Favorite vocal recitals on CD or DVD

Started by bhodges, April 24, 2007, 11:04:11 AM

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knight66

The Bach and Handel discs show up, they are both terrific. as with rosy steps, from Theodora is like a benediction. I have the Neruda songs and a live Wigmore Hall recital. There is also a very good Berlioz les Nuits and some more Bach.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: knight66 on January 14, 2021, 09:01:18 AM
The Bach and Handel discs show up, they are both terrific. as with rosy steps, from Theodora is like a benediction. I have the Neruda songs and a live Wigmore Hall recital. There is also a very good Berlioz les Nuits and some more Bach.

Mike
Bizarre as I copied all of the images from Amazon.   ::)  The other ones that I own, which I had tried to show, are the Berlioz/Handel one and the Wigmore Hall one of Mahler, Handel and Lieberson, and one on Harmonia Mundi of arias from various Handel operas (from complete recordings) with McGegan.

I'm also tempted to get the one from the Emmanuel Music archives on Avie.

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

knight66

The Emmanuel disc has an extraordinary performance of an aria from BWV 30. It is at about half speed, you wonder what are they playing at. Then the voice comes in and it becomes clear. She carries it off and it is remarkable. Some would find it grotesque, but I turn to it often. I enjoy the rest of the disc and hoped it indicated that there would be more archive material to come. But no more has surfaced from that source. Her partner on the disc Craig Smith also died very young. Such losses.

Mike

DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: knight66 on January 14, 2021, 11:40:48 AM
The Emmanuel disc has an extraordinary performance of an aria from BWV 30. It is at about half speed, you wonder what are they playing at. Then the voice comes in and it becomes clear. She carries it off and it is remarkable. Some would find it grotesque, but I turn to it often. I enjoy the rest of the disc and hoped it indicated that there would be more archive material to come. But no more has surfaced from that source. Her partner on the disc Craig Smith also died very young. Such losses.

Mike
Thank you for the review.

Sorry to hear about her music partner's early demise too.  :(

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Mandryka

By coincidence I'v e been enjoying the Schumann on this one this week

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

knight66

Yes, I have that. I like it but somehow I feel her voice offers more when surrounded by orchestral sounds. I don't get the same connection to her work where she is accompanied by a pianist.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

knight66

#586
Not exactly a vocal recital, but all the pieces bar one are vocal.

Chandos have issued a disc called Verklate Nacht with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner. Stuart Skelton is on several tracks and Christine Rice on only one, a less well known version of the title track by Oskar Fried. It dates to1901, between the composition and publication of Schoenberg's version. Fried produced a duet using using the words of the poem by Dehmel. It should be better known, but it is not relevant to compare it to the tone poem which has very different objectives. This is lush in a different way, which perhaps jar against the very frank words of the poem, for instance: 'I am bearing a child which is not by you. I am walking in sin by your side. The transformation is the man's acceptance of the woman and child, they walk off into the night transfigured.

That track is followed by a luminous performance of the more famous piece inspired by the same poem. Although beautiful there is plenty of tension and the payoff is terrific.

The opener is a substantial 12 minute orchestral song setting the dying hallucinations of an injured soldier, perhaps surprisingly composed by Franz Lehar. Very direct and terrifically expressed and sustained by Skelton. The moods constantly change, fevered, febrile.

The final pieces are a group of four orchestral Songs of Farewell by Korngold, lush and lyrical, Skelton brings the needed weight and lyricism to them.

It is a terrific and intelligently designed programme and a superb set of performances. It makes for a very satisfying listen. The best disc I have bought since the most recent John Wilson disc.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

André


A favourite and a classic recital in its own right. Horne was to Rossini what Nilsson was to Wagner.


Tsaraslondon



Another shout out for this excellent disc detailed above by Knight66. Never in a million years would I have guessed that the composer of the first work was the same Franz Lehár who wrote Die lustige Witwe but there it is, and what a compelling work it is.

The most well-known work here is the orchestral version of Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht but I enjoyed all the works represented here. A worthwhile and enterprising disc well worth investigating.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Wendell_E

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on January 26, 2021, 06:03:24 AM


Another shout out for this excellent disc detailed above by Knight66. Never in a million years would I have guessed that the composer of the first work was the same Franz Lehár who wrote Die lustige Witwe but there it is, and what a compelling work it is.

The most well-known work here is the orchestral version of Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht but I enjoyed all the works represented here. A worthwhile and enterprising disc well worth investigating.

I'll add a third vote. I had the same reaction to the Lehár (and I really can't stand Die lustige Witwe).

______________________________________________________________________________________________

A few weeks ago, I fell asleep listening to the Metropolitan Opera's Sirius/XM channel, I woke to a piece for tenor and violin that was interesting enough that I got out of bed to see what it was: Vaughn Williams' Along the Field. Checking Amazon, I only saw two recordings, an OOP  LP and this 1999 disc by John Mark Ainsley and the Nash Ensemble, all with accompaniment other than just the usual piano. Very nice.



"Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." ― Mark Twain

knight66

Thanks Wendell, I will look for it on Streaming. I don't know it.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

André

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on January 26, 2021, 06:03:24 AM


Another shout out for this excellent disc detailed above by Knight66. Never in a million years would I have guessed that the composer of the first work was the same Franz Lehár who wrote Die lustige Witwe but there it is, and what a compelling work it is.

The most well-known work here is the orchestral version of Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht but I enjoyed all the works represented here. A worthwhile and enterprising disc well worth investigating.

I have the Fried in another version (Capriccio) and a very good work it is. I don't know the Lehár or the Korngold. I might go for that Chandos disc since you recommend them. Thanks for the tip !

Tsaraslondon

Quote from: André on January 27, 2021, 11:43:21 AM
I have the Fried in another version (Capriccio) and a very good work it is. I don't know the Lehár or the Korngold. I might go for that Chandos disc since you recommend them. Thanks for the tip !

The Lehár came as a complete surprise to me. A really interesting disc.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

André



This is in more than one way an exceptional recital. There was no love lost between Strauss and the brotherhood of operatic tenors. He rarely composed important roles for them, an when he did they were often not very interesting or likeable characters. Moreover, most operas from Strauss' output are through-composed, with long scenes the rule. Therefore to build a whole recital for the straussian tenor must be a rather thankless task. It is a measure of the superb artistry of both Heppner and Davis that the disc is such a delightful experience. The tenor is in refulgent voice, caught here in 1994, at the onset of his international career. Davis has provided many linking passages to avoid the 'bleeding chunk' effect. For example, the Emperor's Act II scene is prefaced by an orchestral excerpt from Act I. The seamlessness achieved suits both the soaring character of the music and the tenor's spectacularly powerful yet refined singing. In addition to the sung scenes there are 4 purely orchestral numbers that serve as interludes. Warmly recommended.

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: André on February 07, 2021, 12:17:26 PM


This is in more than one way an exceptional recital. There was no love lost between Strauss and the brotherhood of operatic tenors. He rarely composed important roles for them, an when he did they were often not very interesting or likeable characters. Moreover, most operas from Strauss' output are through-composed, with long scenes the rule. Therefore to build a whole recital for the straussian tenor must be a rather thankless task. It is a measure of the superb artistry of both Heppner and Davis that the disc is such a delightful experience. The tenor is in refulgent voice, caught here in 1994, at the onset of his international career. Davis has provided many linking passages to avoid the 'bleeding chunk' effect. For example, the Emperor's Act II scene is prefaced by an orchestral excerpt from Act I. The seamlessness achieved suits both the soaring character of the music and the tenor's spectacularly powerful yet refined singing. In addition to the sung scenes there are 4 purely orchestral numbers that serve as interludes. Warmly recommended.
Good to hear!  Thank you so much for your comments here.  :)
Pohjolas Daughter

Tsaraslondon



Now this is rather special. The young French/Danish soprano Elsa Dreisig follows up her excellent debut album of operatic excerpts with this beautifully compiled recital of songs for voice and piano, showing that she is equally at home in the more intimate surroundings of the recital room. The programme is an interesting one with the piano accompanied versions of Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder (plus his final ever song Malven) split up and inserted into different points of the recital. The songs weren't orginally planned as a cycle in any case, and this makes for some fascinating juxtapositions. The rest of the programme is made up of songs by Rachmaninov and Duparc and leads us on a most satisfying journey, "an inner journey across the seasons of the soul," as Dreisig writes in the accompanying notes.

   
QuoteThe North Star, our guide, is Strauss with thes Four Last Songs (or five if we count Malven, his final song), in conversation with Duparc and Rachmaninov. Starting at the dawn of Spring and of youth, we visit Summer and its passions then, by way of Autumn nights and the dreamlike world of spleep, we come to face to face with the unknown and with passing time. A journey of initiation, one that allows us to contemplate loss and death, thinking all the while of tomorrow: morgen.

Save for Rachmaninov's The Pied Piper the mood is generally dreamy and Dreisig and her accompanist, the superb Jonathan Ware, create spell bindng magic, drawing us in to their carefully crafted programme. Dreisig's voice is a lovely, lyric soprano with a pearly, opalescent radiance that suits all these songs perfectly, but she is much more than a lovely voice. What is unusual is her rare gift for communication, her innate musicality and the specificity of her response to all these songs.

The highlights for me are her languidly dreamy and erotic rendition of Duparc's Phidylé and Extase, Rachmaninov's At Night In My Garden, and all the Strauss items gorgeously sung, yet with due attention to the text. I do hope Dresig will soon get to record the orchestral version of his Vier letzte Lieder. Ware plays magnificently, probably the best version of the piano accompaniment I have ever heard, but I do miss Strauss's glorious orchestration. A total contrast is afforded  when she follows it with her superbly suggestive singing of Rachmaninov's The Pied Piper, which shows off admirably her brilliant gift for characterisation, but really there isn't a dud in the whole recitial

This is a wonderful disc and one of the best soprano song recitals I have heard in a very long time. Start the disc from the beginning and allow these artists to take you along on their journey. One listen quickly became two. Dreisig turns thirty this year. Let us hope that the pandemic has not stimmied a career that was just starting to get going. Warmly recommended.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on February 22, 2021, 02:43:53 AM


Now this is rather special. The young French/Danish soprano Elsa Dreisig follows up her excellent debut album of operatic excerpts with this beautifully compiled recital of songs for voice and piano, showing that she is equally at home in the more intimate surroundings of the recital room. The programme is an interesting one with the piano accompanied versions of Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder (plus his final ever song Malven) split up and inserted into different points of the recital. The songs weren't orginally planned as a cycle in any case, and this makes for some fascinating juxtapositions. The rest of the programme is made up of songs by Rachmaninov and Duparc and leads us on a most satisfying journey, "an inner journey across the seasons of the soul," as Dreisig writes in the accompanying notes.

   
Save for Rachmaninov's The Pied Piper the mood is generally dreamy and Dreisig and her accompanist, the superb Jonathan Ware, create spell bindng magic, drawing us in to their carefully crafted programme. Dreisig's voice is a lovely, lyric soprano with a pearly, opalescent radiance that suits all these songs perfectly, but she is much more than a lovely voice. What is unusual is her rare gift for communication, her innate musicality and the specificity of her response to all these songs.

The highlights for me are her languidly dreamy and erotic rendition of Duparc's Phidylé and Extase, Rachmaninov's At Night In My Garden, and all the Strauss items gorgeously sung, yet with due attention to the text. I do hope Dresig will soon get to record the orchestral version of his Vier letzte Lieder. Ware plays magnificently, probably the best version of the piano accompaniment I have ever heard, but I do miss Strauss's glorious orchestration. A total contrast is afforded  when she follows it with her superbly suggestive singing of Rachmaninov's The Pied Piper, which shows off admirably her brilliant gift for characterisation, but really there isn't a dud in the whole recitial

This is a wonderful disc and one of the best soprano song recitals I have heard in a very long time. Start the disc from the beginning and allow these artists to take you along on their journey. One listen quickly became two. Dreisig turns thirty this year. Let us hope that the pandemic has not stimmied a career that was just starting to get going. Warmly recommended.
An intriguing and tantalizing description!  :)  I'll have to see if I can find some youtube samples of her singing.  For what its worth, I hadn't realized that the Four Last Songs weren't meant to be a cycle.  Will have to revisit them as it's been quite some time since I last listened to them.

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Tsaraslondon

#597
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on February 22, 2021, 03:50:22 AM
An intriguing and tantalizing description!  :)  I'll have to see if I can find some youtube samples of her singing.  For what its worth, I hadn't realized that the Four Last Songs weren't meant to be a cycle.  Will have to revisit them as it's been quite some time since I last listened to them.

PD

They weren't published as a set until after Strauss's death by his friend Ernst Roth, who also gave them the title Vier letzte Lieder. I have several versions of the orchestral version, of which the Schwarzkopf/Szell is still my favourite. Jonathan Ware does a fantastic job in this piano version, but I do still rather hope Dreisig gets to record the orchestral version too.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on February 22, 2021, 05:44:30 AM
They weren't published as a set until after Strauss's death by his friend Ernst Roth, who also gave then the title Vier letzte Lieder. I have several versions of the orchestral version, of which the Schwarzkopf/Szell is still my favourite. Jonathan Ware does a fantastic job in this piano version, but I do still rather hope Dreisig gets to record the orchestral version too.
Thanks for the info.  :)  I have the Schwarzkopf one too along with a few other versions.

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Tsaraslondon



This disc is mostly taken from a recital given by Ricciarelli in Switzerland in 1979, with the final two items from a concert given the following year. The programme is a good one, starting with bel canto items and finishing with verismo, with early and middle period Verdi bridging the gap.

The voice is mostly in good shape, though it develops a slight beat on high when under pressure, more noticeable in the verismo items than it is in the gentler bel canto she chooses, and it is the items by Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi that make the greatest impression.

We start with Giulietta's Oh quante volte from I Capuleti e i Montecchi, a role that suited her like a glove and for which she receieved rave reviews when she sang it at Covent Garden in a revival of the production first mounted for Gruberova and Baltsa. I also heard her sing the aria at a recital at the Barbican Hall in 1987 in a programme very similar to the one we have here. This aria was undoubtedly the highlight of the night and she was forced to encore it at the end of the evening. She spins out the phrases quite deiciously and with superb musicality and, as she never has to force her voice, the result is mesmerisingly beautiful.

The Donizetti items are also beautifully moulded, the lines caressed, though one notes that she does not sing the more forceful cabaletta to the Anna Bolena aria, and I imagine it would have taxed her limits, though she did sing the role quite a lot, apparently with much success. The Lucrezia Borgia is also an elegiac piece and again she fills its phrases with signifcance, her phrasing unfailingly musical.

Of the two Verdi items the first from Il Corsaro suits her better and I rather wish that she had been cast in Gardelli's Philps recording of 1976. Norman, who sings Medora, isn't bad by any means, but Ricciarelli is more inside the music, more stylish. The following year she joined the Philips early Verdi stable, singing Lucrezia in I Due Foscari and Lida in La Battaglia de Legnano and she is superb in both.

The Forza aria suggests that the role may have been a bit too big for her and the voice does rather glare on the climactic Bb on Maledizion. The floated one on Invan la pace is better, but still sounds a mite insecure.

The verismo arias also have their attractions and are very well received by the audiences, possibly because they were better known, but again climactic high notes are apt to glare uncomfortably, particularly in the exposed climax to Wally's lovely Ebben. Ne andro lontana. None the less the aria is beautifully felt and delivered with a sighing loneliness that is most effective. She also differentiates nicely between Tosca's utter desperation and Butterfly's single minded conviction that Pinkerton will return.

All in all, then a rewarding programme. Ricciarelli is a singer I have come to admire more with the passing years. More vocally fallible than such  contemporaries as Freni or Caballé, less individual in her response to the text than Scotto, her singing is unfailingly musical and I derived a lot of pleasure from this recital.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas