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Love Sublime

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Love Sublime
Studio album by
ReleasedJune 27, 2006
RecordedJanuary 10–11, 2006
StudioSUNY Purchase Performing Arts Center (Purchase, New York)
GenreClassical
Length48:19
LabelNonesuch
ProducerSteven Epstein
Brad Mehldau chronology
Brad Mehldau Trio Live
(2006)
Love Sublime
(2006)
Live in Marciac
(2006)

Love Sublime is an album by Brad Mehldau and Renée Fleming.

Background

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Prior to this album, Brad Mehldau had built a reputation as a jazz pianist, particularly with his trio. Soprano Renée Fleming was known for "her operatic performances and recitals of classical art songs".[1] Mehldau's playing often encompassed classical music, while Fleming was interested in being a jazz vocalist from her time at college.[2]

Rainer Maria Rilke wrote the poems collected in The Book of Hours around the turn of the twentieth century.

Mehldau worked on the music for around two years.[2] He and Fleming performed all of the tracks at Zankel Hall.[2]

Music and recording

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Poems from Rilke's The Book of Hours were used.[3] New, free translations into English were employed.[2] Other tracks were based on some of the Blue Estuaries poems of Louise Bogan;[3][4] these were written in strophes.[2] The title track was written by Fleurine.[4]

All of the music was either composed or "well-prepared if not entirely written".[4]

Mehldau's "settings capture the sense of Rilke's spiritual solitude and existential dread, transfixing the poet's struggle with belief in a steely light that illuminates his final declaration of faith as clearly as his doubts and fears."[4] "Some of the most striking effects are achieved with bleak, chiming chords, evoking Messiaen, but Mehldau parallels the poets' most involved images with passages of close-packed counterpoint and dense chording."[4]

There are some links between the lyrical content and the music: "In 'Tears in Sleep', for example, the vocal line slides over slippery harmonies, suggesting dreamy restlessness."[3]

Release and reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Austin Chronicle[5]

The album was released by Nonesuch Records on June 27, 2006.[2]

Opinions were split partly on genre lines. The Austin Chronicle reviewer stated "Jazz buyers beware",[5] while the Financial Times concluded that "Opera and jazz might seem to be polar opposites, but on this album [...] they blend brilliantly."[6] Gramophone asserted that "Fleming sings with plush tone and deep feeling, often sacrificing textual clarity in the process, and her swoops and swoons help bring out the connections to jazz."[3]

Track listing

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  1. The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: Your First Word Was "Light" (Mehldau/Rilke) – 5:28
  2. The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: The Hour Is Striking So Close Above Me (Mehldau/Rilke) – 5:09
  3. The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: I Love the Dark Hours of My Being (Mehldau/Rilke) – 4:35
  4. The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: I Love You, Gentlest of Ways (Mehldau/Rilke) – 7:02
  5. The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: No One Lives His Life (Mehldau/Rilke) – 2:36
  6. The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: His Caring Is a Nightmare to Us (Mehldau/Rilke) – 2:31
  7. The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God: Extinguish My Eyes, I'll Go On Seeing You (Mehldau/Rilke) – 6:13
  8. The Blue Estuaries: Tears in Sleep (Mehldau/Bogan) – 2:31
  9. The Blue Estuaries: Memory (Mehldau/Bogan) – 3:25
  10. The Blue Estuaries: A Tale (Mehldau/Bogan) – 4:28
  11. Love Sublime (Mehldau/Fleurine) – 4:20

Personnel

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References

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  1. ^ a b Sanderson, Blair " Renée Fleming / Brad Mehldau – Love Sublime". AllMusic. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Goldberg, Joe (August 3, 2006) "When Classical Meets Jazz". Wall Street Journal. p. D5.
  3. ^ a b c d Farach-Colton, Andrew "Love Sublime". Gramophone. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e Witherden, Barry (January 20, 2012) "Mehldau". BBC Music Magazine.
  5. ^ a b Trachtenberg, Jay (July 14, 2006) "House on Hill, Love Sublime". The Austin Chronicle.
  6. ^ Hobart, Mike (July 15, 2006) "CDs & DVDs". Financial Times.

Further reading

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