Mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca - "When night falls" album - Music box, March 25th, 2024

On March 15th, 2024, the Deutsche Grammophon record company released an album by one of the most famous mezzo-sopranos of our time - Elina Garanca. The album is called "When night falls"and comprises an eclectic repertoire in which the nocturnal theme serves as a common element. What is more, the release date was chosen on purpose, since March 15th marksWorld Sleep Day.

"For some people", as Elina Garanca states, "night can be filled with fear and uncertainty. It is a time when we are alone and have to face ourselves. And yet, night also brings peace. The world goes quiet and sleeps, while us, people, can return to a sense of calm".

Night- with its many meanings, expressed accordingly in Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca's selected works. There are lieds, songs and arias where the mezzo-soprano's voice is accompanied by very diverse ensembles- from symphonic orchestra to guitar. Therepertoire is just as diverse, centred on three geographical areas - German, Spanish or Mediterranean, in a broader sense, as well as Latvian.

First, we are going to listen to the works from the German area: two lullabies by Johannes Brahms, an evening prayer from Engelbert Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel and the Nacht und traume lied by Franz Schubert.

It comes as no surprise that Elina Garanca chose to include some Spanish repertoire in this album as well, alongside works by two Italian composers. In 2019, she released an entire album devoted to this kind of repertoire - Sol y vida, recorded together with Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra - which, as we know, pertains to the Spanish state and is conducted by her British husband, Karel Mark Chichon. Since some of the recordings on the present album were made during the pandemic, here she is, Elina Garanca, accompanied by guitarists Jose Maria Gallardo del Rey and Raphael Feuillatre, or even bya small chamber ensemble from Berlin. But also with a song by Manuel de Falla, recorded together with the same Spanish orchestra conducted by Karel Mark Chichon.

47-year-old Elina Garanca, with her extensive international career on the world's great stages, affords the luxury to choose the repertoires in her albums, which is something that only few musicians of today can do, as far as their relationship with the recording companies is concerned. For the first time, she chose to include inthis album works by Latvian composers, some of whomhave hardly been heard of. It comprises lieds by Janis Zalits, former director of the Latvian Opera, who lived between 1884 and 1943, by Imants Kalnins, who is now 82 and who, apart from the classical repertoire, explored the rock one as well, but also songs by Raimonds Pauls, Latvia's former Minister of Culture from 1988 to 1993, now 88.

A beautiful voice, who sang Parsifal, but who can tackle just as easily a repertoire from a slightly more mundane sphere, one could say: Latvian Elina Garanca and her album When night falls, a potential soundtrack to accompanyus through the night, when we tend to ask ourselves who we are and where we are heading.