Favorite vocal recitals on CD or DVD

[Tsaraslondon]

A bit of a hotch potch, obviously aimed at the popular market, with not a word about the provenance of the various recordings. Nonetheless there is some wonderful singing here and, though the programme tends to concentrate on slow or contemplative pieces, we do get one or two tracks that demonstrate Ferrier's lighter side and her ability to sing with a smile in her tone. Throughout her warm, generous personality shines through.
 

[Tsaraslondon]

These are BBC broadcasts from 1952 and 1953 and include, among well-known songs like Vaughan Williams' Silent Noon, Bridge's Go not, happy day (something of a Ferrier speciality) and a couple of Britten Folk Song arrangements, lesser known works by Rubbra, Wordsworth (descendant of the poet) and Ferguson. Ferrier died soon after the second broadcast, but the music-making is life enhancing rather than valedictory. This is a lovely disc.

[Tsaraslondon]

Recorded in 1996 when Fleming's international career was really taking off, this is, I think, one of her most successful recital discs. I prefer the programming here to a series of short opera arias; thus, after the Countess's two arias from Le Nozze di Figaro, we get the whole of Tatiana's Letter Scene (in Russian) from Eugene Onegin with Larissa Dyadkova as Filipyevna, Rusalka's Song to the Moon (in Czech), the whole of the Willow Song and Ave Maria from Otello with Diadkova as Emilia, the whole scene which includes Britten's haunting Embroidery Aria from Peter Grimes with Jonathan Summers as Balstrode, and the Transformation Scene from Strauss's Daphne.

All this is music to which Fleming was eminently suited and, at this time in her career, she indulges in none of the sliding mannersims that crept into her singing in later years. A great recital, which I reviewed in greater detail on my blog.

[Tsaraslondon]

Recorded in 1998, this is another highly successful recital by Renée Fleming. I do have one or two minor quibbles and my impressions are much the same as they were when I revieved the album for my blog, but there is no doubting the quality of the voice or the singing.

[Tsaraslondon]

What a superb disc this is, with each singer superbly suited to their individual tasks.

Among so many renditions of Shéhérazade, Heather Harper's is often overlooked, but really it's one of the best I've heard and the orchestral contribution under Boulez is, as you would expect, wonderfully realised. Jill Gomez, likewise, sings one of the best Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé I've ever heard, and Jessye Norman gives us the Chansons madécasses. She sings them too on Plasson's two disc set of Ravel songs, but this one is, if anything, even more vividly characterised. José Van Dam also sings Don Quichotte à Ducinée on that set too, but with piano accompaniment. This one is with orchestra, which I think I was hearing for the first time, and I really liked it.

The biggest surprise came with the Cinq mélodies populaires Grecques, which I'm more used to hearing sung by a soprano. I'm particularly fond of versions by Victoria De Los Angeles and Mady Mesplé and I was at first taken aback by the sound of a bass-baritone in this music. However the texts do suggest a man and I ended up really enjoying these more robust versions.

[Tsaraslondon]

The extended excerpts from Der Rosenkavalier make one wonder why Decca never recorded the whole opera with the same cast and conductor as here. On this evidence I think I'd prefer it to the Solti, if not to Karajan I.

I've always found Fleming at her very best in Strauss and Mozart, and so it proves here. The voice is in prime condition and she is perfectly cast as the Marschallin, Arabella and the Countess Madeleine. The presence of Susan Graham and Barbara Bonney certainly adds lustre to the disc, as do the Vienna Phil and Christoph Eschenbach. This is undoubtedly one of Fleming's very best records.
 

[vandermolen]

This one:
Novak Eight Nocturnes for Voice and Orchestra is one of my favourites.
As is this one:

[Tsaraslondon]

This one:
Novak Eight Nocturnes for Voice and Orchestra is one of my favourites.
As is this one:

I love the Warlock, and I doubt very much there hs ever been a more bleakly atmospheric recording.

[Tsaraslondon]

This is a disc of two halves for me. The French items don't really work. Fleming's habit of introducing little expressive moues seems to me totally at odds with the French style, and ultimately I find it quite irritating. She is much more suited to the sensuous expressivity of the Marx songs and the Strauss songs are wonderful too, especially an ecstatic Cäcilie. Perhaps a little too much sophistication creeps into her singing of the Rachmaninov songs, but they too are wonderfully sung. Thibaudet's playing is fabulous throughout.

[vandermolen]

I love the Warlock, and I doubt very much there hs ever been a more bleakly atmospheric recording.

Totally agree.

[Tsaraslondon]

Now here's a surprise. Given that this recital was recorded in 2003, by which time Fleming had started induging in all those swoopy slides and interpretive moues that I find so irritating, you'd think a disc of Handel arias might be a bit of a disaster. Not a bit of it. I actually think this is one of her very best recitals. Whether it be the presence of a HIP band (the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) or that of HIP specialist, Harry Bicket, Fleming has shed all those annoying mannerisms and given us a stunning example of fine Handel singing. Technically the music holds no terrors for her at all, and the voice itself is absolutely gorgeous, evenly produced throughout its extensive range, rich down below and gloriously gleaming and free on high.

Most of the arias are well known, but Fleming easily survives comparison with singers more regularly associated with Handel. Her approach is also quite dramatic and she isn't afraid of using chest voice for dramatic effect in some of the recitatives. I thoroughly enjoyed this recital and recommend it wholeheartedly.

[Tsaraslondon]

For my money this is not quite the total success of Fleming's Handel recital that I was listening to before. The programme, which pays homage to divas of yesteryear is certainly interesting and varied, taking in operas, some of them quite rare, by Cilea, Smetana, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Korngold, Gounod, Strauss, Rimsky-Korsakov, Verdi, Massenet and Janáček. She is most at home and really in her element in the Strauss and Korngold sections. The Russian and Czech items are also excellent and so too is the aria from Massenet's rarely heard Cléopâtre. I am slightly less convinced by the aria from Gounod's Mireille, but she certainly executes its coloratura demands with ease. I just detected a slight hardness in her upper register here, something I have never heard before.

For me the least successful items were the Italian ones, which also, perhaps not coincidentally, are also the most well known. Tosca's Vissi d'arte is drawn out interminably and loses all sense of pathos and I also think she made some questionable interpretive choices in Leonora's Tacea la notte and Di tale amor from Il Trovatore.

I'd call this recital aout 75% worth hearing then.

[Tsaraslondon]

Disc one, which is made up, mostly, of Gedda's earliest recordings, hence we have excerpts from his splendid Dimitri on the 1952 Dobrowen recording of Boris Godunov (with Eugenia Zareska) and the whole of his first recital for EMI, recorded in 1953. A further excerpt from Boris Godunov from a 1969 recital is included, along with an aria from Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night which shows the voice virtually unchanged in seventeen years, though the style is possibly a little more assertive.

The 1953 recital is a real treasure-trove of delights, opening with a version of Lensky's Act II aria, which is so beautiful that it bears comparison with Sobinov. He sings it as an inner monologue, the pianissimo reprise spun out in mastery fashion. Also wonderful are his honeyed performance of Du pauvre seul ami fidèle from Auber's La Muette de Portici and the glorious mezza voce legato of Nadir's Je crois entendre encore. The other French items are just as desirable. He is perhaps a little too diffident in Cielo e mar from Ponchielli's La Gioconda and one really wants a more robust voice here, On the other hand, I rather liked his sad, restrained performance of Federico's Lament from Cilea's L'Arlesiana. Some may prefer a more overtly passionate rendering in the manner of Corelli, but personally I find Gedda's vocal restraint quite refreshing and not in the least bit unemotional. This first disc ends with a joyfully ebullient version of Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire from Adam's Le postillon de Lonjumeau, sung in Swedish and recorded live in 1952.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Disc one, which is made up, mostly, of the Gedda's earliest recordings, hence we have excerpts from his splendid Dimitri on the 1952 Dobrowen recording of Boris Godunov (with Eugenia Zareska) and the whole of his first recital for EMI, recorded in 1953. A further excerpt from Boris Godunov from a 1969 recital is included, along with an aria from Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night which shows the voice virtually unchanged in seventeen years, though the style is possibly a little more assertive.

The 1953 recital is a real treasure-trove of delights, opening with a version of Lensky's Act II aria, which is so beautiful that it bears comparison with Sobinov. He sings it as an inner monologue, the pianissimo reprise spun out in mastery fashion. Also wonderful are his honeyed performance of Du pauvre seul ami fidèle from Auber's La Muette de Portici and the glorious mezza voce legato of Nadir's Je crois entendre encore. The other French items are just as desirable. He is perhaps a little too diffident in Cielo e mar from Ponchielli's La Gioconda and one really wants a more robust voice here, On the other hand, I rather liked his sad, restrained performance of Federico's Lament from Cilea's L'Arlesiana. Some may prefer a more overtly passionate rendering in the manner of Corelli, but personally I find Gedda's vocal restraint quite refreshing and not in the least bit unemotional. This first disc ends with a joyfully ebullient version of Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire from Adam's Le postillon de Lonjumeau, sung in Swedish and recorded live in 1952.

Love his voice/recordings! 

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

Disc 2 is also wide ranging, starting with music by Rousseau, Gluck (Gedda coping superbly with the high tessitura of Gluck's tenor version of Orphée et Eurydice) and Mozart, before moving on to the German Romantic repertoire. Taken from a 1957 recital disc, Don Ottavio's arias and Tamino's Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön are much better than on the complete Klemperer recordings, with a lovely smile in the tone for Tamino's aria. Belmonte's Ich baue ganz, recorded in 1967 with the Bath Festival Orchestra under Sir Yehudi Menuhin and sung in impeccable English, is brilliantly done. Exciting performances of Huon's arias from Oberon lead us into the German Romantics. Gedda only once sang Lohengrin on stage, but decided that Wagner wasn't for him. His lyrical approach to In fernem Land and Mein lieber Schwann is very beautfiful nonetheless.

Best of all on this second disc is a magical performance of Magische Töne, sung in a ravishing mezza voce of ineffable sweetness, the long legato line beautifully and firmly held. This is great singing, no doubt about it.

[Tsaraslondon]

Disc 3 is of French and Italian arias and duets. It starts with a superb performance of La gloire était ma seule idole from Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini, a role Gedda made very much his own and of course later recorded complete under Sir Colin Davis. Next comes a dramatic version of Un autre est son époux from Werther, the joyful Aubade from Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys, and the Raoul/Marguerite duet from Les Huguenots (with Mady Mesplé). Arnold's Asil hérèditaire from Rossini's Guillaume Tell, with its fabulously ringing top notes, leads us into the Italian bel canto items.

Mirella Freni joins him for duets from La Sonnambula, Lucia di Lammermoor and Don Pasquale whilst alone he sings Edgardo's Tombe degli avi miei and Ernesto's Cercherò lontana terra. The Bellini had me wishing he had been engaged for Callas's studio recording of La Sonnambula rather than the ineffectual Monti. After all he had already sung Narciso in her recording of Il Turco in Italia.

Freni, who had yet to venture into more dramatic repertoire, blends well with Gedda in the duets, but back in 1966 she had yet to learn how to project personality in a recording. Her singing is lovely but a little anonymous. Both the solo items could be considered models of bel canto style but are also sung with appreciation of the dramatic situation, the recitatives vividly delivered.

To finish we have a clutch of encores, including Lara's Granada and the lovely Berceuse from Godard's Jocelyn, which give us a glimpse of Gedda's prowess in lighter fare and remind us of that Gedda also recorded a lot of operetta.

[Tsaraslondon]

This bargain two disc compilation from the EMI vaults is a great distillation of the art of Gedda. taking in opera, operetta and song.
 

[Tsaraslondon]

A wonderful live recital from Nicolai Gedda, taking in Handel, Schubert, Strauss, Duparc and a group of Russian songs by Rachmaninov, Miaskovsky and Khacjaturian. A very appreciative audience is given three encores.

[Tsaraslondon]

Whatever one thinks of Angela Gheorghiu, and whatever she did before or after this recital, this is a fabulous disc. It was recorded over two sessions in 1998 and 1999, four years after her triumph as Violetta at Covent Garden in 1994. Here she gives us arias from I Vespri Siciliani, Don Carlo, Rigoletto, Aida, Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera, Simon Boccanegra, La Forza del Destino and Otello and only Gilda's Caro nome would seem less than a perfect fit.

On this showing, you would imagine that she would go on to become one of the great Verdi sopranos of her generation, but, as far as I can tell, she sang very few of these roles on stage. There are times I can hear that she has absorbed the lessons of Callas, though the voice itself is very different. Just occasionally it feels as if she is ghosting the phrasing of her predecessor, and it is well known that she is a great admirer of La Divina. Whether this is true or not, she is fully able to enter the sound world of each 'heroine' and her voice is in prime condition, rich and darkly plangent throughout its range.

She has the inestimable suppory of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi under Riccardo Challiy, reminding me that the best operatic recitals usually have a strong hand at the helm. A great disc.
 

[Tsaraslondon]

It was Decca who first signed Gheorgiu up after her sensational debut as Violetta at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and here they pay tribute to her with a well filled disc of excerpts from the few recordings she made for the label before she left them.

There are two excerpts from that 1994 Covent Garden La Traviata, a reflective Ah, fors è lui, technically assured Sempre libera and an affecting Addio del passato. Solti's conducting is, as always in Verdi, a bit rigid but it is easy to understand why Gheorghiu had such a success in the role.

Next chronologically are five arias from her first recital disc made in 1995; Wally's Ebben? Ne andro lontana, Marguerite's Jewel Song from Faust, Il est doux, il est bon from Massenet's Hérodiade and Vive amour qui rêve from his Chérubin. The Wally piece is beautifully sung, though she doesn't quite capture its aching loneliness and the Jewel Song sparkles lightly as it should. The Aubade from Chérubin is also lovely, and I am reminded that I first saw her in the secondary role of Nina in the production of the opera which the Royal Opera, Covent Garden mounted with Susan Graham in the title role. She made quite an impression too. Probably the best of all these selections is the aria from Hérodiade, which is both gorgeous and gorgeously sung.

From the 1996 Lyon production of L'Elisir d'Amore we have Adina and Nemorino's Chiedi all'aura lusinghietta, in which I find her, as I did in the theatre, just a mite too sophisticated.

There are so many good recordings of La Boheme that Chailly's 1999 recording with Gheorghiu and Alagna is quite often forgotten, which is a pity as it's actually very good indeed. From this set we have Gheorghiu's touchingly sincere Si, mi chiamano Mimi through to the end of the act, and also her moving rendition of Donde lieta usci.

The items taken from her Verdi recital with Chailly all impress. She might not quite match the breezy insouciance of Callas or Sutherland in Elena's Merce, dilette amiche, but she seems almost perfectly cast as Amelia in her Come in quet'ora bruna. Both Leonoras are beautifully sung too, and there is a dark loveliness to her tone, which reminds me, surprisingly perhaps, of Leontyne Price.

The disc finishes, fittingly enough, with the fifth take from her first album, a piece from Romanian composer George Grigoriu's Muzika, slight in musical value, but charmingly delivered.