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Love Sublime
Love Sublime is an album by Brad Mehldau and Renée Fleming. BackgroundPrior to this album, Brad Mehldau had built a reputation as a jazz pianist, particularly with his trio. Soprano Renée Fleming was known for "her operatic performances and recitals of classical art songs".[1] Mehldau's playing often encompassed classical music, while Fleming was interested in being a jazz vocalist from her time at college.[2] Rainer Maria Rilke wrote the poems collected in The Book of Hours around the turn of the twentieth century. Mehldau worked on the music for around two years.[2] He and Fleming performed all of the tracks at Zankel Hall.[2] Music and recordingPoems from Rilke's The Book of Hours were used.[3] New, free translations into English were employed.[2] Other tracks were based on some of the Blue Estuaries poems of Louise Bogan;[3][4] these were written in strophes.[2] The title track was written by Fleurine.[4] All of the music was either composed or "well-prepared if not entirely written".[4] Mehldau's "settings capture the sense of Rilke's spiritual solitude and existential dread, transfixing the poet's struggle with belief in a steely light that illuminates his final declaration of faith as clearly as his doubts and fears."[4] "Some of the most striking effects are achieved with bleak, chiming chords, evoking Messiaen, but Mehldau parallels the poets' most involved images with passages of close-packed counterpoint and dense chording."[4] There are some links between the lyrical content and the music: "In 'Tears in Sleep', for example, the vocal line slides over slippery harmonies, suggesting dreamy restlessness."[3] Release and reception
The album was released by Nonesuch Records on June 27, 2006.[2] Opinions were split partly on genre lines. The Austin Chronicle reviewer stated "Jazz buyers beware",[5] while the Financial Times concluded that "Opera and jazz might seem to be polar opposites, but on this album [...] they blend brilliantly."[6] Gramophone asserted that "Fleming sings with plush tone and deep feeling, often sacrificing textual clarity in the process, and her swoops and swoons help bring out the connections to jazz."[3] Track listing
Personnel
References
Further reading |
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