Infinite Voyage

Description

The title of this album primarily evokes an unending friendship between soprano Barbara Hannigan and the American Emerson Quartet, one of the greatest quartets of the last four decades, which will take its final bow in 2024. Together, they were determined to record Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 2, a five-voice quartet because the last two movements include a vocal part: "the sonic scope of this work takes us on a journey to previously unexplored lands," say the musicians of Emerson. It’s like "a great gnarled tree to climb (up to another planet, it seems), but with deep roots filled with emotion," continues Barbara Hannigan. "The primal cry of the soprano at the end of the third movement, pleading to be freed from love, is a great moment"… Melancholie is a rare work by the young Hindemith, "a gem" that the Canadian soprano has "carried within her" for many years. Another moving encounter is the betrayed woman in Chausson's Chanson perpétuelle.