Felicity Lott: In Recital

Rating:
Summary: Truth in packaging?
Review: The title of this release is misleading, as Felicity Lott sings for only about 20 of the 86 minutes of the program. However, she sings very well (accompanied by an excellent chamber ensemble), performing little-known but very attractive music by Ernest Chausson and Maurice Jaubert. The remainder of the program consists of chamber works performed by members of the Paris Chamber Ensemble conducted by Armin Jordan. The pieces are: Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll" (in Wagner's original instrumentation) and Brahms' "Serenade in D Major" (with fewer instruments than I am accustomed to hearing in this music -- I don't know whether Brahms authorized this version, but it sounds just fine). The performances are all excellent. I have rated this DVD four stars instead of five for two reasons: 1) The misleading title and 2) the lack of texts, translations or subtitles for the songs. To the best of my knowledge, these are the only performances on DVD of any of these pieces, so if you're interested in this repertoire, get this disk.