[ Erato Classics / Warner Classics / CD ]
Release Date: Tuesday 25 January 2022
This item is only available to us via Special Import.
Through music from across the centuries, Joyce DiDonato calls attention to a subject more timely than ever before: our individual connection to nature and its impact on our world.
Recorded with Il Pomo d'Oro and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, the album samples repertoire from diverse inspirations and time periods, all of which explore an aspect of humankind's eternal relationship with nature, and features the world premiere recording of a specially commissioned work by the Academy Award-winning composer Rachel Portman. In Joyce's words, the selections of the program "have no boundaries - like a wild garden."
"EDEN is an invitation to return to our roots. It is an overture to engage with the sheer perfection of the world around us, to consider if we are connecting as profoundly as we can to the pure essence of our being. It is a clarion call to contemplate if our collective suffering isn't perhaps linked to the aching separation from something primal within and around us. This is a vivid musical exploration through the centuries to remember and to create a new EDEN from within." ~ Joyce DiDonato
Repertoire: from Handel to Ives, from Gluck to Mahler, exploring the majesty, might, and mystery of Nature through both arresting and evocative music, Joyce takes us on an emotional journey to reconnect to the power and fragility of nature, exploring our place within the wondrous world around us.
"Concept albums such as this tend to attract cynicism. Made with such dedication, Eden provokes thought and, through the persuasions of music, asks us to engage. There's no reason to resist." The Guardian
"I'm brought to tearful wonder by the album's close. DiDonato's farewell, 'Ombra mai fù' from Handel's Serse, is a performance so beautiful that it makes your insides ache." Gramophone Editor's Choice March 2022
Ives, C: The Unanswered Question
Portman: The First Morning of the World
Mahler: Ich atmet' einen linden Duft (Rückert-Lieder)
Marini, B: Con le stelle in ciel che mai
Myslivecek: Toglierò le sponde al mare (from Adamo ed Eva)
Copland: Nature, the gentlest mother (No. 1 from Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson)
Valentini, Giovanni: Sonata Enharmonica
Cavalli: Piante ombrose (from La Calisto)
Gluck: Danza degli spettri e delle furie (from Orfeo ed Euridice)
Gluck: Misera, dove son...Ah! non son io (from Ezio)
Handel: As With Rosy Steps (from Theodora)
Mahler: Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (Rückert-Lieder)
Wagner: Schmerzen (No. 4 from Wesendonck-Lieder)