Jongen: Entrevisions (Intégrale des mélodies, Vol. I) Sarah Defrise & Craig White

• Joseph Jongen (1873 - 1953): Six mélodies, Op. 25:
• 1 Six mélodies, Op. 25: Lys-Chrysanthèmes 03:13
• 2 Six mélodies, Op. 25: Après un rêve 03:34
• 3 Six mélodies, Op. 25: Ferveur printanière 05:35
• 4 Six mélodies, Op. 25: Chanson roumaine 04:13
• 5 Six mélodies, Op. 25: Chanson d'automne 01:56
• 6 Six mélodies, Op. 25: Bal de fleurs 02:17
• Sept mélodies d'Armand Silvestre:
• 7 Sept mélodies d'Armand Silvestre: Rêveries 03:43
• 8 Sept mélodies d'Armand Silvestre: Avril 01:16
• 9 Sept mélodies d'Armand Silvestre: Mignonne 02:39
• 10 Sept mélodies d'Armand Silvestre: Les étoiles effarouchées 02:33
• 11 Sept mélodies d'Armand Silvestre: Voici que les grands lis 02:47
• 12 Sept mélodies d'Armand Silvestre: Pourquoi ? 03:50
• 13 Sept mélodies d'Armand Silvestre: Bonsoir 03:54
• Six mélodies de maturité:
• 14 Six mélodies de maturité: Dans son écrin 03:25
• 15 Six mélodies de maturité: Paix 04:44
• 16 Six mélodies de maturité: Ninon 03:22
• 17 Six mélodies de maturité: Entrevisions 02:47
• 18 Six mélodies de maturité: Si tu me quittes un jour 02:23
• 19 Six mélodies de maturité: Rouge 01:53
• Lès Målureûs:
• 20 Lès Målureûs 04:46
• Total Runtime 01:04:50

Info for Jongen: Entrevisions (Intégrale des mélodies, Vol. I)

In 2016 Sarah Defrise unearthed more than twenty unpublished songs by Joseph Jongen (1873-1953), some of them preserved amongst the composer’s private papers. Such a discovery is an important event in the Belgian musical landscape. This young soprano now offers the first complete recording of these songs, of which this constitutes the first volume. We have chosen to focus on works from both the composer’s youth and his maturity. This album therefore presents an unpublished cycle of setting of poems by Armand Silvestre (1892), the famous cycle op. 25 (1902), from which the first song had always previously been missing, and a selection of later songs dating from 1909 to 1928. Jongen’s sensitive and subtle art is carried by the intelligent and luminous performance by the duo formed by Sarah with the English pianist Craig White.

Sarah Defrise, soprano
Craig White, piano

Sarah Defrise
is a Belgian soprano. Her music education started at the age of four with the piano. After studying French literature at the Free University of Brussels (ULB), Sarah completed her masters degree (magna cum laude) in Singing at the Brussels Royal Conservatory then joined Daniel Ottevaere's class at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris, where she received her Concertist Diploma in 2016.

At 24 Sarah made her operatic debut at the Royal Opera House of Wallonia as Clorinda in Rossini's La Cenerentola and was reinvited to sing the Fairy in Viardot's Cendrillon, Diana in Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers, Nannetta in Verdi 's Falstaff and Musetta in Puccini's La Bohème. Her other roles include Cunegonde (Candide, Bernstein), Serpina (La Serva Padrona, Mozart), Bastienne (Bastien und Bastienne, Mozart), Frau Silberkland (Der Schauspieldirektor, Mozart), Tonina (Prima la musica e poi le parole, Salieri) and Bacchis (La Belle Hélène, Offenbach). Elected young revelation by the Ghent Festival, she sang with José Van Dam a duet recital in October 2017 with the Flanders Symphonic Orchestra directed by Jan Latham-Koenig. Sarah was awarded the Best Performer 2018 prize at the Armel International Opera Competition for her performance of Calamity by Ben Johnston. Since 2016, Sarah is a PhD student in Music and Musicology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (dir.: David Gullentops) and the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel (dir.: Jan Michiels).

Craig White
gained a BA in Music at St Catherine’s College, Oxford in 2005. Following a Postgraduate Diploma in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying with Michael Dussek and Diana Ketler, he was also a Fellow in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Conservatory of Music. His Wigmore Hall debut was in October 2010, with oboist James Turnbull. In 2011, he toured Japan with soprano Erika Colon, and conducted London Youth Opera's The Magic Flute. In 2012, Craig won the accompanist prize at the centenary Kathleen Ferrier Awards, following accompanist prizes at the Thelma King Awards, Great Elm Vocal Awards and AESS Finals. In 2014, he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Craig White has worked as an official accompanist at a number of International Music Academies including the Schiermonnikoog Kamermuziek masterclasses in Holland, Rencontres Musicales Internationales D'Enghien in Belgium and the Lake Ossiach Masterclasses in Austria. In 2017, he adjudicated the Con Brio Piano Competition in Mumbai, India and for the past two years has been Official Accompanist for the Summer Academy Voksenåsen in Oslo, Norway. He has also worked at the Aix-en-Provence Académie, collaborating with artists such as Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Waltraud Meier.

Much in demand as a chamber musician and accompanist for singers and instrumentalists, Craig White spent 2015 living in Germany, working for the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. He also toured the UK with Russian violinist Adelia Myslov and appeared with Soprano Eleanor Dennis performing Mozart arias for the BBC programme "The Joy of Mozart". In 2018, he performed on BBC Radio 3 in a live soundtrack performance of Daniel Elms’ ‘Bethia’ as part of the Hull New Music Biennial. Craig White also works as an arranger for different combinations of strings and piano.

Booklet for Jongen: Entrevisions (Intégrale des mélodies, Vol. I)