Nina Stemme (soprano)
Jozef de Beenhouwer (piano)

Richard WAGNER
Wesendonck Lieder

August de BOECK (1865 – 1937)
Sept Mélodies de Jeanne Cuisinier

Gösta NYSTROEM (1890 – 1966)
Sånger vid havet

PHAEDRA 92040 [66 mins, recorded 2003/2004]

Nina Stemme has come to prominence through her newly released recording as Isolde with Domingo and Pappano. This CD recital with piano on the Belgian In Flanders' Fields series gave her the opportunity to record an interesting repertoire.

Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder are of interest for anticipating Tristan & Isolde and it is good to hear them from time to time with piano accompaniment. Stemme has a wide range and a mezzo quality which I find pleasing. Of greater interest, though, are her Swedish and Belgian selections, which she might not have been encouraged to record by the major record companies.

August de Boeck (1865-1937) was a post-romantic composer who opened Flemish music to impressionism. These pleasing if not earth-shaking songs of 1912-15 were admired by Ravel, and Stemme is comfortable in the French. More characterful are the atmospheric sea songs of Gösta Nystroem (c.1943) rising to considerable intensity in the longest, I have a home by the sea. Recording and documentation, with words and translations, are thorough and contribute to make this CD one to acquire.

See In Flanders Fields

See also Phaedra's Vic Nees CD