Berlioz / Ravel: Nuits d'été / Shéhérazade / Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques

It seems that mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink can do no wrong when she enters the recording studio. Her discs of Schumann and Dvořák lieder were highly praised by the critics; her moving recording of lieder by Brahms (issued in January this year) was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Now, turning to French orchestral song, she achieves similar results.

Of the Five Greek Folksongs only two were orchestrated by Ravel himself, the remainder being orchestrated by Manuel Rosenthal under Ravel’s close supervision. They are so brief (a mere 53 seconds in the case of Quel galant m’est comparable) that it can be difficult for the singer to capture and convey the mood of each song, but there are no such worries with this performance. The confident swagger of Quel Galant, the merry energy of Tout gai! and the yearning exoticism of the Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques, all are perfectly painted miniatures.

Berlioz’s Nuits d’été fare equally well. Le spectre de la rose projects a heady, sultry atmosphere, the top ranges of Ms Fink’s voice gleaming, the lower reaches never obscured by the orchestra, and her enunciation of the words always clear. Ms Fink’s knack of conversing in song imbues Ravel’s Shéhérazade with a freshness and curiosity that develops into something almost unhinged towards the end of the first poem, Asie; in the third, L’Indifférent, she calmly conveys expectation, loss and resignation with no hint of self-pity.

Throughout the disc, Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin are most colourful and sensitive partners. The recorded balance is ideal, the voice never overwhelmed but the power of the orchestral writing being fully projected.

About the singer

Bernarda Fink is an Argentine-Slovenian mezzo-soprano, born in Buenos Aires in 1955 to Slovene parents who had emigrated from Yugoslavia. She trained at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón before winning first prize at the 1985 Nuevas Voces Líricas competition and relocating to Europe, where she became one of the most sought-after voices in baroque and French repertoire, working regularly with conductors including René Jacobs, John Eliot Gardiner and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Her brother, Marcos Fink, is also a professional classical singer. She has appeared on the stages of the Vienna State Opera, the Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall and the BBC Proms, among many others, building a reputation for expressive restraint rather than overt sentiment, a quality this Berlioz and Ravel pairing draws on directly.