Turbulent Heart: Music Of Vierne & Chausson

Gramophone Magazine, Editor's Choice - December 2009

Track Listing -

VIERNE 1 Les Djinns, Op. 35
2 Eros, Op. 37
3 Ballade du désespéré, Op. 61
4 Psyché, Op. 33

CHAUSSON – Poème de l’amour et de la mer, Op. 19
5 La fleur des eaux
6 Interlude
7 La mort de l’amour

A sumptuous recording of French romantic music at its most ecstatic led by the brilliant young French conductor Guillaume Tourniaire featuring tenor Steve Davislim and The Queensland Orchestra.

The four ‘symphonic poems for voice and orchestra’—Psyché Op. 33, Les Djinns Op. 35, Eros Op. 37 and Ballade du désespéré Op. 61—by Vierne are all world-premiere recordings.

Renowned as organist of the Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris, the tragedies of Vierne’s personal life are shot through these extraordinary unpublished pieces.

Accompanying Vierne’s Poems on this release is Chausson’s masterpiece of nineteenth-century French mélodie, Poème de l’amour et de la mer, recorded here for the first time by a tenor, the voice for which it was originally written. Steve Davislim follows his successful Melba recordings of Saint-Saëns, Richard Strauss, Britten and Schubert with this important CD.

Steve Davislim is one of Australia’s leading tenors and enjoys a stellar international career in the leading opera houses and concert halls of the world.

‘Steve Davislim … is worth being spoken of in the same breath as his notable predecessors of similar voice—Peter Anders and Fritz Wunderlich—and praise can hardly be higher than that.’ Gramophone review of Seduction

Brilliant young French conductor Guillaume Tourniaire is currently enjoying a meteoric rise onto the international conducting stage. He continues his exciting groundbreaking work throughout the world as a champion of world premières and rare music performances, including committing to disc the first recordings of Saint-Saëns’ Hélène and Nuit persane for Melba Recordings. He has also recorded the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with Paul Dean on Melba’s Sublime Mozart.