What the Angels Left


  • Recorded: 30th January 2023
  • Record Place: Martinů Hall, Academy of Performing Arts
  • First Release: 2023
  • (P) 2023 SUPRAPHON a.s.
  • Genre: Vocal - songs

Artists

  • improvisation: Michael Gees
  • improvisation: Bella Adamova
  • original lyrics by: Marie Howe
  • contralto: Bella Adamova
  • piano: Michael Gees

Album

Bella Adamova, Michael Gees

There Is Home

Digital services

Catalogue Number: SU 4329-2
Published: 25th August 2023
Genre: Vocal - songs
Format: 1 CD
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839–1881) – The Nursery (selection); Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) – Rückert-Lieder; Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) – Folksong Arrangements (selection), Pavel Haas (1899–1944) – Four Songs on Chinese Poetry. Improvisation on poetry (Anna Akhmatova, Pablo Neruda, Heinz-Albert Heindrichs, Marie Howe, Klára Goldstein, Bella Adamova)


Bella Adamova – contralto, Michael Gees – piano

Bella Adamova can shortly be characterised through her triumphs at competitions (e.g. laureate of the International Robert Schumann Competition, Zwickau, 2021; winner of the Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition, Graz, 2022; Oratorio Prize at the International Vocal Competition, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, 2022). Or as a young Chechen woman who left her country as a child shortly before the war and found a new home in Prague. She has learned from many acclaimed singers (e.g. von Otter, Hampson, Prégardien) in England, Switzerland, and Germany. She speaks several languages, but she never learned Chechen. She could also be described as a contralto with an extraordinary sensibility in the song repertoire and with a deep, beautifully coloured voice. Or as an improviser who – in rare harmony with pianist Michael Gees – creates spontaneous compositions on texts of their favourite poets. The theme of this album is the search for home and the knowledge of a place where one belongs. Bella Adamova narrates the songs as her own story, at the same time accentuating the life stories of the composers as well as their relationship to their home or their feeling of being outcast. Rather than a typical song recital, this recording is an invitation to the musicians’ own world where every word, no matter what language it is sung in, has its deep meaning.

Songs as Bella Adamova’s real home

Reviews

“…Bella Adamova has an amazingly impressive voice that explores each word and a diction that allowed me to find where in any line she was even when singing in Czech or Russian, despite my knowledge of each being rudimentary… She is an obvious name to watch and her accompanist Michael Gees is a beautifully measured and entirely sympathetic partner.”
MusicWeb International, January 2024

“I didn’t know what to expect when I looked at this album, but it didn’t take me long to realize that this is an imaginative and excellent program. Adamova’s per­formance is dreamy and entrancing. Her collaboration with the excellent Michael Gees is fruitful. Abamova is listed here as a contralto and elsewhere as a mezzo. I think mezzo is accurate. This is my first opportunity hear her, and I look forward to future recordings from her.”
American Record Guide, February 2024

“Both sets prove rewarding, with the treatments of the composers' material gripping and the duo's flights of fancy as riveting… In Gees, Adamova has the ideal partner. Never overpowering the singer, he supports her with exquisite attention to every vocal move, and both imprint themselves with authority on all twenty-one selections. While Adamova and Gees execute all four composers' works with conviction, they luxuriate in the Mahler material in particular.”
Textura, March 2024

“Il faut donc comprendre que l’excellente alto Bella Adamova tente de nous faire partager le chemin sinueux de sa vie (née en Russie, élevée à Prague, marquée par différentes cultures) avec ce qui ressemble plus à une playlist qu’à un récital traditionnel. Soit ! L’important est qu’elle réussisse à convaincre par son timbre chaud et somptueux et par la qualité des improvisations sur des textes qu’elle a signés ou empruntés à Anna Akhmatova, Pablo Neruda ou Heinz-Albert Heindrichs. Le livret et ses photos de collages confirment cette volonté de faire entrer l’auditeur dans un univers personnel et kaléidoscopique. Le pianiste allemand Michael Gees est un soutien précieux dans ce parcours expérimental qui, par sa richesse thématique, ne peut laisser indifférent.”
Classica, May 2024

Pavel Haas
Four Songs on Chinese Poetry
1. I. I heard the cry of the wild geese 02:45
2. Mein Heimweh 03:52
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
The Nursery
3. I. With Nanny 02:20
Benjamin Britten
Folksong Arrangements
4. IV. Early one morning 02:59
Gustav Mahler
Rückert-Lieder
5. II. Ich atmet´ einen linden Duft 02:30
Pavel Haas
Four Songs on Chinese Poetry
6. II. In the bamboo grove 02:08
7. dis moll 02:50
Gustav Mahler
Rückert-Lieder
8. I. Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder! 01:43
Benjamin Britten
Folksong Arrangements
9. V. The trees they grow so high 03:48
10. What the Angels Left 06:23
Benjamin Britten
Folksong Arrangements
11. VI. I wonder as I wander 03:48
Pavel Haas
Four Songs on Chinese Poetry
12. IV. A sleepless night 03:46
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
The Nursery
13. II. In the Corner 02:04
14. The Queen 02:56
Gustav Mahler
Rückert-Lieder
15. V. Liebst du um Schönheit 02:54
Pavel Haas
Four Songs on Chinese Poetry
16. III. Far is my home, o moon 05:13
17. about distance 02:26
Gustav Mahler
Rückert-Lieder
18. III. Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen 06:55
19. To music 03:25
Gustav Mahler
Rückert-Lieder
20. IV. Um Mitternacht 06:16
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
The Nursery
21. IV. With the Doll 02:26

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