Samsara: R. Schumann & Fauré Kate Lindsey & Éric Le Sage

• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): Myrthen, Op. 25:
• 1 Schumann: Myrthen, Op. 25: No. 3, Der Nussbaum 03:02
• Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42:
• 2 Schumann: Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42: No. 1, Seit ich ihn gesehen 02:29
• 3 Schumann: Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42: No. 2, Er, der Herrlichste von allen 03:25
• 4 Schumann: Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42: No. 3, Ich kann’s nicht fassen 01:38
• 5 Schumann: Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42: No. 4, Du Ring an meinem Finger 02:43
• 6 Schumann: Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42: No. 5, Helft mir, ihr Schwestern 01:54
• 7 Schumann: Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42: No. 6, Süsser Freund, du blickest 04:45
• 8 Schumann: Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42: No. 7, An meinem Herzen 01:17
• 9 Schumann: Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42: No. 8, Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan 03:36
• La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95:
• 10 Fauré: La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95: No. 1, Paradis 06:51
• 11 Fauré: La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95: No. 2, Prima verba 02:27
• 12 Fauré: La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95: No. 3, Roses ardentes 01:51
• 13 Fauré: La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95: No. 4, Comme Dieu rayonne 02:01
• 14 Fauré: La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95: No. 5, L’aube blanche 01:33
• 15 Fauré: La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95: No. 6, Eau vivante 01:18
• 16 Fauré: La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95: No. 7, Veilles-tu, ma senteur de soleil ? 01:31
• 17 Fauré: La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95: No. 8, Dans un parfum de roses blanches 02:03
• 18 Fauré: La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95: No. 9, Crépuscule 02:40
• 19 Fauré: La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95: No. 10, Ô mort, poussière d’étoiles 02:36
• Deux mélodies, Op. 46:
• 20 Fauré: Deux mélodies, Op. 46: No. 2, Clair de lune 02:50
• Two Songs, Op. 27:
• 21 Fauré: Two Songs, Op. 27: No. 1, Chanson d’amour 01:51
• Myrthen, Op. 25:
• 22 Schumann: Myrthen, Op. 25: No. 7, Die Lotosblume 01:26
• 23 Schumann: Myrthen, Op. 25: No. 24, Du bist wie eine Blume 01:35
• Total Runtime 57:22

Info zu Samsara: R. Schumann & Fauré

Für ihr viertes Rezital bei Alpha Classics hat die Mezzosopranistin Kate Lindsey zwei Zyklen ausgewählt, in denen Frauen die Protagonisten sind: Schumanns bekanntes „Frauenliebe und Leben“ und Faurés „La Chanson d'Ève“, das wesentlich unbekannter ist. „In beiden Werken geht es um Unschuld, Entdeckung, Freude, Trauer und letztlich um ein tieferes Verständnis des Lebens, das nur die Erfahrung bringen kann“, sagt Kate Lindsey, die diesem neuen Album den Namen Samsara gegeben hat, ein Wort aus dem Sanskrit, das an den Kreislauf des Lebens von der Geburt bis zum Tod erinnert. Éric Le Sage, ein großer Spezialist für die Musik von Fauré und Schumann, ist der ideale Partner für diese introspektive Reise, die auch Auszüge aus Schumanns großartigen „Myrthen" sowie Faurés berühmtem „Clair de lune" und „Chanson d'amour" enthält.

Lindsey, Mezzosopran
Eric Le Sage, Klavier

Lindsey
One of the most compelling artists of her generation, mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey possesses a rare combination of world class vocal artistry coupled with equally expansive acting gifts. This “force of nature” (SFCV) is a regular guest on the world’s most celebrated stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Festival Aix-en-Provence, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and the Bavarian State Opera.

In 2024-2025, Kate Lindsey continues to dazzle audiences in wide variety of world premieres and new productions. With Teatro alla Scala she launches the season as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier under the baton of Kirill Petrenko. She later returns to the storied opera house to create the leading role of Adso da Melk the world premiere of Il nome della rosa, composed by Francesco Filidei and staged by Damiano Michieletto.

A second world premiere brings Lindsey to the Vienna State Opera and its new venue “NEST”. Under the direction of Jan Lauwers (Needcompany), the mezzo takes on the title role of Lee Miller in the cantata Lee Miller in Hitler’s Bathtub, exploring the riveting life of the eponymous American model and WWII photographer. Further performances in Vienna include the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther in a production by Andrei Serban. Additionally, Lindsey returns to the Royal Opera House as Hänsel for its holiday presentation of Hänsel and Gretel under the baton of Giedrė Šlekytė.

An in-demand interpreter of concert and Lied repertoire, this season Kate Lindsey presents works by Haydn, Vivaldi, Bellini, Rossini and Offenbach. Together with tenor Rolando Villazón, they embark on a tour of their concert program Amore e follia with stops at Festival der Nationen, Zürich’s Tonhalle, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Prague and Zlin. This program highlights touching operatic arias and duets under the theme of ‘love and madness’. At Vienna’s Stephansdom, Kate Lindsey appears as soloist in the highly acclaimed Advent concert with Wiener Symphoniker, led by Stephane Denève. At the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg the mezzo-soprano concludes her season presenting her celebrated recital program Thousands of Miles.

Career highlights include her company debut at Teatro alla Scala, where she performed in a Kurt Weill double bill of Mahagonny Songspiel and Die sieben Todsünden. With the Vienna State Opera, she created the title role in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando, made her role debut as Donna Elvira in Barry Koskie’s new production of Don Giovanni, and sang the roles of Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, Miranda in The Tempest, La Musica and La Speranza in L’Orfeo, and Penelope in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (completing the company’s Monteverdi opera cycle). With the Metropolitan Opera, she has sung over 100 performances in dozens of roles, including Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Annio in La clemenza di Tito, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Muse/Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Nerone in Agrippina, and most recently Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo. Additionally, Lindsey sang the first performances of the leading role of Offred in English National Opera’s premiere of Poul Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the title role of Purcell’s Miranda in a new Katie Mitchell production at the Opéra Comique in Paris, and Sister Helen in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at Washington National Opera.

A seasoned concert artist, Lindsey has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orkest, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Orchestre de Paris, Berliner Philharmoniker, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the BBC Proms, and the Washington Concert Opera. She has been a favorite with many of the world’s most distinguished conductors including Harry Bicket, James Conlon, Vladimir Jurowski, Pablo-Heras-Casado, James Levine, David Robertson, William Christie, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Thomas Guggeis, Philippe Jordan, Kent Nagano, Teodor Currentzis, Thomas Hengelbrock, and Franz Welser-Möst.

Kate Lindsey’s first solo album, Thousands of Miles, with Baptiste Trotignon, includes works by Weill, Korngold and Zemlinsky. Her second record, Arianna, features the Arcangelo orchestra conducted by Jonathan Cohen and features repertoire of Scarlatti, Handel and Haydn. Entitled Tiranno, Lindsey’s third disc focuses on the historical character of Nero and includes Baroque works of Handel and Monteverdi, featuring world premiere recordings of cantatas by Scarlatti and Bartolomeo Monari. The mezzo records exclusively with Outhere Music/Alpha.

A native of Richmond, Virginia, Lindsey is now based in the United Kingdom where she lives with her husband and child.

Éric Le Sage
is established as the representative of the French piano school, regularly boasted for his very subtle sound, his real sense of structure and poetic phrasing. Already when he was 20 years old, the Financial Times had described him as “an extremely cultivated disciple of the great French tradition of Schumann piano”. In 2010, die Zeit, praised his “ideal French piano aesthetics and clarity”

Eric is invited to perform as a soloist with orchestras at the highest level such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Saint-Louis Symphony Orchestra, Berlin’s Konzerthaus Orchester, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Bremer Philharmoniker, Dresden Philharmonie, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Münchner Kammer Orchester, Dresdner Philharmonie, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with conductors like Edo de Waart, Stéphane Denève, Pablo Gonzalez, Fabien Gabel, Sir Jeffrey Tate, François Leleux, Alexander Liebreich, Kazuki Yamada, Alondra de la Parra, Lionel Bringuier, François Leleux, Michael Stern, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Sir Simon Rattle and Yannick Nézet-Seguin.

Eric has performed recitals and chamber music concerts in major venues across the world such as Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall, Carnegie Hall, Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, Paris Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Radio France, Cologne Philharmonie, Essen Philharmonie, Dresden Philharmonie, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Schwartzenberg’s Schubertiade, Salzburg Mozarteum, Ludwigsburg Festival, Prague’s Rudolfinium, Taipei National Concert Hall, Konzerthaus Vienna, Dublin’s celebrity series, Edinburgh International Festival, Düsseldorf Tonhalle, la Roque d’Anthéron Festival, Potsdam Sanssouci, Brussels’ Bozar, Berlin’s Boulezsaal, Konzerthaus Berlin, Berlin Philharmonie.

In 2010 Eric Le Sage released Robert Schumann’s complete works for piano for the composer’s 200th anniversary. He has been invited to perform in this context in major venues around the world. These recordings for the French label Alpha (Outhere) were awarded in the summer 2010 the very prestigious Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Reviewers from the world over have written elated comments about what is already cited as a reference in the history of Schumann recordings. Following this successful project, Eric Le Sage recorded later a bundle of 5 CDs dedicated to Gabriel Fauré’s complete works for chamber music with piano, all covered with awards.

In 2018 he started recording Brahms ’complete chamber music for B Records. The cycle’s 9 th volume was released in May 2021 In 2019 he released Fauré’s Nocturnes on Alpha, as well as Schumann’s Dichterliebe with tenor Julian Pregardien. Both albums won international critical acclaim.

In 2020 and 2021 Eric also released two chamber music albums on Alpha: Vienne 1900 featuring works by Schoenberg, Mahler, Zemlinsky, and Berg, and Nino Rota with Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Daishin Kashimoto, Aurélien Pascal and more.

A true chamber music lover, Eric regularly plays with friends like Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Quatuor Ebène, François Leleux, les Vents Français, François Salque, Lise Berthaud, Daishin Kashimoto, Olivier Latry and many other musicians.

Most of Eric Le Sage’s recordings on RCA-BMG, Naïve, EMI and now Alpha were highly acclaimed and awarded the most sought after awards in France: Diapason d’Or de l’Année, Choc de l’Année Classica, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Grand Prix du Disque, Recording of the Month in Fono Forum and Gramophone, Victoire de la Musique.

Born in Aix en Provence, Eric Le Sage was the winner of major international competitions such as Porto in 1985 and the Robert Schumann competition in Zwickau, in 1989. He was also a prize-winner at Leeds International competition the same year, which allowed him to perform under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.

Booklet für Samsara: R. Schumann & Fauré