Renée Fleming & Yannick Nézet-Séguin - Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: 4852089
Barcode: 0028948520893
Release Date: 08 Oct 2021
Genre: Classical

Inspired by the solace Fleming found while hiking near her Virgina home during lockdown, 'Voice of Nature' explores the centrality of nature in Romantic-era song and highlights the peril and fragility of the natural world today. A celebrated performer of art song, Fleming draws on both well-loved and lesser-known classical repertoire, with music by Edvard Grieg, Franz Liszt, Gabriel Fauré, and Reynaldo Hahn. The album includes premieres of two new commissions from living composers. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts sets "Evening" by the American poet Dorianne Laux, and Nico Muhly collages poetry from the 17th-century English theologian Thomas Traherne with excerpts from writings by Robinson Meyer, a journalist who covers climate change, in Endless Space. Originally premiered by Fleming at Carnegie Hall in 2017, Caroline Shaw's 'Aurora Borealis', to a text by poet Mary Jo Salter, is given its world-recording premiere. During the pandemic, Fleming's performances on digital platforms have included streamed concerts for the Metropolitan Opera, the Kennedy Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago, LA Opera, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She has also continued her advocacy and leadership work in full force, launchig the Healing Breath project in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture and the Kennedy Center, enlisting celebrated vocalists to share their trusted breathing exercises with sufferers of "long covid" or other breathing challenges.

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