La Voix Nue (Patricia Green)

Praised for her "warm creamy voice" and "singing with a poignancy and molten resonance", mezzo-soprano Patricia Green has gained international renown for her remarkable versatility, three-octave range, and exceptional musicianship. As a performer of new music, Patricia Green has created more than 30 world premieres working internationally with composers Boulez, Schafer, Ligeti, Dusapin, Laitman, Eggert among many others.

PROGRAM

Jonathan Dove (b. 1959)

Ariel (1998)
1. Come unto these yellow sands 5:18
2. I boarded the King's ship! 5:22
3. O,O,O 2:06
4. All hail, great master! 2:02
5. Is there more toil? 3:30
 
R. Murray Schafer (b. 1933)
from the opera Princess of the Stars
 
6. Aria of the Princess (1981) 7:09
 
Hilary Tann (b. 1947)
Arachne: A dramatic song cycle for
soprano solo with crotale (2002)
 
7. A Primer For Those Who Have Dealings 2:48
with the Gods
8. Arachne's Boast 2:46
9. Athene's Song 4:48
10. The Spider's Valediction 3:40
 
José Evangelista (b. 1943)
Exercises de Style (1997) (selections)
 
11. Recit 1:01
12. Analyse logique 1:28
13. Négativités 1:10
14. Macaronique 1:53
15. Italianismes 1:31
16. Anglicismes 1:06
 
György Kurtág (b. 1926)
Einige Sätze aus den Sudelbüchern
Georg Christoph Lichtenbergs (1996)
 
17. Ein Mädchen... 0:17
18. Geständnis 0:33
19. Der gute Ton... 0:21
20. Gebet 0:13
21. Das Mädchen... 0:15
22. Koan 0:34
23. Alpenspitzen 0:30
24. Eine wichtige Bemerkung 0:45
25. ...an die aufgehende Sonne 0:20
 
Judith Weir (b. 1954)
King Harald's Saga (1979)
 
26. Act One 4:36
27. Act Two 3:49
28. Act Three 4:14
29. Epilogue 1:30

REVIEWS

Fanfare Magazine, Nov/Dec 2013
…excellent performances... a remarkable collection of music…

[Excerpt from R. Murray Schafer’s opera, Princess of the Stars]... has a highly hypnotic effect, and Green does a splendid job with it. Surprisingly, this recording does not use prerecorded birds. Rather, Green recorded it in the open-air environment of Lake Lansing Park, where the local fauna simply joined in with her!

[Hilary Tann's song cycle Arachne]... in particular, shows off Green’s excellent sense of vocal coloration.

...Judith Weir’s highly unusual 14-minute a cappella opera, King Harald’s Saga...is a real tour de force for the mezzo, at one point even stretching her voice up to a high B, and Green does a simply astounding job of encompassing all of its difficulties.”

The Whole Note, Aug 30, 2013
The beautiful, rich, warm tone of Patricia Green’s voice, combined with her dramatic sensibilities and skilful musicianship, is perfect for this collection of songs by living composers. These pieces, though modern, for the most part draw on historical material with texts from Shakespeare, Norwegian history, Ovid, Native legend, 5th-6th century aphorisms and surrealist French poetry.

As a committed performer of new music, Green is highly attuned to the intention of composers and respectfully steps out of the studio to delightfully make an exception to her solitude, allowing the accompaniment of birdsong for the excerpt from R. Murray Schafer’s Princess of the Stars. Another interesting and iconic work, King Harald’s Saga by Scottish composer Judith Weir, highlights Green’s dramatic flare, featuring a mixture of narrative and interchanging roles, each of which is given its own characteristic voice. Hillary Tann’s dramatic song cycle Arachne, in which an apprentice weaver takes a haughty stance with her teacher Athene and pays dearly for it, gives Green yet another opportunity to characterize more than one voice. The same again for Jonathan Dove’s setting of Shakespeare’s Tempest verses in Ariel. A couple of eclectic cycles by José Evangelista and György Kurtág provide the singer a chance to exhibit a light and playful air, most charming indeed.