Ravel, Dvorak and Mahler are composers featured in this programme of 18 songs by the silken mezzo (of Czech background) who can slide smoothly from contralto to lyric soprano. The glorious Berlin orchestra, conducted by her husband Sir Simon Rattle, accompanies in live performance. Ravel provides the three songs in Sheherazade, based on poems by Tristan Klingsor.
There are 10 brief but impressive biblical songs by Dvorak that will be new to most ears in Biblicke Pisne, Op.99. Mahler contributes five songs in Ruckert-Lieder based on poems by Friedrich Ruckert. It is not just the range and beauty of voice but Kozena conveys sensuous sound and emotions to delight. Some might like more intensity in some items, particularly the Mahler.
Highlight: Earthly rapture in Ravel's Sheherazade.
These recordings were previously released on Collins Classics in 1995 and 1998. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (b.1934) is Master of the Queen's Music and a leading contemporary composer. His first symphony dates from 1976 and is imbued with some of the bleak and brooding atmosphere of his home in the Orkney Islands.
Amid the murk and mists the second and fourth movements offer some bubbling and glittering passages that are welcome and brighten the convoluted (55 minutes) exploration. Mavis in Las Vegas (1997) is a jazzy tone poem complete with saxophones, glitzy light music and sarcastic whimsy. The composer has written far better music than this pairing, but conducts the orchestra in authoritative performances.
Highlight: Mavis is 13 minutes of musical hoot.
