Secrets

Mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa and pianist Fazıl Say share some tantalising, captivating and sensuous Secrets in this album of songs, centred on Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Bilitis, Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Fazıl Say’s own Gezi Park 3 – which he and Crebassa premiered in 2014. Describing the recording sessions, Marianne Crebassa says: “Sometimes we worked in a kind of trance … there were some moments when nothing seemed to exist around us…”

Secrets includes Debussy’s discreetly erotic Trois Chansons de Bilitis, settings of texts by Pierre Louÿs that were inspired by ancient Greek literature, and Ravel’s sumptuous Shéhérazade, three contrasting songs that conjure up exotic moods rather than retelling the stories of the 1001 Nights. They are joined by a work by Fazıl Say that is inspired by his native Turkey, but which moves away from the spirit of legend and fantasy: Gezi Park 3 belongs to a series of works that he composed in response to the momentous civil protests that took place in in Istanbul in June 2013. Say and Crebassa gave its premiere in Bremen in September 2014, where it was heard as a ‘Ballad for mezzo-soprano, piano and orchestra’. Crebassa’s part is a wordless vocalise and the work is recorded here in a version for voice and piano.

"Crebassa, a young mezzo going places, probes rich music by Debussy, Fauré, Ravel and Duparc...Her voice is meltingly gorgeous...We feel as if we're inside her head. You surrender very quickly." - The Times

"In the Bilitis songs and Shéhérazade, her confiding style evokes atmospheres of nuanced suggestiveness...The voice itself is constantly lovely, with dark low notes." - The Sunday Times, Album of the Week

"Crebassa lavishes just as much care on Fazıl Say's vocalise lines as she does on the songs in her native language. Every one is compelling; from the opening moments when she wraps such velvety tone around Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis, her range of tone and nuance is exquisite." - The Guardian