Love Sublime
Love Sublime is an album by Brad Mehldau and Renée Fleming.
| Love Sublime | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 27, 2006 | |||
| Recorded | January 10–11, 2006 | |||
| Studio | SUNY Purchase Performing Arts Center, Purchase, New York | |||
| Genre | Classical | |||
| Length | 48:19 | |||
| Label | Nonesuch | |||
| Producer | Steven Epstein | |||
| Brad Mehldau chronology | ||||
| ||||
Background
Prior to this album, Brad Mehldau had built a reputation as a jazz pianist, particularly with his trio. Soprano Renée Fleming was known for "her operatic performances and recitals of classical art songs".[1] Mehldau's playing often encompassed classical music, while Fleming was interested in being a jazz vocalist from her time at college.[2]
Rainer Maria Rilke wrote the poems collected in The Book of Hours around the turn of the twentieth century.
Mehldau worked on the music for around two years.[2] He and Fleming performed all of the tracks at Zankel Hall.[2]
Music and recording
Poems from Rilke's The Book of Hours were used.[3] New, free translations into English were employed.[2] Other tracks were based on some of the Blue Estuaries poems of Louise Bogan;[3][4] these were written in strophes.[2] The title track was written by Fleurine.[4]
All of the music was either composed or "well-prepared if not entirely written".[4]
Mehldau's "settings capture the sense of Rilke's spiritual solitude and existential dread, transfixing the poet's struggle with belief in a steely light that illuminates his final declaration of faith as clearly as his doubts and fears."[4] "Some of the most striking effects are achieved with bleak, chiming chords, evoking Messiaen, but Mehldau parallels the poets' most involved images with passages of close-packed counterpoint and dense chording."[4]
There are some links between the lyrical content and the music: "In 'Tears in Sleep', for example, the vocal line slides over slippery harmonies, suggesting dreamy restlessness."[3]
Release and reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| The Austin Chronicle | |
The album was released by Nonesuch Records on June 27, 2006.[2]
Opinions were split partly on genre lines. The Austin Chronicle reviewer stated "Jazz buyers beware",[5] while the Financial Times concluded that "Opera and jazz might seem to be polar opposites, but on this album [...] they blend brilliantly."[6] Gramophone asserted that "Fleming sings with plush tone and deep feeling, often sacrificing textual clarity in the process, and her swoops and swoons help bring out the connections to jazz."[3]
Track listing
- The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: Your First Word Was "Light" (Mehldau/Rilke) – 5:28
- The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: The Hour Is Striking So Close Above Me (Mehldau/Rilke) – 5:09
- The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: I Love the Dark Hours of My Being (Mehldau/Rilke) – 4:35
- The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: I Love You, Gentlest of Ways (Mehldau/Rilke) – 7:02
- The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: No One Lives His Life (Mehldau/Rilke) – 2:36
- The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: His Caring Is a Nightmare to Us (Mehldau/Rilke) – 2:31
- The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: Extinguish My Eyes, I'll Go On Seeing You (Mehldau/Rilke) – 6:13
- The Blue Estuaries: Tears in Sleep (Mehldau/Bogan) – 2:31
- The Blue Estuaries: Memory (Mehldau/Bogan) – 3:25
- The Blue Estuaries: A Tale (Mehldau/Bogan) – 4:28
- Love Sublime (Mehldau/Fleurine) – 4:20
Personnel
- Brad Mehldau – piano
- Renée Fleming – vocals
References
- Sanderson, Blair " Renée Fleming / Brad Mehldau – Love Sublime". AllMusic. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
- Goldberg, Joe (August 3, 2006) "When Classical Meets Jazz". Wall Street Journal. p. D5.
- Farach-Colton, Andrew "Love Sublime". Gramophone. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
- Witherden, Barry (January 20, 2012) "Mehldau". BBC Music Magazine.
- Trachtenberg, Jay (July 14, 2006) "House on Hill, Love Sublime". The Austin Chronicle.
- Hobart, Mike (July 15, 2006) "CDs & DVDs". Financial Times.