Turbulent Heart

01/02/2010
Emma Baker
Classic FM Magazine (UK)
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Editor’s Choice

The CD cover tells you what you can expect from the music, and we’ll happily wax lyrical about the performers.

Stirring the soul – Tenor Steve Davislim brings a wonderful array of colours to the storm-tossed music of Vierne and Chausson

The cover art of this beautifully recorded, well-packaged disc—a storm-tossed seascape—perfectly sums up the contents: extended orchestral songs full of craggy, impressionist colour, salty harmonies and boiling passions. All the more astonishing as they are by Louis Vierne, a French composer usually associated with organ music rather than such Wagnerian invention. They make a perfect partner to Chausson’s luscious, brooding Poème. Davislim sings with power, nobility and heart-rending emotion, borne along by the impassioned playing of The Queensland Orchestra, which proves itself to be anything but a provincial band under the masterfully paced baton of Tourniaire. Well work seeking out.

Listening Notes
‘Davislim’s colours’
Listen for the way Davislim colours his voice in Ballade du deséspéré, not only differentiating the dialogue between the Man and Death, but also illustrating their many mood changes.

‘Tourniaire’s pacing’
Hear the luminous playing of the woodwind soloists during the opening bars of Eros and how thrillingly Tourniaire paces the full orchestra for the blazing Straussian postlude.

‘Chausson’s words’
In Death of Love Davislim eloquently colours the words ‘the time of lilacs and roses will not come again’ with regret and sadness.