Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21 Justina Gringyte & Malcolm Martineau

• Georges Bizet ((1838 - 1875): 20 Songs, Op. 21:
• 1 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 1, Chanson d'avril 02:30
• 2 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 2, Le matin 04:22
• 3 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 3, Vieille chanson 04:06
• 4 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 4, Adieux de l'hôtesse arabe 04:40
• 5 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 5, Rève de la bien-aimée 03:43
• 6 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 6, J'aime l'amour 03:42
• 7 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 7, Vous ne priez pas 04:52
• 20 Mélodies, Op. 21:
• 8 Bizet: 20 Mélodies, Op. 21: No. 8, Ma vie a son secret 03:43
• 20 Songs, Op. 21:
• 9 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 9, Pastorale 03:33
• 10 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 10, Sérénade 02:38
• 11 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 11, Berceuse 04:12
• 12 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 12, La chanson du fou 02:19
• 13 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 13, Absence 04:45
• 14 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 14, Douce mer 03:21
• 15 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 15, Après l'hiver 03:15
• 16 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 16, La coccinelle 04:47
• 17 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 17, Chant d'amour 03:41
• 18 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 18, Je n'en dirai rien! 02:49
• 19 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 19, L'esprit saint 04:17
• 20 Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21: No. 20, Tarentelle 04:19
• Total Runtime 01:15:34

Info zu Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21

Dieses Ondine-Debütalbum der preisgekrönten litauischen Mezzosopranistin Justina Gringytė, einer der führenden Nachwuchskünstlerinnen der Opernwelt, und des Pianisten Malcolm Martineau ist ihr erstes Soloalbum und die vollständige Aufnahme von Georges Bizets (1838–1875) lange vergessenem Meisterwerk Vingt Mélodies (20 Lieder), Op. 21. Im Jahr 2025 jährt sich zum 150. Mal der Todestag von Bizet, einem der größten französischen Komponisten aller Zeiten. Während seiner kurzen Karriere von etwas mehr als zwanzig Jahren komponierte Bizet eine beträchtliche Menge an Musik, darunter 15 Opern. Bizet wurde wegen seiner Sensibilität für die menschliche Stimme und seinem Verständnis für deren Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten mit Mozart verglichen. Mehrere Opern von Bizet entstanden vor seinen zwanzig Liedern Opus 21, die zwischen 1854 und 1872 geschrieben wurden. Wer diese Lieder, eine Sammlung mit vielen Meisterwerken, zum ersten Mal hört, fragt sich vielleicht, wie Musik von so gleichbleibender Qualität so vernachlässigt werden konnte! Sie gehören eindeutig zu den repräsentativsten Werken Bizets.

Justina Gringyte, Mezzosopran
Malcolm Martineau, Klavier

Justina Gringyte
Award-winning Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Justina Gringytė has received high praise for her “knockout technique” (The Times) and “thunderously powerful voice” (Daily Telegraph). Awarded Young Singer of the Year at the International Opera Awards, and a graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden — where among other things she performed at the Olympic Committee's Opening Ceremony for the London Olympic Games alongside Renée Fleming, Bryn Terfel and Plácido Domingo — Justina is considered one of the foremost rising stars of the opera world. An acclaimed Carmen, her hugely-praised performance with English National Opera was screened live into cinemas. ​

Operatic highlights include title role Carmen (English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lithuanian National Opera, Teatro Massimo Palermo, Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre); Maddalena Rigoletto (Opéra National de Paris, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Teatro Real, Madrid; English National Opera and Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow); Amneris Aida (Israeli Opera, Lithuanian National Opera, Latvian National Opera); Preziosilla La Forza del Destino and Fenena Nabucco (Welsh National Opera); Suzuki Madama Butterfly (Gran Teatre del Liceu); title role Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel (Korean National Opera, Vilnius City Opera); Dalila Samson et Dalila (Vilnius City Opera); Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Lithuanian National Opera); Tigrana Edgar (Scottish Opera); Sara Roberto Devereux, Marguerite La damnation de Faust (Bolshoi Theatre); Kaled Le roi de Lahore and Dulcinée Don Quichotte (Chelsea Opera Group); and Meg Page Falstaff (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra). ​

Equally in demand on the concert platform, highlights include Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 (London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra); Mahler’s Symphony No.2 ‘Resurrection’ (Basque National Orchestra); Mahler's Symphony No.3 (Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Basque National Orchestra); Mahler's Symphony No.8 (Philharmonia Orchestra, Basque National Orchestra); Corigliano’s One Sweet Morning and Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, Op.52 (Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society), Boulanger’s Psalm 130 (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) at the BBC Proms; Verdi Requiem (Simón Bolívar Orchestra); Dvořák’s Stabat Mater (Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra); opera arias (Orchestra Nazionale Sinfonica della RAI, Teatro Municipal Rio De Janeiro), Raminta Šerkšnyte’s Songs of Sunset and Dawn (Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra); Respighi Il tramonto and Britten Phaedra (Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra); and the closing concert of XV International Tytuvenai Festival (Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet House Orchestra); song recitals at Wigmore Hall. ​

Justina has collaborated with conductors including Antonio Pappano, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Tugan Sokhiev, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Ludovic Morlot, Evelino Pidò, Kazushi Ono, Robert Treviño, Daniele Rustioni, Carlo Rizzi, Xian Zhang, Sesto Quatrini, Giacomo Sagripanti, and Edward Gardner. ​

For Deutsche Grammophon she recorded Raminta Šerkšnyte’s Songs of Sunset and Dawn. She has recorded Rachmaninov songs and Medtner songs, both albums with pianist Ian Burnside for Delphian; the Rachmaninov was Gramophone Award-nominated. ​

Justina studied at Lithuania’s Academy of Music and Theatre, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and the National Opera Studio in London and Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. ​

Highlights of the 2023/24 season included Verdi's Aida at Lithuanian National Opera, the world premiere of Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s new work Enheduana, Berlioz's Les Nuits d’ete with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and Ravel's Shéhérezade with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano.

Malcolm Martineau
was born in Edinburgh, read Music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and studied at the Royal College of Music.

Recognised as one of the leading accompanists of his generation, he has worked with many of the world’s greatest singers including Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Janet Baker, Olaf Bär, Barbara Bonney, Ian Bostridge, Angela Gheorghiu, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, Della Jones, Simon Keenlyside, Angelika Kirchschlager, Magdalena Kozena, Solveig Kringelborn, Jonathan Lemalu, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, Karita Mattila, Lisa Milne, Ann Murray, Anna Netrebko, Anne Sofie von Otter, Joan Rodgers, Amanda Roocroft, Michael Schade, Frederica von Stade, Sarah Walker and Bryn Terfel. He has presented his own series at the Wigmore Hall (a Britten and a Poulenc series and Decade by Decade – 100 years of German Song broadcast by the BBC) and at the Edinburgh Festival (the complete lieder of Hugo Wolf). He has appeared throughout Europe (including London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal Opera House; La Scala, Milan; the Chatelet, Paris; the Liceu, Barcelona; Berlin’s Philharmonie and Konzerthaus; Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein), North America (including in New York both Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall), Australia (including the Sydney Opera House) and at the Aix en Provence, Vienna, Edinburgh, Schubertiade, Munich and Salzburg Festivals.

Recording projects have included Schubert, Schumann and English song recitals with Bryn Terfel (for Deutsche Grammophon); Schubert and Strauss recitals with Simon Keenlyside (for EMI); recital recordings with Angela Gheorghiu and Barbara Bonney (for Decca), Magdalena Kozena (for DG), Della Jones (for Chandos), Susan Bullock (for Crear Classics), Solveig Kringelborn (for NMA); Amanda Roocroft (for Onyx); the complete Fauré songs with Sarah Walker and Tom Krause; the complete Britten Folk Songs for Hyperion; the complete Beethoven Folk Songs for Deutsche Grammophon; the complete Poulenc songs for Signum; and Britten Song Cycles as well as Schubert’s Winterreise with Florian Boesch for Onyx.

This season’s engagements include appearances with Simon Keenlyside, Magdalena Kozena, Dorothea Röschmann, Susan Graham, Christopher Maltman, Thomas Oliemanns, Kate Royal, Christiane Karg, Iestyn Davies, Florian Boesch and Anne Schwanewilms.

He was a given an honorary doctorate at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2004, and appointed International Fellow of Accompaniment in 2009. Malcolm was the Artistic Director of the 2011 Leeds Lieder+ Festival.

Booklet für Bizet: 20 Songs, Op. 21