The orchestral enchantments of the last Strauss

"Singing is not just a physical mystery. It is also the art of establishing a connection with the audience, and the silence that prevailed among the two thousand spectators testified to a kind of collective trance. We even saw a few tears flow. Of course, one could detail the technical aspects that make Christiane Karg a leading artist: her timbre with a liquid purity, easily recognizable; her inexhaustible breath; her ease with embellishments; the palette of colors she unfolds; the equality of registers; the fluidity with which her voice echoes the solo violin when she evokes her 'soul leaping into the enchanted circle of the night.' But all of this would seem futile in the face of an interpretation that asserts itself, where everything is both natural and evident. The credit also goes to Antony Hermus, who is very attentive to his singer, breathing with her and skillfully balancing the orchestral enchantments of the last Strauss."

As for Mahler's Seventh Symphony, "the finale is indeed that 'radiant light of day' desired by Mahler, where the instrumentalists, finally freed from all fear, revel in their performance, exploring every corner of a score where the orchestra itself becomes the spectacle, to the delight of an ecstatic audience."

- Dominique Joucken, Forum Opéra, 10/22/2024