that is, art for art's sake) in which spirit these poems were written entered the art of France, Germany and all other European countries over 100 years ago; the desire for artificial and pure beauty changing between soft pastel tones to dark rich colors, but always with a transparency that is inherent in the French style. Christiane Karg is one of the most sought-after lyric sopranos of the present day, acclaimed for her embodiment of operatic roles and as a lieder, concert and oratorio singer.