Favorite vocal recitals on CD or DVD

[Tsaraslondon]

This is an oddly enjoyable disc, odd because it is such a hotch potch of operatic arias, songs and popular fare. It was released in conjunction with a TV documentary My Barcelona, made in 1991 after Carreras's recovery from leukemia, which was a celbration of the man and the city of his birth. I've always had a soft spot for Carreras, and I'm happy to join in the celebrations.

[KevinP]

Love Calleja, though I've not heard that one.

He reminds me in a way of Pavarotti--not the voice or the technique but more of an attitude that comes through the singing.

[Tsaraslondon]

Love Calleja, though I've not heard that one.

He reminds me in a way of Pavarotti--not the voice or the technique but more of an attitude that comes through the singing.

I like him too and I think he improved quite a lot. Not much personality or character comes through on this early disc. I like his quick flicker vibrato, and all the singing is tasteful and musical,but there was not much I found compelling and so it went onto the jettison pile

[Tsaraslondon]

I have quite a few of Carreras's complete opera recordings, a recital of Spanish songs with piano and a couple of compilatons, of which this is one, and I'm finding I like him rather a lot. He might just be my favrourite of the three tenors.

No doubt he asked more of his essentially lyric tenor than it could comfortably deliver and the best item on this set is arguably the earliest, Macduff's aria from the Muti Macbeth, which captures well the beauty of his youthful voice. The lion's share of this set is, however, given over to a 1985 recital of French arias, when the voice has perecptibly hardened and the vibrato loosened. Even so, most of these later arias also have their attractions and he does some lovely quiet singing, such as the pianissimo close to Roméo's Ah, lève-toi, soleil. In general, I find him much less generic in his response to music and text than Domingo and more dramatically involved than Pavarotti.

Variety is provided by including scenes and duets from complete EMI recordings of Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Turandot, Macbeth, La Périchole, Don Carlo and Aida. There are quite a few rarely heard arias from the French Aria recital disc too.
 

[Tsaraslondon]

This is really excellent recital from a perhaps forgotten corner of Carreras's repertoire. I really like this whole programme and would find it hard to pick out particular successes, but special mention to a favourite song of mine Damunt de tu només los flors. I think this might just be my favourite version too, and I'm not forgetting De Los Angeles. Throughout the recital Carreras sings with great sensitivity and musicality and Katz is a superb accompanist.

Highly recommended.

[Tsaraslondon]

If I remember correctly, this was Cotrubas's one and only recital disc, recorded in 1976, though, for this reissue, Sony have added excerpts from her complete recordings of Louise and L'Elisir d'Amore. The only slight curiosity is the inclusion of Leonora's Pace, pace, mio Dio from La Forza del Destino, a role Cotrubas would never have attempted on stage. She sings it rather well actually, but it's not really the right voice for the role. The rest is all of repertoire she was singing at the time, or could have, and nicely demonstrates her gifts for comedy, charm and plaintive sensitivity. She presents us with a nicely contrasted gallery of characters, her singing as idiomatic in Mozart as it is in Puccini and Verdi. A lovely disc.

[Tsaraslondon]

This one is making for the jettison pile, I'm afraid. Crespin's singing is always tasteful and musical, but, for me, there is too much French sang froid to the singing, both in Verdi and Wagner and Prêtre's conducting is a hindrance rather than a help. Maybe it was my mood, but my impressions were even less favourable on this occasion than when I last revieved it for my blog. Here's the link, if you're interested. Régine Crespin – Opera Arias

[Tsaraslondon]

I don't know if this is still the case, but for many years Crespin's versions of the Ravel and the Berlioz were considered untouchable and top recommendations for both works. I do really like the Ravel, though I feel that the orchestral part at least has been bettered in versions by Baker with Barbirolli, Hendricks with Gardener and Harper with Boulez, all of which I know quite well. Still, Crespin makes a wonderful raconteur in Asie and is suitably languid in the delicious ambiguity of L'indifférent. The Debussy and Poulenc songs with piano are likewise superb, but I'm not so keen on her Nuits d'été. It's all a bit too civilsed, a bit lacking in genuine passion or despair. I recently reviewed ten different versions for my blog, and I much preferred versions by Baker, Steber, Hunt Lieberson, De Los Angeles, Berganza and Baltsa. Berlioz's Les Nuits d'Eté – a comparative review of ten recordings

[Tsaraslondon]

I know countertenors don't get much love on this site, and, until I heard Daniels (the first time, it was live) I had never much liked them myself. But Daniels greatly impressed me. By any yardstick, this is surely a voice of great beauty. HIs virtuosity in fast moving music is not in doubt (please note, no aspirates), but what impressed me most was his musicality and his emotional connection with Handel's more heartfelt pieces.

I think this was his first recital disc, and there are a few occasions when his dips into his rather baritonal chest voice are faintly reminiscent of Dame Hilda Bracket (look up Hinge and Bracket if you don't know who she was), but this is wonderful singing.
 

[Tsaraslondon]

In his second solo recital, Daniels adds early Mozart and Gluck to the mix. By this time, he has slightly tempered the baritonal chest register and, though low notes are still firm and rich, they are much better integrated into the rest of the voice. Listening to such wonderful music making, I still find it hard to understand objections to the countertenor voice. There is absolutely nothing hooty about his tone, his legato line and breath control is excellent and his virtuosity quite exceptional. He is just a very fine singer. The range he sings in shouldn't make any difference to appreciating his fine qualities.

[Tsaraslondon]

This is a really lovely recital. I have nothing to add to my own review of this for my blog. David Daniels – Serenade

Very highly recommended.

[Tsaraslondon]

Daniels certainly liked to push the boundaries of what the countertenor voice can do and this recital is even more varied than his previous one, Serenade, with songs from Broadway musicals rubbing shoulders with early Renaissance Spanish songs and more usual fare by Dowland and Purcell.

I really liked the combination of countenor voice and guitar, and the majority of the music here is quiet and contemplative, which suits Daniels very well. I'm not sure everything works. I'd probably rather hear the title song, which is from the musical, Flora, the Red Menace, sung by Liza Minnelli or Streisand, but most of the other popular songs are lovely, even Bernstein's So pretty, which was in fact first performed by Streisand at the Broadway for Peace concert in 1968. Shenandoah I found especially moving, with Daniels capturing to perfection its yearning mood.

An equivocal success, but a disc I enjoy and one that has special memories for me, as I heard Daniels sing much of this matierial (with piano this time) at the Barbican Hall in London round about the time it was issued.
 

[Tsaraslondon]

Daniels here further expands the repertoire of the countertenor with a sensitive and beautifully shaped performance of Berlioz's Les nuits d'été. Ideally the songs do require a greater range of tone colour, and this doesn't challenge versions by such as Baker, Steber or Hunt Lieberson, but it is very enjoyable and the orchestral contribution under John Nelson is excellent, as it is throughout the disc, which includes purely orchestral items, such as the Pantomime from Les Troyens, Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte and Fauré's Elégie for cello and orchestra, with Guillaume Paoletti on the cello.

The other vocal items are Ravel's 5 mélodies populaires grecques and three orchestrated Fauré songs. The Ravel are wonderfully sung, but I do prefer them sung by a soprano, and I found it hard to get the voices of De Los Angeles and Mady Mesplé out of my head. The Fauré songs are lovely in every way. A rewarding disc.

[Tsaraslondon]

For this recital of Handel Orotorio arias, Daniels is accompanied by a small orchestra playing on modern instruments, the Ensemble Orchestre de Paris, conducted by John Nelson. They play with wonderful precision and I didn't miss the more acerbic sounds of a HIP band.

There are plenty of arias here that showcase Daniels' virtuosity in fast moving music, but, as so often with him, it is the slower, more heartfelt arias that make the greatest impression, especially O lord whose mercies numberless from Saul and a really moving performance of that most well-known alto aria from Messiah, He was despised, which brings this excellent disc to a close.

[Tsaraslondon]

I'm not sure a selection of Bach arias taken out of context ever really works as a recital and, when I heard Daniels sing some of this material in concert with the same orchestra and conductor as here, we also heard quite a bit of purely instrumental music. Still, the voice here is very beautiful and Daniels gives us some wonderfully heartfelt renderings of some classic arias.

[Tsaraslondon]

This is a reissue of a 1955 operatic recital, plus some early 78s and Adieu notre petite table from the Monteux Manon. We hear her here in some roles she would never sing on stage (Margherita, Elvira, Wally and Santuzza, though she would go on to record the whole role) as well as some (Manon, Marguerite and Mimi) with which she became particularly associated. She was also a wonderful Desdemona and I always regret that she didn't sing the role on the Serafin recording with Vickers and Gobbi. The performance of the Willow Song and Ave Maria is one of the highlights of the disc.

This is a lovely collection, which exploits her capacity for sweetness, charm and plaintiveness, with the voice at its warmest.

[Tsaraslondon]

Something of an exercise in nostalgia, I've known this disc, or at least the original LP, called "A World of Song", which takes up the lion's share, since I was a teenager. EMI here add the Montsalvatge and Rodrigo items from another LP entitled "Cantos de España". The whole is a wonderfully entertaining recital and I found myself smilig

The orchestrations on "The World of Song" are uncredited, but tastefully done. Particular favourites of mine are Hahn's gorgeous L'enamourée, the sparkling Les filles de Cadiz by Délibes and Yradier's La paloma, which is deliciously done.

De Los Angeles was particularly associated with the Montsalvatge and Rodrigo songs and they too are absolutely delightful.

Original sleeves below.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

As mentioned elsewhere, am enjoying revisiting this lovely CD of Sara Mingardo with the Concerto Italiano and Rinaldo Alessandrini.



PD

[Tsaraslondon]

Not quite a straightforward reissue of the LP depicted on the cover, when it was just called Cantos de España. It also includes items from another album enitled Songs of Catalonia. The Granados aria The Maiden and the NIghtingale from his opera Goyescas, which gives this reissue its title, isn't on either. Not that any of that should matter, and it doesn't. This is a delightful collection of Spanish song with orchestra, with Victoria De Los Angeles on home ground. I'm not sure anyone sings this stuff with quite her infectious spirit. Most others seem penny plain, by comparison. Such an enjoyable disc.

[Tsaraslondon]

This four disc set concentrates on song.

Disc 1 covers French song with orchestra (though not her wonderful recording of Les Nuits d'Eté, which was recorded for RCA). We start with one of the most recommendable of all versions of Ravel's Shéhérazade, in which she is a vivid narrator, taking an almost childlike pleasure in the sights she describes. In the Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques she is the epitome of a young village girl, whilst the Deux Mélodies hébraïques bring out a more seductive quality in her voice. Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer exposes the occasional fragility in the voice, but is still a beautiful performance.

She is acompanied by the Paris Conservatoire orchestra under Georges Prêtre for the Ravel, Debussy and Duparc, and by the Lamoureux Orchestra under Jean-PIerre Jacquillat for the Chausson, which was originally on the first side of her first recording of Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne.