I've never seen the US version, so can't really comment.
Vocal recitals.
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We don't seem to have anywhere on the site to discuss vocal recitals, so I thought I'd start one.
I'm returning to this box set at the moment.
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This 5 disc set brings together most, though not all, of the recordings Dame Janet Baker made for Decca, Argo and Philips during the 1960s and 1970s. Though contracted to EMI (and Warner have a pretty exhaustive ten disc box set of her work for that label, called The Great Recordings), she made a few recordings for Decca/Argo (including her famous recording of Dido and Aeneas) in the early 60s, and then a tranche of recitals for Philips in the 1970s. The range of material here is not quite as wide as that on the aforementioned Warner, but takes us from 17th century arie through to Britten.
Disc 1 is a selection of what most vocal students would know as Arie Antiche (called here Arie Amorose), (in somewhat souped- up arrangements) by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner. Whilst the arrangements can sound somewhat anachronistic today, Baker's wonderfully varied singing is not and each little song emerges as a little gem. The disc is rounded off with a couple of arias from La Calisto recorded shortly after her great success in the role of Diana/Jove at Glyndebourne.
Some of Baker's greatest early successes were in Handel and Disc 2 is mostly taken up by a superb 1972 Handel recital she made with the English Chamber Orchestra under Raymond Leppard. How brilliantly she charts the changing emotions in the cantata Lucrezia and also in the arioso-like Where shall I fly from Hercules,but each track displays the specificity of her art, the way she can express the despair in an aria like Scherza infida and the joy in Dopo notte. The disc is rounded off by a 1966 recording of Bach's Vergnügte Ruh and her incomparable When I am laid in earth from her 1961 recording of Dido and Aeneas.
Disc 3 has excerpts from a 1973 Mozart/Haydn recital and a 1976 Beethoven/Schubert disc, both made with Raymond Leppard, with the addition of arias from her complete recordings of la Clemenza di Tito and Cosí fan tutte under Sir Colin Davis. The two Haydn cantatas (one with piano and one with orchestra) are very welcome, but we do miss her stunning performance of Sesto's two big arias from La Clemenza di Tito, and her gently intimate performance of Mozart's Abendempfindung. Fortunately these have been included in a superb selection taken from the same two recitals on the Pentatone label, which includes all the missing Mozart and Schubert items. This disc also includes her recording of Beethoven's Ah perfido!, a little smaller in scale than some, but beautifully judged none the less. It doesn't have Callas's ferocity, it is true, but it is much more comfortably vocalised.
Disc 4 is of music by Rameau (excerpts from her 1965 recording of Hippolyte et Aricie, which well display her impassioned Phèdre), Gluck (arias for Orfeo and Alceste taken from her 1975 Gluck recital) and Berlioz (1979 performances of Cléopâtre and Herminie and Béatrice's big scene from Davis's complete 1977 recording of Béatrice et Bénédict). The biggest loss here is of the majority of the Gluck recital, which included many rare items, though the complete reictal was at one time available on one of Philips's budget labels. Baker is without doubt one of the greatest Berlioz exponents of all time, and the two scènes lyriques are especially welcome, the range of expression in both fully exploited.
Disc 5 is of late nineteenth and twentieth century French song and Benjamin Britten; the whole of a disc of French song made with the Melos Ensmble in 1966, excerpts from the composers own recordings of The Rape of Lucretia and Owen Wingraveand Phaedra, which was composed specifically for her. The Melos disc includes Ravel's Chansons Madécasses and Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, Chausson's Chanson perpétuelle and Delage's Quatre poèmes hindous and is a fine example of Baker's felicity in French chanson. The Britten excerpts remind us of her sympathetic portrayal of Lucretia and her unpleasant Kate in Owen Wingrave. The Britten cantata is a great example of her controlled intensity.
Remarkable throughout is the care and concentration of her interpretations. Nothing is glossed over, nothing taken for granted, and she was one of those artists who could bring the frisson of live performance into the studio. Nor do I think she ever made a bad record. One of my all time favourite singers.
I'm returning to this box set at the moment.
This 5 disc set brings together most, though not all, of the recordings Dame Janet Baker made for Decca, Argo and Philips during the 1960s and 1970s. Though contracted to EMI (and Warner have a pretty exhaustive ten disc box set of her work for that label, called The Great Recordings), she made a few recordings for Decca/Argo (including her famous recording of Dido and Aeneas) in the early 60s, and then a tranche of recitals for Philips in the 1970s. The range of material here is not quite as wide as that on the aforementioned Warner, but takes us from 17th century arie through to Britten.
Disc 1 is a selection of what most vocal students would know as Arie Antiche (called here Arie Amorose), (in somewhat souped- up arrangements) by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner. Whilst the arrangements can sound somewhat anachronistic today, Baker's wonderfully varied singing is not and each little song emerges as a little gem. The disc is rounded off with a couple of arias from La Calisto recorded shortly after her great success in the role of Diana/Jove at Glyndebourne.
Some of Baker's greatest early successes were in Handel and Disc 2 is mostly taken up by a superb 1972 Handel recital she made with the English Chamber Orchestra under Raymond Leppard. How brilliantly she charts the changing emotions in the cantata Lucrezia and also in the arioso-like Where shall I fly from Hercules,but each track displays the specificity of her art, the way she can express the despair in an aria like Scherza infida and the joy in Dopo notte. The disc is rounded off by a 1966 recording of Bach's Vergnügte Ruh and her incomparable When I am laid in earth from her 1961 recording of Dido and Aeneas.
Disc 3 has excerpts from a 1973 Mozart/Haydn recital and a 1976 Beethoven/Schubert disc, both made with Raymond Leppard, with the addition of arias from her complete recordings of la Clemenza di Tito and Cosí fan tutte under Sir Colin Davis. The two Haydn cantatas (one with piano and one with orchestra) are very welcome, but we do miss her stunning performance of Sesto's two big arias from La Clemenza di Tito, and her gently intimate performance of Mozart's Abendempfindung. Fortunately these have been included in a superb selection taken from the same two recitals on the Pentatone label, which includes all the missing Mozart and Schubert items. This disc also includes her recording of Beethoven's Ah perfido!, a little smaller in scale than some, but beautifully judged none the less. It doesn't have Callas's ferocity, it is true, but it is much more comfortably vocalised.
Disc 4 is of music by Rameau (excerpts from her 1965 recording of Hippolyte et Aricie, which well display her impassioned Phèdre), Gluck (arias for Orfeo and Alceste taken from her 1975 Gluck recital) and Berlioz (1979 performances of Cléopâtre and Herminie and Béatrice's big scene from Davis's complete 1977 recording of Béatrice et Bénédict). The biggest loss here is of the majority of the Gluck recital, which included many rare items, though the complete reictal was at one time available on one of Philips's budget labels. Baker is without doubt one of the greatest Berlioz exponents of all time, and the two scènes lyriques are especially welcome, the range of expression in both fully exploited.
Disc 5 is of late nineteenth and twentieth century French song and Benjamin Britten; the whole of a disc of French song made with the Melos Ensmble in 1966, excerpts from the composers own recordings of The Rape of Lucretia and Owen Wingraveand Phaedra, which was composed specifically for her. The Melos disc includes Ravel's Chansons Madécasses and Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, Chausson's Chanson perpétuelle and Delage's Quatre poèmes hindous and is a fine example of Baker's felicity in French chanson. The Britten excerpts remind us of her sympathetic portrayal of Lucretia and her unpleasant Kate in Owen Wingrave. The Britten cantata is a great example of her controlled intensity.
Remarkable throughout is the care and concentration of her interpretations. Nothing is glossed over, nothing taken for granted, and she was one of those artists who could bring the frisson of live performance into the studio. Nor do I think she ever made a bad record. One of my all time favourite singers.
321 - 340 of 340 Posts
This is a delightful disc of French bonbons which I reviewed back in 2019 on my blog. If I were nit picking, I would admit that Graham's lovely voice lacks that last ounce of individuality and that I occasionally found myself wondering what Régine Crespin would have done with this material. Nevertheless ths is a thoroughly entertaining disc of rarely heard French light music from between the two wars.
Some wonderful Handel singing here. Hunt Lieberson was much acclaimed for her Irene in Peter Sellars' superb Glyndebourne production of Theodora and here sings all her music. One might quibble that a series of dignified and thoughtful arias might be too much of a good thing, but Hunt Lieberson's warmth and commitment, her gift for communication and the natural beauty of her voice disarm criticism.
She makes less of an effect in the cantata Lucrezia, which lacks the drama and contrast brought to it by Janet Baker in her recording with Leppard on Philips, but she redeems herself in a beautifully shaped versions of the popular Ombra mai fu.
This is something of an exercise in nostalgia. Valerie Masterson was a mainstay of my opera going in my early days and I saw her quite a few times on stage and in some of the roles she sings on this disc. She was a very beautiful woman with a lovely voice and a charming stage presence and it would have been hard not to fall under her spell.
She first came to prominence singing Gilbert and Sullivan with the D'Oyly Carte company, but was soon snapped up by English National Opera, where she sang many of these roles in English. However the French also took her to their heart and she appeared regularly over there too, as well as at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, where she would have been singing in French and she sings the language very well.
This recital was recorded at three separate sessions in 1991 and 1993 when Masterson would have been in her mid fifties and, though the voice is still beautiful, it is no longer the fresh voice of youth. What a shame she didn't get to record this material, say, around fifteen years earlier when she sang Matilde to Caballé's Elisabetta in Rossini's Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra both in Aix-en-Provence and on record. Two years is a long time when one is nearing the end of one's career, and it is notable that the arias recorded in 1991 find her in better voice than those recorded in 1993. Still, there is much to enjoy, especially in those roles that Masterson had made very much her own, Manon, Juliette, Marguerite, Louise and Micaëla. The vibrations may have loosened somewhat, but she is mercifullly free of wobble.
Favourite tracks for me were Micaëla's Je dis que rien m'épouvante, Louise's Depuis le jour, the brief excerpt from the Saint Sulpice scene in Manon, Margeurite's Jewel Song and L'Ensoleillad's lovely little Vive amour qui rêve from Chérubin. To be honest, only in Thaïs's Mirror Aria, which was recorded at the last sessions, does the beat in the voice start to become distracting and it is notable that she doesn't take the higher option at the end, whereas a few years before this would have been easily within her voice. Throughout she pays due attention to the text and the mood of each aria, and her voice has its own individual character that I've always found instantly recognisable.
The sound is superb, the orchestral conributions under John Owen Edwards excellent, and the booklet comes with texts and translations, an interview with Masterson and stage photos of her looking absolutelty gorgeous as Margeurite, Manon, Juliette and Louise.
So, as I said, a little late for comfort, but still a disc worth hearing for any of us who fell under Masteron's spell when she was regularly appearing on our stages.
I've always thought of McCormack more of a concert singer, but he studied in Italy and indeed started his career in opera. That said, I do feel a lack of passion in his singing of some of the arias here and, for me, the most successful items are his famed version of Il mi tesoro, which displays his superb breath control and his impeccable runs, and the Handel arias at the end, in which he sings with enviable poise.
A collection of mostly bravura Mozart arias by Edda Moser, taken from her catalogue of complete operas, recitals and choral works. A fuller review on my blog.
This is a nice collection of McCormack's operatic recordings, but the transfers are awful. IIRC, this was among Nimbus' early "Ambisonic" method CD's, and it sounds like it was recorded in a steamroom. There's an OOP Pearl CD of the same material, more or less, in somewhat better sound, but in order to really hear these recordings, Marston's transfers are vastly superior.![]()
I've always thought of McCormack more of a concert singer, but he studied in Italy and indeed started his career in opera. That said, I do feel a lack of passion in his singing of some of the arias here and, for me, the most successful items are his famed version of Il mi tesoro, which displays his superb breath control and his impeccable runs, and the Handel arias at the end, in which he sings with enviable poise.
A great disc, with the best recordings of the Queen of the Night's two arias on record.![]()
A collection of mostly bravura Mozart arias by Edda Moser, taken from her catalogue of complete operas, recitals and choral works. A fuller review on my blog.
Aside from the final track (Mimi's Act I aria recorded in 1910) these are all late recordings from 1934 and 1935. The voice may have lost its youthful freshness by then, but the gains in emotional involvement are enormous. They are also, of course, in much better sound. A more detailed review on my blog.
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I agree largely with the comment of "Callasianaplus" in your blog. To me she is musically the most interesting soprano alongside Lotte Lehmann before the advent of Callas, though they don't quite have Callas' chameleon-like ability to alter the colour of their voices to suit the characters of various roles. About her signature recording, "Addio del passato" from La traviata, at one end of the critical spectrum John Steane warms much to and treasures it, while at the other end Michael Scott is utterly harsh (John Steane in turn responded to Scott's criticism of the recording in "Singers of the Century" Vol. 3):![]()
Aside from the final track (Mimi's Act I aria recorded in 1910) these are all late recordings from 1934 and 1935. The voice may have lost its youthful freshness by then, but the gains in emotional involvement are enormous. They are also, of course, in much better sound. A more detailed review on my blog.
I find myself standing somewhere in between these two critics.
In general, Muzio is at her best in music with direct, straightforward outpouring of emotion, such as "Son pochi fiori" from Mascagni's L'amico Fritz (one of her more difficult-to-find Edison recordings, available on Romophone).
Actually this time round I didn't find the letter reading "unbearably moving". I found it hammy and overdone. Callas, especially at La Scala in 1955, but also in London in 1958, is much better.I agree largely with the comment of "Callasianaplus" in your blog. To me she is musically the most interesting soprano alongside Lotte Lehmann before the advent of Callas, though they don't quite have Callas' chameleon-like ability to alter the colour of their voices to suit the characters of various roles. About her signature recording, "Addio del passato" from La traviata, at one end of the critical spectrum John Steane warms much to and treasures it, while at the other end Michael Scott is utterly harsh (John Steane in turn responded to Scott's criticism of the recording in "Singers of the Century" Vol. 3):
I find myself standing somewhere in between these two critics.
In general, Muzio is at her best in music with direct, straightforward outpouring of emotion, such as "Son pochi fiori" from Mascagni's L'amico Fritz (one of her more difficult-to-find Edison recordings, available on Romophone).
Jarmila Novotna is probably best known for her appearance in the movie The Great Caruso, playing the diva, Maria Selka. She had quite a long career, having made her debut (as Violetta) at the age of 17. Not a major singer, and she only warrants passing attention in Steane's The Grand Tradition (where he compares her Donna Elvira unfavourably to that of Schwarzkopf).
Jarmila Novotna -The Great Soprano’s Own Selection of her Finest Recordings
I was less impressed with this recital this time than I was when I reviewed it in my blog a couple of years ago. The playing of Les Talens Lyriques under Christope Rousset is really wonderful and contribute greatly to its success, but, and this could be because of I've beem listening recently to so many recitals by older singers recently, I was more aware of some of Piau's 'early music' mannerisms; the tendency to use what John Steane once called the squeeze-box method of stressing individual notes, thus impeding a proper legato and also a tendency to slightly aspirate her runs. She is nowhere near as bad as Bartoli in this respect, but there's still a hint of it and I don't lke it. Shock! Horror! I enjoyed Fleming's Handel recital, which I listened to just a few weeks ago, much more.
There's no doubting she has a beautiful voice, nor her dramatic commitment to the music, but the mannerisms got in the way this time round.
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Not too much overlap here. I reviewed the Verdi disc a couple of years ago on my blog. There is no doubt Ponselle was one of the greats of the pre WWII era.
If she had a beautiful voice then, it has now changed considerably. I saw her live in Saariaho’s new opera recently and the voice is tiny, often close to inaudible, completely unprojected, ingolata, unsteady and heavily constricted. She is 57, but even so, I find it difficult to believe there was ever much technique to begin with.![]()
I was less impressed with this recital this time than I was when I reviewed it in my blog a couple of years ago. The playing of Les Talens Lyriques under Christope Rousset is really wonderful and contribute greatly to its success, but, and this could be because of I've beem listening recently to so many recitals by older singers recently, I was more aware of some of Piau's 'early music' mannerisms; the tendency to use what John Steane once called the squeeze-box method of stressing individual notes, thus impeding a proper legato and also a tendency to slightly aspirate her runs. She is nowhere near as bad as Bartoli in this respect, but there's still a hint of it and I don't lke it. Shock! Horror! I enjoyed Fleming's Handel recital, which I listened to just a few weeks ago, much more.
There's no doubting she has a beautiful voice, nor her dramatic commitment to the music, but the mannerisms got in the way this time round.
This reissue of Popp's 1983 Mozart recital adds the Mozart items from an earlier (1967) recital of Handel and Mozart arias. A lovely disc, which I reviewed for my blog about three years ago.
321 - 340 of 340 Posts
