Album

Bella Adamova, Michael Gees

There Is Home

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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

Rückert-Lieder

III. Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen