The most sublime/touching/beautiful piece of singing you have ever heard?

[Sid]

Allow me to suggest Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony...

Agreed, a very moving work. I first borrowed it from the library 2 or 3 years ago & I didn't understand or like it. I remember thinking that it was too dark. Then in December last year I purchased the cheapie Conlon recording on EMI & couldn't stop listening to it. I must have listened to it about 20 times! It's a pivotal work from the interwar period & the one Zemlinsky work everyone into c20th classical should have in their collection (though I also very much like his orchestral songs, the choral settings of Psalms, The Mermaid, Sinfonietta - basically everything I've heard from Zemlinsky so far)...

[Cato]

Agreed, a very moving work. I first borrowed it from the library 2 or 3 years ago & I didn't understand or like it. I remember thinking that it was too dark. Then in December last year I purchased the cheapie Conlon recording on EMI & couldn't stop listening to it. I must have listened to it about 20 times! It's a pivotal work from the interwar period & the one Zemlinsky work everyone into c20th classical should have in their collection (though I also very much like his orchestral songs, the choral settings of Psalms, The Mermaid, Sinfonietta - basically everything I've heard from Zemlinsky so far)...

That is not an unknown phenomenon: and sometimes the performance is what changes one's mind.  I have the Conlon sets of Zemlinsky works and find them most admirable.

Not to be forgotten: Zemlinsky's Six Orchestral Songs on poems by Maurice Maeterlinck.  The "complex simplicity" of a song like Die Drei Schwestern shows the composer's marvelous skill.

[klingsor]

Anna Tomowa-Sintow: "Es gibt ein Reich" from Ariadne auf Naxos (R.Strauss). Perfect, sublime Strauss singing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jil0alx6HS8

[Harry Powell]

Here's my proposal: the 10 best solo recordings ever made.

Nazzareno de Angelis sings "Eterno! immenso! incomprensibil Dio!... Celeste man placata!" ("Mosè in Egitto").

Carlo Galeffi sings "Dio di Giuda" ("Nabucco")

Helge Rosvaenge sings "Gott! Welch Dunkel hier" ("Fidelio")

Franz Völker sings "In fernem Land... Mein lieber Schwann" ("Lohengrin", Furtwängler conducting)

Riccardo Stracciari sings "O de' verd'anni miei" ("Ernani")

Irina Arkhipova sings Marfa's Prophesy (Khovantchina)

Luciano Pavarotti sings "Ingemisco" ("Messa da Requiem", Karajan conducting)

Maria Callas sings "Ah, non credea mirarti" ("La Sonnambula", Bernstein conducting)

Pavel Lisitsian sings "Ya vas lyublyu" (Queen of spades)

Hans Hotter sings "Di frist ist um" ("Der fliegende Hollander", Krauss conducting)

[Mandryka]

Gerald Moore (voice)/Victoria de los Angeles (piano), Schumann, Ich Grolle Nicht

http://www.youtube.com/v/yBOYl2DIYc8

[mc ukrneal]

Gerald Moore (voice)/Victoria de los Angeles (piano), Schumann, Ich Grolle Nicht

http://www.youtube.com/v/yBOYl2DIYc8

Sublime indeed! Very subtle and nuanced performance, but I think I agree with the singer that it needed to be a little faster! 

[Mandryka]

All time favorite: the Monteverdi Madrigali recorded by Nadia Boulanger. In particular, there are duets with Paul Derenne and Lucien Cuenod in there that are evocative of homo-erotic love: a surer path to spirituality than church (well, at least since they stopped building the churches in the Gothic and the Romanesque styles)



Another all-time favorite. The opening movement of Bach's Saint-John Passion, Eugen Jochum conducting
Yet another: Vivaldi, "Cum Dederit" in Nisi Dominus RV 608, Michel Corboz. A prefiguration of Gustav Mahler.
Mozart, the Terzettino in Act I, scene 2 of Cosi Fan Tutte, "Soave sia il Vento, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf
Franz Schubert, "Nacht und Traume," Gerard Souzay
Franz Schubert, "Standchen" D.920, Sawallisch, piano
Franz Schubert, "Der Gondelfahrer," Sawallisch, piano
Franz Schubert, "Das sie Hier Gewesen" D775, Anne Sofie Von Otter
Franz Schubert, "Der Jungling an der Quelle" D300, Anne Sofie Von Otter
Franz Schubert, "Im Abendrot" D799, Anne Sofie Von Otter

The best of Brahms may be his vocal music:

The Alto-Rhapsodie, Kathleen Ferrier
"Rote Abendwolken," in Zigeunerlieder op 103, Anne Sofie Von Otter
"Die Meinacht" op 43/2, Anne Sofie Von Otter
"O kuhler Wald" op 72/3, Anne Sofie Von Otter
"Unbewegte laue Luft" op 57/8, Anne Sofie Von Otter
"Wiegenlied" op 49/4, Anne Sofie Von Otter

And also the first of Brahms' Vier Gesange op17, "Es tont ein voller Harfenklang" -  Richard Hickox - bleak words but uplifting music!

Gustav Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, Fischer-Dieskau/Kempe: the fulfillment of Claudio Monteverdi - and the Swan Song of tonality

If they are the madrigals which Boulanger recorded with Hughes Cuenod then they are indeed very good, as is Souzay's Nacht und Traueme (but the early Fischer Dieskau one we've been discussing in the thread on Loraine Hunt Lieberson may be even better)

Re the alto Rhapsodie with Ferrier, as far as I can see she made three recordings:


1. with C Krauss & LPO 1947 (Naxos 8.111009 and elsewhere)

2. with with F Busch & DRSO1949 (DACO CD 301)

3. with Tuxen & OPO 1949 (APR 5579)


Which is the best for soloist and chorus (I have the Krauss and have some reservations about the chorus)

[TheGSMoeller]

I have several very good performances of John Dowland's Flow my tears, whether it's soprano, tenor or countertenor singing I always find this piece to be sublime/touching/beautiful. It's personally one of my favorite pieces of music. I've always preferred the countertenor performances, so I chose Andreas Scholl.

http://www.youtube.com/v/f7vLOjzG4no&feature=related

[Brahmsian]

Maureen Forrester, Mahler's 2nd Symphony.  Urlicht

I was trying to find the Forrester/Walter audio on YouTube to post on here, but couldn't find it. 

I found other Forrester Mahler 2 Urlichts, one with Glenn Gould.

The one that stopped me dead in my tracks though was the Urlicht with Forrester, conducted by Walter.  It was played on CBC Radio Two the day of her death.

[Brian]

Just heard Ewa Podles sing "None but the Lonely Heart" on Wigmore Hall Live. Chills. Chills.

[Harry Powell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3FACXqqk80

Listen to Pavarotti's solo.

[Mirror Image]

Not sure if I posted this, but I'll post it again: Stanford - The Bluebird

http://www.youtube.com/v/UNdeCzrdnpE&playnext=1&list=PL70C512240BF07FC1

*Please excuse some of the distortion in the higher register if you have cheap computer speakers like me*

[Mandryka]

Pauvre Martin

http://www.youtube.com/v/Tuy5cpoX1xk

Le Roi Renaud

http://www.youtube.com/v/_kLKnwptvb8

Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète

http://www.youtube.com/v/SmyyHZHa1Cg

[RebLem]

I have two. 
1.  Kathleen Ferrier in Abschied from Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde in the Ferrier/Patzak/Walter/VPO recording.
2.  Janet Baker in "He was despised" from the 1966 Mackerras recording of Handel's Messiah.

[petrarch]

Le Roi Renaud

http://www.youtube.com/v/_kLKnwptvb8

Love it, though I prefer the version recorded by Le Poème Harmonique and released on the Alpha label:

http://www.outhere-music.com/store-Alpha_500

http://www.youtube.com/v/EvdoeLdoNKU

[Mandryka]

Love it, though I prefer the version recorded by Le Poème Harmonique and released on the Alpha label:

http://www.outhere-music.com/store-Alpha_500

http://www.youtube.com/v/EvdoeLdoNKU

Thanks for that -- the whole thing is on spotify and I'm looking forward to getting to know it. Another very good performance I found on youtube by by the same band is La Fille au Roi Louis. A nice jaunty jolly song:  I'm sure you know it.

http://www.youtube.com/v/5NRbXmdnRoE

[petrarch]

Thanks for that -- the whole thing is on spotify and I'm looking forward to getting to know it. Another very good performance I found on youtube by by the same band is La Fille au Roi Louis. A nice jaunty jolly song:  I'm sure you know it.

http://www.youtube.com/v/5NRbXmdnRoE

Yes, I do, it's from the same CD that contains Le Roi Renaud. I am a big fan of the ensemble--I have some 15 or 16 of their CDs, all from the excellent Alpha Productions label.

[petrarch]

Here's the reason I started digging into Alpha's catalogue some 4 or 5 years ago:

http://www.outhere-music.com/store-Alpha_522

The piece in the following video was the sample in the page above, and it grabbed me immediately. Simply breathtaking.

http://www.youtube.com/v/w4BZtKlDNRA

[petrarch]

But the most sublime, touching and beautiful piece of singing I have ever heard is, without a doubt, this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/tEcWniITE7o

which is track 16 of

[asin]B0002XNM64[/asin]

Ha! I'm repeating myself, I already posted about this piece on this same thread a little over a year ago : http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,17088.msg445104.html#msg445104

[Mandryka]

The truth is that I'm not really into this sort of religious music  -- but I'll persist: it's a taste I may well acquire. Any suggestions for more secular music will be appreciated though -- especially French as I can follow the meaning without too much difficulty.