Secrets (CD) – Marianne Crebassa

Composers: Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Gabriel Fauré, Henri Duparc, Fazil Say
Artists: Marianne Crebassa, Fazil Say, Bernhard Krabatsch
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Erato
CD Release Date: November 3, 2017

Mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa and pianist Fazil Say share some tantalizing, captivating, and sensuous “secrets” in this album of songs, centerd on Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Bilitis, Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Fazil Say’s own Gezi Park 3 – which he and Crebassa premiered in 2014.

Debussy’s discreetly erotic Trois Chansons de Bilitis are settings of texts by Pierre Louÿs that were inspired by ancient Greek literature, and Ravel’s sumptuous Shéhérazade consists of three contrasting songs that conjure the stories of the 1001 Nights.

They are joined by a work by Fazil Say that is inspired by his native Turkey, but which moves away from the spirit of legend and fantasy: Gezi Park 3 belongs to a series of works that he composed in response to the momentous civil protests that took place in Istanbul in June 2013. Say and Crebassa gave its premiere in Bremen in September 2014. Crebassa’s part is a wordless vocal, and the work is recorded here in a version for voice and piano.

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