Favorite vocal recitals on CD or DVD

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

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knight66

Quote from: KevinP on June 13, 2019, 05:40:41 PM
A few years back, I discovered the joy of vocal recital mega boxes: large boxes devoted to a single vocalist. (or the 54-disc Decca Sound box with 55 vocalists, most of whom I'd've never heard if not for this.)

Recent orders I'm awaiting:
The Brigitte Fassbaender Edition
Victoria De Los Angeles: The Voice of an Angel
Elly Ameling: The Dutch Nightingale
Christa Ludwig: The Complete recitals on Warner Classics
The Art Of Grace Bumbry
Regine Crespin: Portrait

That list of orders will provide a lot of listening. They are all favourites of mine except for Crespin who sounds to me to sing flat. But it must be a trick of my ears, as others don't ever mention it. I am still pondering the Fassbaender set, I already have a lot of her work.

Two big boxes I have which I dip into a lot are the Warner Janet Baker and the DG Janowitz.

Mike

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

Tsaraslondon

Quote from: knight66 on June 13, 2019, 09:16:23 PM
So that is three out of three of us unimpressed. As so often Ts, we hear the singer the same way. I tried to download that mouthwatering Callas disc you suggested, I got no email with access. I will try again.

M

I got an email back almost immediately, so don't know what happened in your case. I do hope you manage to download it. The singing is spectacular.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon

Quote from: knight66 on June 13, 2019, 09:21:22 PM
That list of orders will provide a lot of listening. They are all favourites of mine except for Crespin who sounds to me to sing flat. But it must be a trick of my ears, as others don't ever mention it. I am still pondering the Fassbaender set, I already have a lot of her work.

Two big boxes I have which I dip into a lot are the Warner Janet Baker and the DG Janowitz.

Mike

Mike

The Philips Janet Baker box is also worth having, as it covers quite a bit of material not on the Warner box.

The Schwarzkopf Recitals box on Warner is also wonderful, despite the absence of texts and translations, so necessary with a singer of Schwarzkopf's specificity.

\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

knight66

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on June 14, 2019, 01:07:56 AM
The Philips Janet Baker box is also worth having, as it covers quite a bit of material not on the Warner box.

The Schwarzkopf Recitals box on Warner is also wonderful, despite the absence of texts and translations, so necessary with a singer of Schwarzkopf's specificity.

Yes, I have both of those and a Schwarzkopf set of early recordings, much duplicated in the mater box. Although I have all the Baker and Janowitz recordings in full, it is good to have arias from complete works brought together handily. A critic I follow on Twitter has been commissioned to pull together some early recordings of Baker, some of which have not been issued on CD. No doubt I will leap on that when it comes out.

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

Tsaraslondon

Quote from: knight66 on June 14, 2019, 03:54:26 AM
A critic I follow on Twitter has been commissioned to pull together some early recordings of Baker, some of which have not been issued on CD. No doubt I will leap on that when it comes out.

Mike

That's something I will no doubt want as well. Please keep me informed. Incidentally my twitter handle is the same as the one here.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon





Sylvia Sass shot to stardom at the age of 25 after singing the role of Griselda in a 1975 Covent Garden production of Verdi's I Lombardi which also starred José Carreras. Decca were quick to sign her up and her first recital LP (one side of Puccini, one of Verdi) followed in 1977. A further opera recital followed in 1979 and finally in 1981 a recital of songs by Liszt and Bartók, in which she got to sing in her native Hungarian. She also appeared on Solti's recordings of Don Giovanni (as Donna Elvira) and Bluebeard's Castle and on the Philips recording of Stiffelio. She was hailed as the new Callas and, like others saddled with the epithet before her, her international stardom was short-lived, though she continued to sing in opera (though mostly in Hungary) until 1995 and made many records for Hungaraton.

From the very first notes of Turandot's In questa reggia it is clear that this is a singer with a personality, always aware of the dramatic possibilities of the music. The voice can caress, but equally it has bite and power and the top can glare when singing at full tilt. The four Puccini heroines given here (Turandot, Tosca, Manon and Butterfly) emerge as distintinctively different characters, which isn't always the case in a Puccini recital. There is also much that is fine in the Verdi items, the Sleepwalking Scene from Macbeth being particularly good, but here we notice a tendency, also evident in the Puccini items, for there to be too great a gap between her loud and soft singing, where the loud singing can take on a strident, squally edge that contrasts too greatly with the almost disembodied purity of her soft singing.

By the time of the second recital this tendency to veer from ultra soft to ultra loud has become more pronounced, even more noticeable when singing live. I remember seeing her as Norma at Covent Garden in 1980 and you could hardly hear her when she was singing quietly. Not that the second recital doesn't have its attractions. Lady Macbeth continues to be impressive, and there are some lovely moments in the Il Trovatore aria, with its spectacularly floated high D.

The 1981recital of Liszt and Bartók songs, with András Schiff at the piano, is rather impressive. Sass brings vivid personality to and drama to a song like Liszt's Die Loreley, as well as a beautiful, comforting quality to Kling leise, mein Lied. She also makes musical sense of Bartók's sometimes angular vocal lines, brilliantly supported by Schiff's superb playing of the difficult piano accompaniments.

It is a great shame Sass never really fulfilled the promise of her early successes, but these discs serve to remind us why people found her so exciting when she first burst onto the scene and receive a qualified recommendation from me.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

knight66

I had the original Verdi and Puccini Decca LP. I think I will plump for the double disc you have reviewed. It was an exciting voice. She scaled it well for the Strauss Four Last Songs which has a whole lot more about it than the Lise Davidsen disc. I have also been listening to her in one Macbeth aria and really enjoyed her. She reminds me a lot of Suilotis.

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

Tsaraslondon

Quote from: knight66 on June 17, 2019, 01:07:45 PM
I had the original Verdi and Puccini Decca LP. I think I will plump for the double disc you have reviewed. It was an exciting voice. She scaled it well for the Strauss Four Last Songs which has a whole lot more about it than the Lise Davidsen disc. I have also been listening to her in one Macbeth aria and really enjoyed her. She reminds me a lot of Suilotis.

Mike

She reminds me of Souliotis too, though she actually lasted a good deal longer. I had a few of her Hungaraton recitals on LP. The Wagner disc was pretty good. I have a Donizetti/Verdi disc on CD too, and that is also very enjoyable.

Unfortunately live she was a rather mannered performer. I remember she used to cup an ear with one hand and wave the other one around as she sang, which was very distracting. I heard her as Norma, when Baltsa's Adalgisa walked away with the honours, Elisabetta in Don Carlo and in a concert performance of Turandot with the extended Alfano ending. On that occasion it was Barbara Hendricks's Liu who stole the show, though her Turandot was more convincing than her Norma and Elisabetta.

\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

André

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on June 17, 2019, 01:48:10 PM
She reminds me of Souliotis too, though she actually lasted a good deal longer. I had a few of her Hungaraton recitals on LP. The Wagner disc was pretty good. I have a Donizetti/Verdi disc on CD too, and that is also very enjoyable.

Unfortunately live she was a rather mannered performer. I remember she used to cup an ear with one hand and wave the other one around as she sang, which was very distracting. I heard her as Norma, when Baltsa's Adalgisa walked away with the honours, Elisabetta in Don Carlo and in a concert performance of Turandot with the extended Alfano ending. On that occasion it was Barbara Hendricks's Liu who stole the show, though her Turandot was more convincing than her Norma and Elisabetta.

Very interesting ! These big dramatic soprano roles demand so much from the leading lady, both vocally and histrionically. It's a huge professional bet every time. Same with Aida, always in danger of losing the contest to Amneris. And of course if she is indisposed, it is front page news the day after, whereas nobody cries murder if the same thing happens to the Eboli or Adalgisa !

knight66

Quote from: André on June 17, 2019, 03:56:53 PM
Very interesting ! These big dramatic soprano roles demand so much from the leading lady, both vocally and histrionically. It's a huge professional bet every time. Same with Aida, always in danger of losing the contest to Amneris. And of course if she is indisposed, it is front page news the day after, whereas nobody cries murder if the same thing happens to the Eboli or Adalgisa !

I imagine you have put your finger on exactly why Callas was never talked into those roles when her vocal problems made the higher range of her voice less easy to work with. Mezzo divas are not going to be called the likes of La Divina.

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

Tsaraslondon

Quote from: knight66 on June 18, 2019, 12:52:26 AM
I imagine you have put your finger on exactly why Callas was never talked into those roles when her vocal problems made the higher range of her voice less easy to work with. Mezzo divas are not going to be called the likes of La Divina.

Mike

Though Callas did of course sing Norma at the end of her career, when Zeffirelli coaxed her back into the opera house. She only agreed to do Tosca if they could do Norma as well. Vocally it was really beyond her by this time, though many averred that, even with half a voice, she was still the greatest Norma in the world, as her understanding of the role remained unparalelled, even if she was only vocally comfortable in about two thirds of it.

Famously, she was unable to complete the last performance, and, after a single performance of Tosca at Covent Garden a couple of months later, she never appeared in an opera again.

As a footnote, when Cossotto, who was sharing the role with Simionato, sang Adalgisa she decided she would profit from Callas's vocal insecurity, loudly outsinging her and holding on to notes in the duets after Callas had indicated they should end. Callas told Zeffirelli she was hurt by her behaviour and he vowed never to work with her again, which he didn't.

\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

André

Way back when (late seventies?) I listened to a radio broadcast of Don Carlo, an opera I did not know. I vividly remember the impression made by the mezzo-soprano who sang Eboli, completely taking over stage, house and audience with her singing of the Veil Song and her big dramatic scena (O Don fatale). At the end of the performance the audience erupted and soon shouts of Eboli! Eboli! were heard, with a deafening roar of bravos at her curtain appearance. That was Elena Obraztsova. I guess the Elisabetta and Carlo must not have been pleased... ::)

knight66

I have a wonderful live Don Carlo with Corelli, Janowitz and Verrett. It is Verrett who brings the house down:the O Don fatale is epic.

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

Tsaraslondon

Similarly, I saw Don Carlo more than once in the old Visconti production. I can't recall the whole cast for its final outing, but it was Baltsa's Eboli who brought the house down.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

JBS

Don Carlo(s) is really one opera in which the tenor and soprano come in behind the three "secondary" roles when people think of musical highlights. Think how often Philip's solo scene and Eboli's Don fatal show up on recital discs.  The Carlo/Rodrigo duet often shows up in "Great Duets" compilations.  But arias by Carlo or Elisabetta? Off the top of my head I can think of no recitals or compilation discs with an aria for Carlo. I vaguely remember one CD with an Elisabetta aria, but can't think who the singer was. (Callas, perhaps?)

So I think anyone who sings those two leads should expect not to be the audience favorite that night.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

André

Well, Elisabetta has one big aria that shows up on almost every soprano recital of Verdi arias: Tu che le vanita.

As for Carlo, he is certainly short shrifted in an opera titled after his character !

Wendell_E

Quote from: André on June 19, 2019, 11:42:17 AM

As for Carlo, he is certainly short shrifted in an opera titled after his character !

Only where arias are concerned. He has three big duets with Élisabeth, one with Rodrigue, the scene with Rodrigue and Eboli, etc. Not surprising that so many star tenors have done the role, despite the lack of a big solo piece.
"Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." ― Mark Twain

André

You are right, of course. That was a gross simplification on my part. Don Carlo is a hugely complex work, in which Verdi totally invested himself.

JBS

Quote from: JBS on June 19, 2019, 10:55:31 AM
. I vaguely remember one CD with an Elisabetta aria, but can't think who the singer was. (Callas, perhaps?)


BTW, it was Callas.
But Don fatal was also in her repetoire.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Tsaraslondon

#419
According to Lord Harewood in Opera on Record by far the most recorded excerpt from Don Carlo is Philip's Ella giammai m'amo ir Elle ne m'aime pas, though O don fatale has proved popular with both mezzos and sopranos.

Elisabeth's great scene seems to have been excerpted less, possibly because of its length. It was a great Callas favourite and she sang it many times in concert as well as on record. Off the top of my head I can only recall other recital versions by Leontyne Price, Régine Crespin and Felicia Weathers. I'm sure there have been others, but it doesn't turn up that often, to be sure.

When it comes to Carlo, I think he is one of Verdi's most interesting tenor roles, despite the fact he only has the one short aria. He is no stock hero, but a young man disappointed in love, desperate for the approval of a stern father who for the most part ignores him, always in the shadow of his best friend, the noble Posa. Of all Verdi's tenor roles only Otello is of comparable complexity.

\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas