| Ute Lemper — Forever: The Love Poems Of Pablo Neruda (2013) |
Ute Lemper — Forever: The Love Poems Of Pablo Neruda
Ξ Ute Lemper's new song cycle of the Chilean poet's poems is followed by a crowd-pleasing romp through the best of cabaret.
Ξ 'Lemper's backing — bandoneon, piano, double bass, guitar, violin and percussion — was close to the classic tango line-up, and the music had tango's ability to sweep up into emotion or fall away and highlight the tiniest detail.' — Financial times
Born 4 July 1963, Münster, West Germany
Location: New York City
Album release: September/22 November 2013
Record Label: Content Records
Duration: 62:43
Tracks:
01. La Nuit Dans L'ile (French adaptions) (5:38)
02. Madrigal Escrito In Invierno (3:47)
03. If You Forget Me (English adaptation) (7:35)
04. Tus Manos (3:57)
05. El Viento En La Isla (5:10)
06. Alianza — Sonata (partly English adaptation) (6:35)
07. Siempre (3:11)
08. Always (English adaptation) (4:06)
09. Ausencia (partly French adaptation) (4:07)
10. El Sueno (3:57)
11. Oda Con Un Lamento (7:35)
12. The Saddest Poem, Nr. 20 (English adaptation) (7:05)
ψ The album saw a September release in Australia with a November release in Germany and surrounding territories.
REVIEW
John Shand
ψ It could almost be a flaw from a classical tragedy. A gifted singer, swollen with acclaim and popularity, suddenly believes he or she can write songs. It's rife among jazz singers who, vexed by trying to make standards live anew, trot out trite ditties of their own, oblivious to their listeners' attempts to hide.
ψ Cabaret is another area. Ute Lemper, the most potent cabaret artist on earth, could be forgiven for thinking she has sung a lifetime's worth of Weill/Brecht, Kander/Ebb, Brel and Piaf, despite having leavened the journey with Piazzolla, Waits and Cave. She could be forgiven for trying to pen her own; even be forgiven when they were not in the Weill/Brel class, because in concert they were book-ended by masterpieces, and she was so extraordinary, anyway.
ψ Now there's no need to forgive. With Forever Lemper, the queen of interpreters, finally proves herself as a composer. She has taken the love poems of the late Chilean Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda and let them unfold organically through music.
ψ I use that wretched word ''organically'' because you can almost hear how she must have sung the tunes to herself as she read the poems; hear (as she has said) that these songs came easily to her. You can hear the depth of her response to Neruda's words in her presenting different songs in the original Spanish, or French or English adaptations.
ψ And what words! Neruda's poems seem to be the wellspring of life rather than a mere reflection of it. They flow from a life full of wrong turns, while lived to the drinking/eating/laughing/crying/soaked-bed hilt.
ψ Lemper has generally kept the poems that burn with that peculiarly South American spirit in Spanish (with music to match), set the heart-breaking ones in French (cue sweeping melodies) and set the more bullish ones in English (amid jazzier surroundings). The works pulse with the blood of the poems.
ψ Perhaps without her Piazzolla project she would never have arrived here, because her sound world is alive with bandoneon and guitar, as well as piano, bass, percussion and strings. The playing is superb, and the production quality sumptuous.
ψ Her voice can be brittle or can arch up like a spine above a mattress. It implores and threatens, cajoles and snuggles, laments and smiles, all the while drawing you into her music, as though she is taking your hands and guiding you through a door. And once there it is not as though the music is wildly unfamiliar, because you can hear the Brel/Piazzolla/Piaf/Cave influences, now twisted together around the molten core of Neruda's words.
Website: http://www.utelemper.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/utelempersmusic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UteLemperOfficialPage
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49...
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/UteLempersMusic
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/utelemperofficial
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/utelemperalbumpre...
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thisisute
Discography:
• Cats (original German cast recording, 1983)
• Ute Lemper Singt Kurt Weill (1987)
• Life is a Cabaret (1987)
• Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill (1988)
• Starlight Express (original German cast recording, 1988)
• I Dreamed a Dream (1988)
• Crimes of the Heart (1989)
• Die Dreigroschenoper (1990)
• The Seven Deadly Sins (1990)
• The Wall — Live in Berlin (1990)
• Arielle, die Meerjungfrau (1990)
• Andrew Lloyd Webber Welterfolge (1990)
• Prospero's Books (1991)
• Ute Lemper Live: Ihre Grossen Tournee-Erfolge (1991)
• The Michael Nyman Songbook (1991)
• Homo Faber (1991)
• Guarda La Fotografia (1991)
• Illusions (1992)
• Prorva (1992) / Прорва
• Komisch' Wetter (1992)
• Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill — Volume 2 (1993)
• Espace Indécent (1993)
• Portrait of Ute Lemper (1995)
• City of Strangers: Songs by Sondheim, Prévert... (1995)
• Die Eisprinzessin (1995)
• Birds in Cages (1995)
• Der Glöckner von Notre-Dame (1996)
• Bogus (1996)
• Berlin Cabaret Songs (versions in English and German, 1996/1997)
• Nuits Étranges (1997)
• All That Jazz: The Best of Ute Lemper (1998)
• Chicago (London cast recording, 1998)
• Kurt Gerrons Karussell (1999)
• Punishing Kiss (2000)
• Little Water Song (2000)
• But One Day... (2002, Decca/Universal Classics)
• Blood & Feathers: Live from the Café Carlyle (2005)
• Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (2009)
• Paris Days, Berlin Nights (2012)
• Forever: The Love Poems of Pablo Neruda (2013)
Also:
Vicky Frost: • http://www.theguardian.com/culture/australia-culture-blog/2013/sep/15/ute-lemper-pablo-neruda-review
ROBERT DUNSTAN
• http://www.melbournereview.com.au/arts/article/love-poems-ute-lemper-pablo-neruda
Samantha Bond
• http://www.glamadelaide.com.au/main/music-review-ute-lemper-sings-pablo-nerudas-love-poems/
_______________________________________________________________
Notes:
ψ This very delicate and beautiful songbook is presented mainly in Spanish, but also has adaptations in French and English. It is a fantastic celebration of these especially sensual poems by Neruda who had written them on the Chilean Isla Negra after years in exile.
ψ Born Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto in 1904, Pablo Neruda took his pen name after the Czech poet Jan Neruda.
ψ Neruda became known as a poet in his teens, and wrote in a variety of styles from surrealist to overtly political tones, as well as erotically-charged love poems. These poems are what Ute's Neruda Song Cycle is based on.
ψ Because of his politically charged activities and writings, when President González Videla outlawed communism in Chile in 1948, Neruda was forced into exile. In 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
ψ Neruda also collaborated with Picasso on highly politically inspired works, and Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez once called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language."
ψ In 1973, around the time of the Augusto Pinochet coup d'état, Neruda was diagnosed with cancer and died the same year. Pinochet had denied permission to transform Neruda's funeral into a public event, however, his legendary status prompted thousands of grieving Chileans to disobey the curfew and crowd the streets.
_______________________________________________________________
| Ute Lemper — Forever: The Love Poems Of Pablo Neruda (2013) |
Ute Lemper — Forever: The Love Poems Of Pablo Neruda
Ξ Ute Lemper's new song cycle of the Chilean poet's poems is followed by a crowd-pleasing romp through the best of cabaret.
Ξ 'Lemper's backing — bandoneon, piano, double bass, guitar, violin and percussion — was close to the classic tango line-up, and the music had tango's ability to sweep up into emotion or fall away and highlight the tiniest detail.' — Financial times
Born 4 July 1963, Münster, West Germany
Location: New York City
Album release: September/22 November 2013
Record Label: Content Records
Duration: 62:43
Tracks:
01. La Nuit Dans L'ile (French adaptions) (5:38)
02. Madrigal Escrito In Invierno (3:47)
03. If You Forget Me (English adaptation) (7:35)
04. Tus Manos (3:57)
05. El Viento En La Isla (5:10)
06. Alianza — Sonata (partly English adaptation) (6:35)
07. Siempre (3:11)
08. Always (English adaptation) (4:06)
09. Ausencia (partly French adaptation) (4:07)
10. El Sueno (3:57)
11. Oda Con Un Lamento (7:35)
12. The Saddest Poem, Nr. 20 (English adaptation) (7:05)
ψ The album saw a September release in Australia with a November release in Germany and surrounding territories.
REVIEW
John Shand
ψ It could almost be a flaw from a classical tragedy. A gifted singer, swollen with acclaim and popularity, suddenly believes he or she can write songs. It's rife among jazz singers who, vexed by trying to make standards live anew, trot out trite ditties of their own, oblivious to their listeners' attempts to hide.
ψ Cabaret is another area. Ute Lemper, the most potent cabaret artist on earth, could be forgiven for thinking she has sung a lifetime's worth of Weill/Brecht, Kander/Ebb, Brel and Piaf, despite having leavened the journey with Piazzolla, Waits and Cave. She could be forgiven for trying to pen her own; even be forgiven when they were not in the Weill/Brel class, because in concert they were book-ended by masterpieces, and she was so extraordinary, anyway.
ψ Now there's no need to forgive. With Forever Lemper, the queen of interpreters, finally proves herself as a composer. She has taken the love poems of the late Chilean Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda and let them unfold organically through music.
ψ I use that wretched word ''organically'' because you can almost hear how she must have sung the tunes to herself as she read the poems; hear (as she has said) that these songs came easily to her. You can hear the depth of her response to Neruda's words in her presenting different songs in the original Spanish, or French or English adaptations.
ψ And what words! Neruda's poems seem to be the wellspring of life rather than a mere reflection of it. They flow from a life full of wrong turns, while lived to the drinking/eating/laughing/crying/soaked-bed hilt.
ψ Lemper has generally kept the poems that burn with that peculiarly South American spirit in Spanish (with music to match), set the heart-breaking ones in French (cue sweeping melodies) and set the more bullish ones in English (amid jazzier surroundings). The works pulse with the blood of the poems.
ψ Perhaps without her Piazzolla project she would never have arrived here, because her sound world is alive with bandoneon and guitar, as well as piano, bass, percussion and strings. The playing is superb, and the production quality sumptuous.
ψ Her voice can be brittle or can arch up like a spine above a mattress. It implores and threatens, cajoles and snuggles, laments and smiles, all the while drawing you into her music, as though she is taking your hands and guiding you through a door. And once there it is not as though the music is wildly unfamiliar, because you can hear the Brel/Piazzolla/Piaf/Cave influences, now twisted together around the molten core of Neruda's words.
Website: http://www.utelemper.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/utelempersmusic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UteLemperOfficialPage
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49...
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/UteLempersMusic
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/utelemperofficial
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/utelemperalbumpre...
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thisisute
Discography:
• Cats (original German cast recording, 1983)
• Ute Lemper Singt Kurt Weill (1987)
• Life is a Cabaret (1987)
• Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill (1988)
• Starlight Express (original German cast recording, 1988)
• I Dreamed a Dream (1988)
• Crimes of the Heart (1989)
• Die Dreigroschenoper (1990)
• The Seven Deadly Sins (1990)
• The Wall — Live in Berlin (1990)
• Arielle, die Meerjungfrau (1990)
• Andrew Lloyd Webber Welterfolge (1990)
• Prospero's Books (1991)
• Ute Lemper Live: Ihre Grossen Tournee-Erfolge (1991)
• The Michael Nyman Songbook (1991)
• Homo Faber (1991)
• Guarda La Fotografia (1991)
• Illusions (1992)
• Prorva (1992) / Прорва
• Komisch' Wetter (1992)
• Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill — Volume 2 (1993)
• Espace Indécent (1993)
• Portrait of Ute Lemper (1995)
• City of Strangers: Songs by Sondheim, Prévert... (1995)
• Die Eisprinzessin (1995)
• Birds in Cages (1995)
• Der Glöckner von Notre-Dame (1996)
• Bogus (1996)
• Berlin Cabaret Songs (versions in English and German, 1996/1997)
• Nuits Étranges (1997)
• All That Jazz: The Best of Ute Lemper (1998)
• Chicago (London cast recording, 1998)
• Kurt Gerrons Karussell (1999)
• Punishing Kiss (2000)
• Little Water Song (2000)
• But One Day... (2002, Decca/Universal Classics)
• Blood & Feathers: Live from the Café Carlyle (2005)
• Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (2009)
• Paris Days, Berlin Nights (2012)
• Forever: The Love Poems of Pablo Neruda (2013)
Also:
Vicky Frost: • http://www.theguardian.com/culture/australia-culture-blog/2013/sep/15/ute-lemper-pablo-neruda-review
ROBERT DUNSTAN
• http://www.melbournereview.com.au/arts/article/love-poems-ute-lemper-pablo-neruda
Samantha Bond
• http://www.glamadelaide.com.au/main/music-review-ute-lemper-sings-pablo-nerudas-love-poems/
_______________________________________________________________
Notes:
ψ This very delicate and beautiful songbook is presented mainly in Spanish, but also has adaptations in French and English. It is a fantastic celebration of these especially sensual poems by Neruda who had written them on the Chilean Isla Negra after years in exile.
ψ Born Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto in 1904, Pablo Neruda took his pen name after the Czech poet Jan Neruda.
ψ Neruda became known as a poet in his teens, and wrote in a variety of styles from surrealist to overtly political tones, as well as erotically-charged love poems. These poems are what Ute's Neruda Song Cycle is based on.
ψ Because of his politically charged activities and writings, when President González Videla outlawed communism in Chile in 1948, Neruda was forced into exile. In 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
ψ Neruda also collaborated with Picasso on highly politically inspired works, and Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez once called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language."
ψ In 1973, around the time of the Augusto Pinochet coup d'état, Neruda was diagnosed with cancer and died the same year. Pinochet had denied permission to transform Neruda's funeral into a public event, however, his legendary status prompted thousands of grieving Chileans to disobey the curfew and crowd the streets.
_______________________________________________________________