It would be a travesty if the celebratory and de rigueur noise of multiculturalism should drown out the voice of homegrown Canadiana in poetry and song. But worry no more, for here is an outstanding recording by a breathtaking artist that celebrates just that. Christina Raphaëlle Haldane’s recording of contemporary Canadian compositions …let me explain – a collection of Canadian Art Songs is a marvellous performance of contemporary Canadiana that brings together poetry and music in repertoire that is at once silken in its lyricism and powerfully and vividly atmospheric in colour and tone texture.
Haldane’s inspirational and poetic soprano throughout this repertoire is something to treasure for a lifetime. Her traversal of pianist and composer, Carl Philippe Gionet’s Three Acadian Folklores is sweetly scented poesy, floribunda that would fill a whole flowershop. The pervasive melancholy of Ahania’s Lament is deeply affecting. David Jaeger’s delicately coloured music for the singer’s father Seán Haldane’s poems in The Echo Cycle is the record’s crowning glory. Haldane brings exquisite tenderness, expressive depth and consummate beauty to this cycle.
Haldane also, thankfully, celebrates the legendary Oscar Peterson with two pieces – Why Think About Tomorrow, the lyrics for which were penned by Peterson himself, and Land of the Misty Giants from his iconic Canadiana Suite. Sharing the spotlight with Haldane are the brilliant pianist Stu Harrison and bassist Ross MacIntyre. Both men perform this music with outstanding integrity and a wholly appropriate sense of occasion.