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RECORDING REVIEWS
Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, Mezzo Soprano

Korngold Song Cycles, ASV Living Era CD DCA 1131
A sumptuous array of Korngold's orchestral and vocal music
Tomorrow was written for the 1942 film The Constant Nymph, starring Charles Boyer and Joan Fontaine and based on the novel by Margaret Kennedy. Richly scored for mezzo soprano, female voices and orchestra, this is a heady and contagious work given a rapturous performance by Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, whose voice is equally at home in the more intimate and dark-hued song cycles Einfache Lieder and Abschiedslieder. - www.asv.co.uk

From ASV comes a Korngold vocal/orchestral grab-bag full of delightful surprises, the best of which is Caspar Richter's magnificent conducting of the Bruckner Orchester Linz.  Richter gives himself over completely to Korngold's sweeping lush romanticism.  He clearly believes in this music's bountiful heart.  Richter's mezzo soloist on the brief cantata "Tomorrow" composed for the 1942 Joan Fontaine film The Constant Nymph as well as on the Einfache Lieder and the Abschiedslieder is Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, who makes her recorded debut with this CD.  She shades her lyric mezzo with great sensitivity and sings with complete commitment to Korngold's highly emotional idiom. 
- Eric Meyers, Opera News (April 2003)

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco's golden mezzo voice in her rendering of the Einfache Lieder is persuasive. 'Little Love Letter' is most charmingly delivered. Mitchell-Velasco's lower register and dramatic shading adds gravitas to a compelling interpretation of the eerie, ghostly 'Night Wanderer.' The scintillating quietly evocative 'Snowdrops' is sung tenderly - softly, gently caressing the undulating vocal lines. 'Summer' is haunting and quite ravishing. In the opening gently mournful Requiem of Korngold's Abschiedslieder, Mitchell-Velasco delivers a clean vocal line. The second song, "The one thing my longing can never grasp...' is sharply dramatic and damply, mistily evocative, and Mitchell-Velasco adds sharp testiness to her mourning over lost love. She is polished too, and very affecting in the lovely, 'Moon, you rise again,' providing emotional depth. The concluding song 'Serene Farewell' is sung most tenderly and consolingly. This is another winner in ASV's continuing Korngold series with raptly beautiful renditions of the orchestral songs. - Ian Lace, www.musicweb.uk.net

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco's sumptuous mezzo is perfect for Korngold's music. - R.E.B., classicalcdreview.com

No such restrictions can excuse the neglect of the Einfache Lieder, a cycle of great beauty and mastery. There are six songs in this cycle for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, and in some respects – notably in Nachtwanderer and Schneeglöckchen – the sheer beauty of the young composer’s inspiration is quite breathtaking. We are fortunate in having Gigi Mitchell-Velasco perform them; her voice is ideal for this creamy Straussian-Puccinian arioso, yet this is Korngold, through and through. The final vocal item is another cycle, the Abschiedslieder for mezzo and orchestra. The quality and impressive consistency of style that Korngold shows make one ask yet again why this music is so unjustly neglected; the performance is very fine. - Robert Matthew-Walker, Intenational Record Review

Entrambi questi cicli sono affidati al mezzo soprano Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, dotata di una splendida voce dal timbro scuro e profondo, adattissima al repertorio tardoromantico. (Both of these cycles [Einfache Lieder and Abschiedslieder] are entrusted to mezzo-soprano Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, who possesses a splendid voice of dark and deep timber, highly suitable for the late romantic repertory.) - www.allthatjazz.com/italy

Korngold ASV Platinum PLT8511
ASV’s 21st birthday series, Platinum, contains some real treasures. … The new recording on [the Korngold] disc is the six-minute symphonic poem Tomorrow from 1942 - very Hollywood (it was written for the film The Constant Nymph) - with the rich voiced Gigi Mitchell singing the text by Margaret Kennedy.
- James Jolly, Gramophone

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