『暗き夜は過ぎ去り』

ドイツ系スコットランド人のメゾ・ソプラノ、カトリオーナ・モリソン。2017年のBBCカーディフ国際声楽コンクールを制し、既に世界中のコンサート・ホールやオペラ・ハウスで実績を積んでいる彼女にとって、こちらが初めてのソロ・アルバムとなります。
彼女の重要なレパートリーである、抒情的な歌曲を残したドイツ・ロマン派の女性作曲家ヨゼフィーネ・ラングを軸に、その周りのシューマンやブラームス、若き日にライプツィヒで学んでいたグリーグなど同時代の作品を収録しています。モリソンの持つ、聴く者の心にすっと染みていくような美しく透明感のある歌声と、豊かながらもすっきりとした表現が、これらの歌曲の魅力を十二分に引き出しています。アルバムのタイトルは、ラングの「昨日と今日」歌いだしの一節からとられました。
ナクソス・ジャパン

BBC New Generation Artist Catriona Morison makes an impact with this recital of German-language songs that manages to both feel familiar and to break new ground at the same time. Morison strikes a domestic, intimate tone that she sustains throughout the program, even in the memorial Lenau songs of Robert Schumann at the end, and the dimensions are aptly defined by her accompanist, Malcolm Martineau. However, these Schumann songs -- the Six Poems and a Requiem, Op. 90 -- are not often performed (they were written when Schumann believed the poet Nikolaus Lenau had died (he was still alive, but died as the songs were premiered), and Morison also chooses excellent lesser-known songs of Brahms and Grieg (setting German poetry). The highlight is the group of songs by Josephine Lang (1815-1880), a student of Mendelssohn who had one of her songs published in Schumanns Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik. She was quite prolific, having had to make a living as a composer and piano teacher after her husbands death, but the upswing in attention to music by women has mostly left her behind. Thus Morisons six selections are especially valuable, and theyre enjoyable besides. Listen to the adept way the humor is handled in Die Schwalben, Op. 10, No. 3, where it turns out that the narrator is not really crazy about swallows, or try the full-blooded take on Goethes Mignon. Morisons voice is perfectly suited to these, and even if theres a certain sameness to her sound, its a sound that will appeal to many listeners, and the early commercial success of this album is no surprise.