Favorite vocal recitals on CD or DVD

[Tsaraslondon]

It seems incredible now that this disc was released over 30 years ago, but there it is, clearly written in the insert, "Recorded August 1988 at Manhattan Center Studios, New york", though, IIRC, it had a different cover on its first release.

Barber's wonderfully nostalgic Knoxville, Summer of 1915, a setting of James Agee's prose-poem has now, it would seem, become quite popular. It was first recorded by its dedicatee, Eleanor Steber in 1950, a couple of years after its premiere, but had to wait another eighteen years before being recorded again, though very successfully by Leontyne Price. It had to wait a further twenty years for this version by Dawn Upshaw, but its success has led to a spate of others by the likes of Barbara Hendricks, Sylvia McNair, Roberta Alexander, Kathleen Battle, Jill Gomez, Karina Gauvin and, most recently, Renee Fleming.

Steber was a wonderful singer, and her version is very fine, but for me it misses the essential childlike quality of the piece and she can sound a bit mature, even a trifle prim. Price, on the other hand, is surprisingly successful at scaling down her rich velvety voice to the needs of the writing, and her version is deservedly well known. Dawn Upshaw, on the other hand, has by nature what Price had to strive for. She has exactly the light voice and direct manner the piece needs and there is no need for her to characterise; she simply has to be herself, her diction natural and unforced. David Zinman's tempi are also just right, and it is no surprise to find that this version has been a top recommendation since it was first issued.

The rest of the programme is also attractive, its centrepiece being John Harbison's Mirabai Songs, originally written for piano, but here given in his chamber orchestra version. The songs are settings of 16th century devotional Indian poems by Mirabai, who, after her husband died, devoted her life to the God Krishna. The texts are alternatively erotic, ecstatic and devotional, the orchestrations colourful, the vocal range wide and Upshaw is fully up to their demands.

The interesting but quite short programme is rounded off with a couple of operatic pieces, a short extract from Menotti's radio opera The Old Maid and the Thief, and Anne Trulove's No word from Tom from Sravinsky's The Rake's Progress, and Upshaw would seem perfectly cast in both.

Like most of Upshaw's records the material chosen is refreshingly different and well worth investigating.
 

[Pohjolas Daughter]

It seems incredible now that this disc was released over 30 years ago, but there it is, clearly written in the insert, "Recorded August 1988 at Manhattan Center Studios, New york", though, IIRC, it had a different cover on its first release.

Barber's wonderfully nostalgic Knoxville, Summer of 1915, a setting of James Agee's prose-poem has now, it would seem, become quite popular. It was first recorded by its dedicatee, Eleanor Steber in 1950, a couple of years after its premiere, but had to wait another eighteen years before being recorded again, though very successfully by Leontyne Price. It had to wait a further twenty years for this version by Dawn Upshaw, but its success has led to a spate of others by the likes of Barbara Hendricks, Sylvia McNair, Roberta Alexander, Kathleen Battle, Jill Gomez, Karina Gauvin and, most recently, Renee Fleming.

Steber was a wonderful singer, and her version is very fine, but for me it misses the essential childlike quality of the piece and she can sound a bit mature, even a trifle prim. Price, on the other hand, is surprisingly successful at scaling down her rich velvety voice to the needs of the writing, and her version is deservedly well known. Dawn Upshaw, on the other hand, has by nature what Price had to strive for. She has exactly the light voice and direct manner the piece needs and there is no need for her to characterise; she simply has to be herself, her diction natural and unforced. David Zinman's tempi are also just right, and it is no surprise to find that this version has been a top recommendation since it was first issued.

The rest of the programme is also attractive, its centrepiece being John Harbison's Mirabai Songs, originally written for piano, but here given in his chamber orchestra version. The songs are settings of 16th century devotional Indian poems by Mirabai, who, after her husband died, devoted her life to the God Krishna. The texts are alternatively erotic, ecstatic and devotional, the orchestrations colourful, the vocal range wide and Upshaw is fully up to their demands.

The interesting but quite short programme is rounded off with a couple of operatic pieces, a short extract from Menotti's radio opera The Old Maid and the Thief, and Anne Trulove's No word from Tom from Sravinsky's The Rake's Progress, and Upshaw would seem perfectly cast in both.

Like most of Upshaw's records the material chosen is refreshingly different and well worth investigating.
 

Yes, it had this cover (which I have).  Love her voice:  so crystal-clear...gorgeous.  I have several recordings of hers which I cherish [like "Angels Hide Their Faces"].



PD

[Tsaraslondon]

Another enterprising disc from Dawn Upshaw, who seems to have disappeared from the scene now. The centrepiece is Earl Kim's Where grief slumbers written in 1982 for voice, harp and string orchestra, but here presented in a 1990 arrangement for voice, double string quartet and harp, and Upshaw is an ideal interpreter. She is equally at home in the rest of the programme; Falla's Psyché, Ravel's Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, Stravinsky's Two poems of Konstantin Bel'mont and Three Japanese Lyrics and Delage's Quatre poèmes hindous, though here I slightly prefer the warmer tones of Dame Janet Baker, who is much more languidly erotic in the worldess vocalise of Lahore. Nevertheless a thoroughly absorbing disc.

As with so many of these Nonsuch discs, documentation is slight, and, though we do get lyrics and translations, the layout is confusing and a little more information about the provenance of these songs, especially the less famous Kim cycle, would have been much appreciated.

[ritter]

Thanks for this (still ongoing?) survey of Dawn Upshaw's CDs, Tsaraslondon!

What a wonderful and enterprising singer. Her recordings are all firm favourites of mine.

If you haven't done so, I would urge you to listen to her recording of Debussy's La Damoiselle élue under Salonen on Sony. The only recording IMHO that rivals the classic one by Bidú Sayão under Ormandy.

[Tsaraslondon]

This collection of Broadway songs by Bernstein, Blitztein, Sondheim and Weil is an absolute delight from beginning to end.

Aside from Bernstein's I feel pretty and, to a lesser extent, his Glitter and be gay none of the items here could be considered well-known and the choice of this particular quartet of composers, all of whom are connected in some way, is felicitous. Furthermore Upshaw's clear, bright soprano and natural, unforced diction make her the ideal interpreter.

It is rare indeed for classical singers to embrace the idiom of Broadway without sounding self-conscious, but if you didn't know better, (and I mean this in a positive way) you would never know that Upshaw was also an operatic artist of the first order. Many opera singers have tackled Bernstein's Glitter and be gay, but none have ever, to my mind, challenged the original performer Barbara Cook, who not only manages to get round the notes, but really puts across the humour in the lyrics; none, that is, except Dawn Upshaw, who actually manages the coloratura with greater ease and beauty, but also points the lyrics with such ironic brilliance.

It is just one of the highlights in an album of sheer delights and I'd be hard pressed to find a favourite but there were many wonderful discoveries, among them Sondheim's The girls of summer (1956) and the opening track, sung to just piano, Blitztein's I wish it so from Juno (1959).

Only Glitter and be gay uses the original orchestration, but all the other arrangements are well done and the orchestra play excellently under Eric Stern, who himself was responsible for some of the orchestrations and provides the solo piano accompaniment on I wish it so.

I can't recommend this disc too highly.

[Tsaraslondon]

The last of my Dawn Upshaw recitals is not quite the unequivocal success of its predecessor of Broadway songs, but is still worth hearing.

The disc takes its title, The World So Wide, from the first item in the recital, Laurie's Song from Aaron Copland's The Tender Land. It makes a lovely opener and Upshaw is perfectly cast as the young girl who yearns to escape and see the world.

At about 45 minutes, the disc is quite short measure, however, and not everything is as good as the first track. The piece from Tanía León's Scourge of Hyacinths is tediously declamatory and afforded me the least enjoyment on the disc. I'd also suggest that Upshaw's is not the right voice for Barber's Cleopatra, a role that was written for the much more opulent voice of Leontyne Price. Upshaw's lighter, brighter sounds do not conjure up the woman of whom Enobarbus says,

   

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
    Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
    The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
    Where most she satisfies, for vilest things
    Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
    Bless her when she is riggish.

I enjoyed the excerpt from John Adams Nixon in China rather more than the Gramophone reviewer, who found it "tediously protracted", and I suppose you either like Adams's style or you don't. Whatever your feelings, Upshaw delivers Pat Nixon's This is prophetic brilliantly. She is also superb in the more Broadway influenced What a movie from Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, but surprisingly I thought her singing of Lonely house (an aria sung by the male character of Sam Kaplan in Street Scene) just a little too overtly operatic. Teresa Stratas manages it better on her second disc of Weill songs and arias.

After the Copland and Benstein, the most successful item on the disc is Willow Song from Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe, which responds well to her charming, uncomplicated manner. So too, one would think, does the final item, Ain't it a pretty night from Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, but here I have to admit I prefer the rather more sensuous tones of Renée Fleming, who sings it on her disc of American opera arias entitled I Want Magic. Fleming's richer voice suggests a far more highly charged eroticism behind the apparent simplicity of the music.

A mixed bag, then, and not quite so successful as her disc of Broadway songs entitled I Wish It So, but worth a listen for the unusual repertoire and for some excellent performances.

[Tsaraslondon]

An early (1967) recital, datring from before she ventured into soprano territory. In arias by Gluck, Donizetti, Berlioz, Massenet, Gounod, Massenet, Saint-Saêns and Verdi, Verrett demonstrates her superb musicianship and dramatic commitment.

Shirley Verrett In Opera
 

[Tsaraslondon]

This recital disc was recorded at the same time as his first recording of Otello under Tullio Serafin, when his only Wagnerian role was Siegmund, and you were more likely to hear him as Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera, Radames, Canio or Don Carlo. Later of course he want on to tackle Tristan and Parsifal, though he never sang Siegfried, and he dropped out of scheduled performances of Tannhäuser at Covent Garden, due to his religious scruples, saying he could not empathise with the character and that, in any case, the opera was blasphemous in character.

First impressions when listening to this disc are of the sheer size of the voice, and the power – a power that can be reined back to a merest pianissimo, then unleashed at will, like an organist pulling out all the stops. The other is intensity. Whether singing gently or loudly, there is a concentration and intensity that makes each short aria into a mini monodrama, and an ability to focus on the meaning of each word and note. Nothing is taken for granted, nothing thrown away.

From a purely vocal point of view, it was still a very beautiful instrument back in 1961, and an aria like Cielo e mar is sung not only with golden tone, but with a true sense of wonder, and a way of pulling in and out of full voice that never destroys the long legato line.

Where many Italian tenors will add extraneous sobs and aspirates to indicate emotion, particularly in an aria like Federico's Lament from L'Arlesiana, Vickers achieves an even deeper vein of emotion by never straying from the written notes, but simply (as if it was simple) intensifying his sound. In this he ressembles Callas, whom he revered so much having been Giasone to her Medea on many occasions.

One of the stand out tracks on this recital for me is Chénier's Un di all'azzurro spazio delivered with mounting passion, but also somehow giving us a sense of the intellectual in the man. Canio suffers like no other, and yet he doesn't have to break down in sobs at the end to make us feel it. His Otello developed into one of the towering creations of his, or any other, age, but even here, with the arias taken out of context, he conveys all the man's pain and suffering.

Listening to this recital today at a distance of some years has been a peculiarly emotional experience. Jon Vickers was, and remains, unique, and we are unlikely to hear his ilk again.

Jon Vickers - Italian Opera Arias

 

[Tsaraslondon]

Von Stade's first recital disc is very enjoyable with the beauty of the voice well caught. hough American born, Von Stade spent a good deal of her youth in Europe, and later spent some years in France, and so is completely at home in the French language. Indeed French opera and song became a staple of her repertoire though, at this early stage of her career, she doesn't always use the words to her advantage, and some of the arias could be more clearly characterised.

A fuller review on my website Frederica Von Stade – French Opera Arias
 

[Tsaraslondon]

This is a wonderful disc and if it had been in my collection when I did my mini survey of recordings of the Berlioz (Berlioz's Les Nuits d'Eté – a comparative review of ten recordings) it would no doubt have jostled for top position with my top three of Baker/Barbirolli, Hunt Lieberson/McGegan and Steber/Mitropoulos. My personal favourite would still be the Baker and, like Baker, I would suggest that Von Stade has the perfect voice for this group of songs. Though Berlioz had originally wanted the songs to be sung by different voices, a single voice does bring a certain homogeneity to the cycle, even if few can encompass its demands. Von Stade's mezzo, with its soprano-ish top and firm lower register (down to a beautifully sounded low F# in Sur les lagunes) seems to me to be the perfect instrument for it. Furthermore she captures the gaiety of the outher songs as easily as she does the deeper emotions of the middle songs. There is a real sense of yearning in Absence, profound despair in Sur les lagunes and a resigned sadness in Au cimetière. Le spectre de la rose is very beautiful, rising to a gorgeous climax before sinking back gently to its bittersweet ending.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra play beautifully for Ozawa, much better than, say, the Suisse- Romande for Crespin and Ansermet or the Philharmonia Baroque for Hunt Lieberson and McGegan and, all in all, this is for me one of the very best versions in the catalogue.

The coupling of Debussy's La damoiselle élue is equally fine, though I find the timbre of Susanne Mentzer's Récitant a little too similar to Von Stade's. Still, Von Stade captures a sort of visionary faith in her singing which is most attractive. Orchestra and chorus are likewise superb and, though the work is not the best of Debussy, it almost seems so in a performance as fine as this one.

A lovely disc.

[Tsaraslondon]

These recordings all date from the 1940s when Welitsch's voice was at its silvery best, and the final scene from Salome, conducted by Lovro von Matacic dates from 1944, when Strauss himself chose her to sing the role at the Vienna Opera in a production, which was to celebrate his eightieth birthday. They worked on the piece for six weeks, with Strauss himself attending the rehearsals, so, from that point of view at least, we should consider her performance here as authentic. Indeed this must be exactly the voice Strauss had had in mind. It remains silvery, youthful and light, and yet cuts through the heavy orchestral textures with no apparent effort. Not only that, but her word painting and identification with the role is so vivid that at the end of the scene one literally feels Herod's distaste when he commands his soldiers to kill her. This scene alone is indispensable, whether one has one of the complete live recordings or not.

A fuller review on my blog Ljuba Welitshc - Salome Closing Scene and Other Arias

[Pohjolas Daughter]

These recordings all date from the 1940s when Welitsch's voice was at its silvery best, and the final scene from Salome, conducted by Lovro von Matacic dates from 1944, when Strauss himself chose her to sing the role at the Vienna Opera in a production, which was to celebrate his eightieth birthday. They worked on the piece for six weeks, with Strauss himself attending the rehearsals, so, from that point of view at least, we should consider her performance here as authentic. Indeed this must be exactly the voice Strauss had had in mind. It remains silvery, youthful and light, and yet cuts through the heavy orchestral textures with no apparent effort. Not only that, but her word painting and identification with the role is so vivid that at the end of the scene one literally feels Herod's distaste when he commands his soldiers to kill her. This scene alone is indispensable, whether one has one of the complete live recordings or not.

A fuller review on my blog Ljuba Welitshc - Salome Closing Scene and Other Arias

That's a wonderful record.  I love her Salomé!  It's been ages since I checked into it but from what I recall, the other parts of the complete recording were destroyed (thrown into a lake or something like that?).

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

First time listening to this two disc set since I reviewed it for my blog back in Otocber 2019 (Ljuba Welitsch – Complete Columbia Recordings) and I have a feeling it's making for the jettison pile. The best item on the disc is undoubtedly the recording of the closing scene from Salome with Reiner, recorded around the same time as performances at the Met in 1949, but I have a complete recording of one of those performances and I also have the earlier radio broadcast of the scene, made in 1944 under Lovro von Matačić. The rest, I think, is pretty dispensible. The unrelenting brightness of the voice and her reluctance to vary its volume become a trial after a while, only emphasised when she is singing with just piano rather than orchestra. A Lieder singer she was not.

Sorry, Ljuba, I love your Salome, but I can live without the rest.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

First time listening to this two disc set since I reviewed it for my blog back in Otocber 2019 (Ljuba Welitsch – Complete Columbia Recordings) and I have a feeling it's making for the jettison pile. The best item on the disc is undoubtedly the recording of the closing scene from Salome with Reiner, recorded around the same time as performances at the Met in 1949, but I have a complete recording of one of those performances and I also have the earlier radio broadcast of the scene, made in 1944 under Lovro von Matačić. The rest, I think, is pretty dispensible. The unrelenting brightness of the voice and her reluctance to vary its volume become a trial after a while, only emphasised when she is singing with just piano rather than orchestra. A Lieder singer she was not.

Sorry, Ljuba, I love your Salome, but I can live without the rest.

Was the complete recording of Salomé that you mentioned ever officially released?

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

Was the complete recording of Salomé that you mentioned ever officially released?

PD

There are two live recordings from the Met with Welitsch as Salome. The 1949 performance is harder to get hold of. I have it on an old Melodram issue. The rest of the cast is no doubt better on the 1952 one (Hotter, Svanholm, Höngen) but she's in fresher voice on the earlier one, though the difference is marginal. The sound of the later one is also better.

I don't know if either of the recordings ever had an official release, but they have been available on different labels at various times.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

There are two live recordings from the Met with Welitsch as Salome. The 1949 performance is harder to get hold of. I have it on an old Melodram issue. The rest of the cast is no doubt better on the 1952 one (Hotter, Svanholm, Höngen) but she's in fresher voice on the earlier one, though the difference is marginal. The sound of the later one is also better.

I don't know if either of the recordings ever had an official release, but they have been available on different labels at various times.

Thank you for the info.  I'll poke around a bit and see what I can find. 

PD

p.s.  I was fortunate that some years ago, a very kind friend from the UK sent a copy of that LP to me (the one with the Salomé excerpt).  I had found an LP cover of it (different iteration of it) in a charity shop; however, there was no LP in it [I was therefore given it for free by the shop].  It was this one: 

At the time, I was thinking that it could be fun to use some covers as artwork in a room in which I have a bunch of bios and autobiographies of various artists and composers--though this is a rather gruesome one!

PD

[Papy Oli]

I bought this as mp3 many years ago on a Chopin whim. Probably listened to it once then? Revisiting now and this is actually exquisite. I love her voice.

Chopin - Songs - Elzbieta Szmytka (Soprano), Martin Martineau (Piano)



@Madiel this might be right up your street :

https://app.idagio.com/albums/chopin-songs

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I bought this as mp3 many years ago on a Chopin whim. Probably listened to it once then? Revisiting now and this is actually exquisite. I love her voice.

Chopin - Songs - Elzbieta Szmytka (Soprano), Martin Martineau (Piano)



@Madiel this might be right up your street :

https://app.idagio.com/albums/chopin-songs

I haven't heard of her before now.  I'll have to do some googling. 

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

An absorbing set, charting Wunderlich's development as an artist from the earliest recording here, made when he was just 23 to his last ever recital in Edinburgh in 1966 at the age of 35, shortly before his untimely death. Some interesting repertoire too. Full review on my blog Fritz Wunderlich – Opera Arias and Songs
 

[Tsaraslondon]

This issue passed me by when it was first released in 2010, but what a treasure it is. Always a pleasure to hear Wunderlich's glorious tenor, here we have the added frisson of hearing him live in the opera house.

His Tamino is well known from the Böhm recording. These excerpts are taken from a 1964 Munich performance, where he is joined by Anneliese Rothenberger as Pamina and Karl-Christian Kohn as Sarastro under the baton of Fritz Reiger. As on the Böhm recording, he is an ardently lyrical but also heroic Tamino and remains my touchstone for the role. Don Ottavio's two arias from a performance of Don Giovanni, conducted by Karajan in 1963 are also superb and Ottavio emerges as a more positive character than he often does, benefiting from Wunderlich's golden tone, his superb breath control and ease of movement. Not surprisingly his singing of Il mio tesoro is given a fabulous reception. As in the Jochum recording he is also an ideal Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

The excerpts from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, with Eberhard Wächter as Figaro, are unfortunately sung in German, but the language does not impede Wunderlich's superb legato, nor the warmth of his tone, and we get to hear his wonderfully light touch in comedy. He is notably more fluid in fast moving music than Wächter, but the two singers play well off each other.

For me, though, the Strauss items are the biggest eye opener. I feel sure that, had Strauss heard them, it would have reconciled him to the sound of the tenor voice. The duet for the Italian Singers in Capriccio (with Lucia Popp, no less) has probably never sounded more gloriously, well, italianate, so beautiful that it elicits a spontaneous round of applause from the Vienna audience. The same could be said for his singing of Di rigori armato from Der Rosenkavalier, which is sung with burnished tone. I doubt any Italian tenor could sing it better. So too, in the excerpts from Daphne and Die schweigsame Frau his liquid legato stays in tact, however tough the going. Did Wunderlich ever make an ugly sound? Somehow I doubt it. Truly he was a prince among tenors.