Presto Editor's Choice
September 2019

Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto)
Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Paul Daniel

Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op. 37
Chausson: Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Op. 19
Joncières: La Mer

MER(S) brings together three sumptuous late-19th century works for female voice and orchestra: Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer, Elgar’s Sea Pictures and, in a world premiere recording, an ‘ode-symphonie’ by Victorin Joncières entitled La mer. Following her triumphant performance as Cassandre in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, Marie-Nicole Lemieux embarks on this musical sea voyage in the company of the Orchestre et choeurs nationaux Bordeaux Aquitaine under their music director Paul Daniel.

"It’s quite a rarity to hear a non-native English-speaker in Elgar’s great song-cycle, but the Canadian singer’s diction is impeccable throughout, and her plush contralto uncovers some rich, strange colours in songs which are more often the province of lyric mezzos these days (the high A of ‘The Swimmer’, for instance, sounds like a voice pushed to its limits in the best possible way). Part Debussy, part Wagner, Victorin Joncières’s ‘ode symphonique’ La mer is a real discovery, and fits Lemieux like a glove." - Katherine Cooper, Presto Classical, September 2019.