Here's a shrine dedicated to another great contralto,
Kathleen Mary Ferrier (22 April 1912 – 8 October 1953).
Let me quote Mike:
Quote from: knight on April 27, 2007, 02:39:04 PM
an unmistakable voice. The opening of the first Kindertotenlieder is like listening to a stained glass window. The voice sounds so immediate as though fresh and happening now, rather than almost 60 years ago.
It's true! No one posts in this forum.
Their loss. :)
(http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Contraltos/Ferrier__Kathleen/ferriernew1.jpg)
Ferrier (http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Contraltos/Ferrier__Kathleen/hauptteil_ferrier__kathleen.html)
I got a good laugh out of this article:
http://www.classicstoday.com/features/f1_0903.asp
Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on May 18, 2007, 04:09:16 PM
I got a good laugh out of this article:
http://www.classicstoday.com/features/f1_0903.asp
I'll have to read that in detail later. After glancing at it, it appears the hurwitzer is on full blast.
These few lines send me ROTFL:
Of all the strange compliments Cullingford cites, none quite matches that of Ferrier's voice teacher, Roy Henderson, who rather amazingly notes in his book Kathleen Ferrier: A Memoir (Hamish Hamilton:1954), that "Kathleen Ferrier was born with a wonderful cavity at the back of the throat. One could have shot a fair-sized apple right to the back of her throat without obstruction." What was she, a singer or a fruit basket?
Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on May 18, 2007, 04:18:30 PM
These few lines send me ROTFL:
Of all the strange compliments Cullingford cites, none quite matches that of Ferrier's voice teacher, Roy Henderson, who rather amazingly notes in his book Kathleen Ferrier: A Memoir (Hamish Hamilton:1954), that "Kathleen Ferrier was born with a wonderful cavity at the back of the throat. One could have shot a fair-sized apple right to the back of her throat without obstruction." What was she, a singer or a fruit basket?
Ha! Well, I like her album of British folk songs. That's all I own.
Or check out this review:
http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=2448
Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on May 18, 2007, 04:29:45 PM
Or check out this review:
http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=2448
Well, yeah. Hurwitz knows what he doesn't like. :)
Quote from: dtwilbanks on May 18, 2007, 04:31:20 PM
Well, yeah. Hurwitz knows what he doesn't like. :)
SHe's not my favorite singer but definitely not NEARLY as bad as Hurwitz make it out to be.
Quote from: dtwilbanks on May 18, 2007, 04:03:21 PM
Ferrier (http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Contraltos/Ferrier__Kathleen/hauptteil_ferrier__kathleen.html)
Thanks for the link. The site has a discography
and, if you scroll almost all the way to the bottom, you get to download
Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer (Brahms / Broadcast Edinburgh 1949 / Bruno Walter, live)!
I have 4 Ferrier CDs. An amazing disc from the RoC series:
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WH31TMAYL._AA240_.jpg)
This one is really wonderful. Come to think of it, I should have mentioned it on the "disc everyone should own" thread...
The Karajan recording of Bach's B Minor Mass:
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BA5JCQGNL._AA240_.jpg)
(mine has a different cover but I think it's the same thing)
And a 2 CD set of selections from the Decca 10-disc set:
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C8F412DWL._AA240_.jpg)
This makes me absolutely covet that 10-disc set but somehow I never have the funds. Still, it's very high on my list and I'm definitely getting it within the next 6 months or so...
Maciek
Quote from: MrOsa on May 18, 2007, 04:40:25 PM
And a 2 CD set of selections from the Decca 10-disc set. This makes me absolutely covet that 10-disc set but somehow I never have the funds. Still, it's very high on my list and I'm definitely getting it within the next 6 months or so...
Maciek
I have volume 8, Maciek.
The tragedy of Kathleen Ferrier was that her career was truncated just about when she was reaching her prime. The age of 41 for a contralto would not be considered old at all these days. Thanks to Bruno Walter she was developing exponentially in interpretation and finally getting control of her voice. Surely the sympathy of the public coloured their opinions and of critics as well. I found her early work very uneven. It seemed like she didn't simply know what to do with her lower range. Once she sank her teeth into those rich tones, luxuriating in them, things fell into place. Dame Clara Butt (1872-1936) was an eminent predecessor who sang similar repertoire, like English folk songs, Orfeo and Oratorio.
ZB
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on May 18, 2007, 11:53:16 PM
The tragedy of Kathleen Ferrier was that her career was truncated just about when she was reaching her prime. The age of 41 for a contralto would not be considered old at all these days. Thanks to Bruno Walter she was developing exponentially in interpretation and finally getting control of her voice. Surely the sympathy of the public coloured their opinions and of critics as well. I found her early work very uneven. It seemed like she didn't simply know what to do with her lower range. Once she sank her teeth into those rich tones, luxuriating in them, things fell into place. Dame Clara Butt (1872-1936) was an eminent predecessor who sang similar repertoire, like English folk songs, Orfeo and Oratorio.
ZB
You make a very good point. At 41, Ferrier was indeed very young when she died, and still developing as an artist. Most of her best work is from her final years, when she worked with such luminaries as Bruno Walter and Benjamin Britten.
What she always displayed was an honesty and generosity of spirit, which comes out in all she sings, whether it be an inconsequential folk song or a Mahler Lied. Others may have brought more subtlety to Schubert's
An die Musik, for instance, but few make you aware, as she does, just how grateful they are for this gift. Her singing is without artifice, and I find it a refreshing experience. Odd, I suppose, that I should also enjoy the art of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, whose method and manner are the very antithesis of Ferrier's.
Quote from: dtwilbanks on May 18, 2007, 04:31:20 PM
Well, yeah. Hurwitz knows what he doesn't like. :)
The British, judging from his writing. I wonder what we did to him.
Quote from: Tsaraslondon on May 19, 2007, 02:19:24 AM
You make a very good point. At 41, Ferrier was indeed very young when she died, and still developing as an artist. Most of her best work is from her final years, when she worked with such luminaries as Bruno Walter and Benjamin Britten.
What she always displayed was an honesty and generosity of spirit, which comes out in all she sings, whether it be an inconsequential folk song or a Mahler Lied. Others may have brought more subtlety to Schubert's An die Musik, for instance, but few make you aware, as she does, just how grateful they are for this gift. Her singing is without artifice, and I find it a refreshing experience. Odd, I suppose, that I should also enjoy the art of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, whose method and manner are the very antithesis of Ferrier's.
It's hard for me to imagine how"honesty" or "generocity of spirit" would come across in a singing voice. I had one of her recordings of Mahler once, never felt the need to have another of her recordings.
Quote from: head-case on May 23, 2007, 02:41:38 PM
It's hard for me to imagine how"honesty" or "generocity of spirit" would come across in a singing voice. I had one of her recordings of Mahler once, never felt the need to have another of her recordings.
Well, I did give her singing of Schubert's
An die Musik as an example, ditto her numerous recordings of British Folk Songs.
I don't know how many who are commenting actually saw Kathleen Ferrier. I didn't, but I've known many people who did, and they all seem to agree that there was something really special about her. Most of the musicians who worked with her, including Britten, were enchanted by her, as was my own mother. I once asked someone who had seen both her and Janet Baker how she would compare them. She said there was no comparison - and that was in favour of Ferrier. I don't think singers should ever be judged by recordings alone - there's much more to a performance than that. Unfortunately these days a lot of people think that recording is the main thing.
My own mother-in-law exactly echos what Susan says in the preceding post. What perhaps does Ferrier some damage is the preservation of some tenth rate music with is often poorly accompanied. She also was recorded with The Boyd Neil Orchestra and frankly, those recordings are sluggish, such as Pergolesi Stabat Mater ought to be junked, it gives little pleasure.
Conductors such as Walter, Karajan and Barbirolli were not the sort to promote sub standard talent. At her best she is all the good things that are said of her, especially in those final years.
As to how honesty comes through....difficult to convey, but there was a completely straight forward communication, powerful and with insight. I simply have never heard Bach as well or affectingly sung as on the extra tracks of the B Minor conducted by Karajan. (Maciek's choice.)
She could lighten things up and far from what Hurwitz indicates, there are plenty of folk songs that show a lively approach and humour.
Mike
It seems to me that the British adore Ferrier much more than Baker, despite the fact that vocally speaking there is clearly no contest. For some reason certain artists can do no wrong in the minds of the British, i.e., Horenstein, Barbirolli, and of course Ferrier. Janet Baker has demonstrated almost in every single recordings that she has made that she is a mezzo of the first rank but somehow has not gotten nearly the attention that Ferrier has received.
Quote from: Susan de Visne on May 25, 2007, 01:36:16 AMI don't think singers should ever be judged by recordings alone - there's much more to a performance than that. Unfortunately these days a lot of people think that recording is the main thing.
The truth is, many never have the chance to be exposed to a performer in any other way than a recording. No matter how many times I visit the local symphony and opera house, I will likely never see the marquee performers that appear at the MET, Royal Opera House, La Scala, Glyndebourne, etc... So often our only reference is through a recorded medium.
Quote from: knight on May 27, 2007, 11:32:14 AM
As to how honesty comes through....difficult to convey, but there was a completely straight forward communication, powerful and with insight. I simply have never heard Bach as well or affectingly sung as on the extra tracks of the B Minor conducted by Karajan. (Maciek's choice.)
I suspect a singer can be taught how to produce an "honest" style by their voice teacher at a conservatory, I seriously doubt this characteristic is linked to a singers personal character.
Quote from: head-case on May 28, 2007, 09:55:17 AM
I suspect a singer can be taught how to produce an "honest" style by their voice teacher at a conservatory, I seriously doubt this characteristic is linked to a singers personal character.
What do you mean exactly? I would have thought that it was something no singing teacher
could teach.
Ferrier's voice was a strangely unwieldy instrument. On one hand she often gave the word "expressivity" a new level of depth one could not have imagined existed (as in that b minor Mass Agnus Dei). OTOH the vocal production was often marred by exactly the faults Hurwitz notes: tremulousness and pitch problems. I suppose by the time she became a world-renowned singer those vocal faults were part and parcel of the voice. It was simply impossible for her to weed them out. She sang and gave of what she had, not what she had not.
There was a 'phosphorescent' quality to her low register that immediately struck by its unearthly, subterranean glow. It's too bad that, as Mike mentions, she was encumbered by third-rate, plodding accompanists (the Orfeo is really an embarrassment in that regard). Compare that to her classic account of "Blow The Wind Southerly". She sings unaccompanied and, like Marian Anderson in "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" her singing gives goosebumps of a very special quality.
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on May 28, 2007, 05:05:37 PM
Ferrier's voice was a strangely unwieldy instrument. On one hand she often gave the word "expressivity" a new level of depth one could not have imagined existed (as in that b minor Mass Agnus Dei). OTOH the vocal production was often marred by exactly the faults Hurwitz notes: tremulousness and pitch problems. I suppose by the time she became a world-renowned singer those vocal faults were part and parcel of the voice. It was simply impossible for her to weed them out. She sang and gave of what she had, not what she had not.
There was a 'phosphorescent' quality to her low register that immediately struck by its unearthly, subterranean glow. It's too bad that, as Mike mentions, she was encumbered by third-rate, plodding accompanists (the Orfeo is really an embarrassment in that regard). Compare that to her classic account of "Blow The Wind Southerly". She sings unaccompanied and, like Marian Anderson in "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" her singing gives goosebumps of a very special quality.
That particular song, always associated with Ferrier, is a great example of what endears her to her listeners; that gift for communication, which is a requirement of all great artistes. It is also a good example of the directness and honesty of her art, which strike right to the heart. Please also note that her diction is well nigh perfect, something that many of today's singers could learn a lot from.
Quote from: Tsaraslondon on May 28, 2007, 04:10:28 PM
What do you mean exactly? I would have thought that it was something no singing teacher could teach.
It is simply a matter of controlling the voice, they same way you would control your tone if you were playing the saxophone.
Personality does come across in singing, except perhaps in opera, where the singer is being someone else. There is all the difference in the world between someone "controlling the voice" for effect, and the real genuine thing that is recognisable in Ferrier and certain other singers. It's not just the voice - it's the effect they make on a concert platform in other ways. A phoney is obvious a mile off.
Quote from: Susan de Visne on May 29, 2007, 08:42:55 AM
Personality does come across in singing, except perhaps in opera, where the singer is being someone else. There is all the difference in the world between someone "controlling the voice" for effect, and the real genuine thing that is recognisable in Ferrier and certain other singers. It's not just the voice - it's the effect they make on a concert platform in other ways. A phoney is obvious a mile off.
Thank you, Susan. That's what I was trying to say, only you expressed it better.
Quote from: Tsaraslondon on May 29, 2007, 02:17:49 PM
Thank you, Susan. That's what I was trying to say, only you expressed it better.
I fail to see why one can control one's voice in an opera, but in a recital one's singing must reflect one's character. When singing leider the 'character' you are playing is essentially the composer. The only definite thing anyone's noted here the that Ferrier had trouble singing in key. ???
Well, the quality we're talking about isn't definite or measurable. It's not science. It seems obvious to me, and apparently to Tsaraslondon too. I suppose you can argue that lieder singers are being the composer, or the poet, or the character in the song, but they communicate more directly with the audience than a character in costume singing in "conversation" with other singers. Even in opera, though, I feel that singing is a more direct and personal form of communication than instrumental music, and therefore the personality comes across more strongly.
I'm reminded of a comment made by Peter Pears with reference to Ferrier, though it applies generally, I think.:
"A piano is a piano and a violin is a violin, but a voice is a person".
Thanks, Susan for unearthing this pearl of wisdom from Peter Pears. I think it neatly sums up all that's been said so far on the subject.
Quote from: Tsaraslondon on May 28, 2007, 04:10:28 PM
What do you mean exactly? I would have thought that it was something no singing teacher could teach.
Well, a singing teacher can encourage a student to be honest or be oneself rather than copy the styles of others.
ZB
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on May 28, 2007, 05:05:37 PM
Ferrier's voice was a strangely unwieldy instrument. On one hand she often gave the word "expressivity" a new level of depth one could not have imagined existed (as in that b minor Mass Agnus Dei). OTOH the vocal production was often marred by exactly the faults Hurwitz notes: tremulousness and pitch problems. I suppose by the time she became a world-renowned singer those vocal faults were part and parcel of the voice. It was simply impossible for her to weed them out. She sang and gave of what she had, not what she had not.
There was a 'phosphorescent' quality to her low register that immediately struck by its unearthly, subterranean glow. It's too bad that, as Mike mentions, she was encumbered by third-rate, plodding accompanists (the Orfeo is really an embarrassment in that regard). Compare that to her classic account of "Blow The Wind Southerly". She sings unaccompanied and, like Marian Anderson in "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" her singing gives goosebumps of a very special quality.
Ferrier's expressiveness reminds me of Claudia Muzio's. One might call it a
verismo approach from a different era. Performance traditions DO change over time.
Without mentioning names, there was a prominent local alto who TRIED to emulate Ferrier's lower range quite a few years ago. Instead of "being honest" and developing her own colour, she rather copied Ferrier's mistakes, the tremulousness coming from (I do believe) not using the lower register properly. When this area was sorted out in Ferrier's case, the Schubert recordings were and still remain a delight.
ZB
Quote from: Susan de Visne on May 29, 2007, 10:11:10 PM
"A piano is a piano and a violin is a violin, but a voice is a person".
That may be true but personality surely comes through with the great players. In fact, it is not so much the instrument but the material that instrumentalists have vs. singers. Songs are meant to be communicated as verbal messages. Sonatas, concertos, preludes and fugues, impromptus, etc., don't express the composer so much as the material itself. The closer one comes to song, perhaps, the more possibilities of wooing the audience or leaving one's personal imprint. A
Consolation by Liszt played by Horowitz is a perfect example of the romantic hero as performer. And this piece, like many others would be very different in the hands of other pianists.
This is worth a listen, very
cantabile:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS5LRRsNYZk
ZB
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on May 30, 2007, 04:22:52 AM
Thanks, Susan for unearthing this pearl of wisdom from Peter Pears. I think it neatly sums up all that's been said so far on the subject.
One person's "pearl of wisdom" is another persons jibberish.
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on May 30, 2007, 07:05:09 AM
Well, a singing teacher can encourage a student to be honest or be oneself rather than copy the styles of others.
ZB
I agree, though that's not quite what I meant. There was a simplicity and directness to Ferrier's singing, which I warm to, and which was peculiar to her, and which comes down to her personality. That said, I also enjoy the more intellectual approach, favoured by such singers as Schwarzkopf and Fischer-Dieskau. I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive.
I have been listening through to one of Decca's Ferrier Edition discs, number 4 in the complete issue. It contains Schumann, Brahms and Schubert.
These were variously recorded between 47 and 52. The final two tracks seem to be stuck on as incongruent makeweights, the only orchestrally accompanied pieces, 'Silent Night' and 'O Come all ye faithful'...passing over these, let's look at the lieder.
The voice is as distinctive, three dimensional and welcome as could be. The major piece is an excellent 'Frauenliebe und leben'. This also has the best sound on the disc. It has a lot going for it, in that the pacings are natural, her approach brings in considerable expressivity and word pointing. She fines her tone to almost nothing but can use full tone effectively, even towards the top, never her strongest suit. The pianist is definitely an accompanist, not a partner. Ferrier conveys the light and shade, I notice no intonation problems, it is a treasurable interpretation.
Moving to Brahms and Schubert we are granted the much more assertive accompaniment of Phillis Spurr. A really beautifully moulded Sapphische Ode is folowed by Botschaft, in this latter we can hear the comparative fragility of her top notes. Schubert's 'Gretchen am Spinnrade' is excellent at conveying the nervous tension and loss of peace declared within the song. 'Die junge Nonne' has the inwardness I look for, the piano clamant and bell-like, sinister in atmosphere. Again it does justice to such a great song. This is a contained interpretation with evident feeling, as against an outright attack that the song can equally take. Peace is ultimately and consolingly achieved. After several more songs Benjamen Britten takes over for two and a half songs, the BBC tapes of 'Du liebst mich nict' fade out.....frankly, it seems an odd completest mentality that insists on including the truncated recording.
In the two complete songs, she is more backwardly recorded and the colours of the voice not so evident, but the partnership works well. 'Ganymed' and 'Lachen und Weinen' are a real pleasure.
It was an hour of enrichment and having not heard the recording for a very long time, it affirmed again, she was unique, her performances enrich and continue to cast a spell over 50 years after her death.
The actual sound quality varies with some radio interference in the Britten, hiss during the Spurr. However, evaluating these against other renowned interpretors, they stand up well, despite what some might hope.
Mike
Have been listening to her in Walter's rendition of "Song of the Earth" today - always an extremely satisfying experience. R.I.P.