For Georges Bizet the opera Carmen seems to be both a blessing and a curse. Although the work ensured the composer’s name for ever, it meant that his other works have been overlooked.  And so, his art songs have been completely overshadowed, although they are in no way compositionally inferior to Bizet’s more popular works. These “mélodies” represent the genre of French art song at its very finest: conciseness of form, melodic invention and exotic orientalism, coupled with the literary quality of the poets set (including Victor Hugo, Philippe Gille and Félix Arvers), ensure a quite special pleasure for the listener.

The German composer Andreas N. Tarkmann has orchestrated some of the best Bizet songs and brought them together to form the cycle Souvenirs d’été. With this presentation in a new orchestration and as a cycle, Tarkmann hopes to achieve a similar major success for Bizet’s masterpieces “en miniature” as he did with the Verdi songs he orchestrated for the Verdi anniversary year in 2001, and which have since gone on to enjoy great popularity as Verdiana.
The Hannover-based Arte Ensemble of Norddeutscher Rundfunk premiered the Souvenirs d’été on 3 and 4 September 2013 with soprano Caroline Stein in the Mozarteum Brasileiro in Sao Paulo.

FGS
(from [t]akte 2/2013)