[ewilkros]

What recordings represent Teyte in freshest voice?

Well, Teyte was born in 1888. If you mean "when was she youngest", she made a single 78 side for HMV in 1907, where the voice is recorded (or transferred) distantly, but is recognizable as the same voice it was 40 years later:

Spoiler: d'Hardelot: Because (1907)

She did 14 sides for [US] Columbia between 1913 and 1916, including Hahn's "L'Heure exquise", which I can't find on YouTube in this recording, and three Thomas Moore songs, of which this is one:

Spoiler: When Love Is Kind by Thomas Moore (1913)

and here are the words, since I like the song and wish it hadn't dropped off the horizon [Bori did it better, though]:

When Love is kind,
Cheerful and free,
Love's sure to find
Welcome from me.

But when Love brings
Heartache or pang,
Tears and such things --
Love may go hang!

If Love can sigh
For one alone,
Well pleased am I
To be that one.

But should I see
Love giv'n to rove
To two or three,
Then -- good-bye, Love!

Love must, in short,
Keep fond and true,
Through good report,
And evil too.

Else, here I swear,
Young Love may go,
For aught I care --
To Jericho.

She did some operetta sides for HMV in 1919, including four sides from Messager's Monsieur Beaucaire, in which she had done the premiere performance of the female lead, but I can't find them on YouTube though 4 sides were issued in the 4-LP HMV Treasury set. Then marriage and 10 years retirement. After relaunching her career she made I think 8 sides for Decca, her first electrics, including Fauré's "Après un rêve" and Hahn's "Si mes vers", but mostly operettas including Périchole and Messager's Véronique:

Spoiler: Offenbach: Périchole - Tu n'est pas beau (1932)

Spoiler: Messager: Véronique - Petite dinde! Ah! quel outrage! (1932)

Spoiler: Messager: Véronique - Ma foi! Pour venir de Provence (1932)

The breakout came with the album of Debussy songs she did with Alfred Cortot for HMV in 1935, of which this is one:

Spoiler: Debussy: Claire de lune, with Cortot (1936)

Fêtes galantes, L. 86, Book 1: III. Clair de lune (Second Version)

Provided to YouTube by Warner ClassicsFêtes galantes, L. 86, Book 1: III. Clair de lune (Second Version) · Maggie Teyte · Alfred CortotDebussy: His First Per...

www.youtube.com

She did Massenet's Manon, in English, with Heddle Nash as Des Grieux, for the BBC in 1939. Maybe 30 years ago they rebroadcast it, but though Act I is I think complete, somebody had walked off the the 78 rpm discs with her big numbers + whatever happened to be on the flipside, so it's a frustrating listen. Here's what's left, from YouTube, though I remember the voices being much more forward from my old tape of the broadcast:

Spoiler: Manon (1939)

Manon (Massenet) complete, 1939 with Maggie Teyte (in english)

Manon 1939 complete (in english) with Maggie Teyte.the cast:Manon: Maggie TeyteDes Grieux: Heddle NashDe Bretigny: Roy HendersonLescaut: Dennis NobleCount De...

www.youtube.com

Then in 1940 came more Debussy, this time with Gerald Moore, on a special-products commission from the Gramophone Shop in NYC, then throughout the 1940's an explosion of song recordings, largely French, from HMV, plus several Telephone Hours from US radio, all or nearly all of which survive in listenable-to-good sound, as well as I'm-not-so-sure-how-much from the BBC.

Steane has the theory that the explosion occurred because during WWII classical vocal music in German or Italian was off-limits, either by practice or decree. He doesn't seem to like the Debussy songs much -- under-interpreted, he says, and perhaps he is also a little turned off by the degree to which they've always been considered de rigeur. "But basically the point about Maggie Teyte is the very simple one, that her singing is so good: that is, her voice is so clear, its production so even, its emission so steady, its intonation so faultless, its movement in big upward intervals so clean and athletic, and its excellence was so well preserved for so long." I concur, but add that I find her emotional communication wonderful, and in the end the overriding characteristic of her singing. You can really choose just about anything of hers by how much you like the piece itself.

The voice really did up hold extraordinarily well. Those who find Licia Albanese as perpetually "grandmother-like" might find the same with Teyte; but if so, I can only congratulate them on their grandmothers.

The 4-LP HMV Treasury set really was very good, including maybe 2/3 of her HMV output, with some editorial taste involved in the omitted material. It's astounding that she never got her "Icons" CD box with everybody else; when may we expect it? The 2-CD Naxos set looks like they have used material from Decca, HMV, and RCA, probably not the acoustic material.

 

[Tsaraslondon]

@ewilkros Thank you so much for this wonderful post. I think I pretty much have everything she recorded from 1932 onwards, but I hadn't heard the early tracks and look forward to hearing them. Teyte is one of my favourite singers and I wish we had more of her. Her operatic repertoire is not especially well represented.

Many of the recordings are quite late. Even the Deccas were recorded when she was in her 40s, but though the voice is no longer that of a young woman it doesn't have any of the tell-tale signs of aging that many voices do. It remained firm without any trace of wobble or excessive vibrato until her final recordings, made whe she was 60.

Another interesting disc is this one

She was 60 at the time and sings excerpts from Pelléas et Mélisande with piano, singing all the roles! She also sings a piano accompanied version of Britten's Les Illuminations.

The disc also includes privately recorded excerpts from Strauss’s Salome with piano, from when Teyte was preparing the role for Covent Garden about fifteen years earlier, a project that unfortunately never came to fruition. Her bright, slivery soprano might just have been the voice Strauss imagined.

 

[Tsaraslondon]

With reference to @ewilkros's excellent post above, I hadn't heard the early stuff before. She would only have been 19 in 1907, but the voice sounds virtually the same as it does all those years later.

I hadn't heard the Manon before. How frustrating that her so much is missing! At least we get her touching farewell to her little table. The top B in the recitative before it is a stunner!

I'd just mention that everyone's English diction is a great deal better than we usually here nowadays.