Favorite vocal recitals on CD or DVD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I'm not sure, but I think the Scotto photos is from I Vespri Siciliani, which she sang at the Met around the same time this record was first issued. She is the Desdemona on Domingo's first studio recording of Otello with Milnes as Iago and Levine conducting. I like the recording very much, especially her contribution to it.

Souliotis's career was pretty short. She is thrilling as Abigaille in the Decca Gardelli recording with Gobbi, but even here you can hear that she was singing very recklessly a role that is known to be a killer. She was in her early twenties and sang it all over the place for quite a while. Callas famously called it a voice wrecker and never sang it again after her performances in Naples in 1949. She advised Caballé against singing it, and she never did. Gisueppina Strepponi, the role's career and Verdi's eventual wife, also sang it quite a lot and she too was sung out by the time she was thrity-one. The recordings she made for Decca between 1965 and 1971 chart the decline quite well.

I did a tiny bit of digging around in my Verdi CDs.  I do have Scotto in Otello with Levine, etc.  [Also on LP].  Alas the only Nabucco that I have is with Cerquetti.  It's from 1960  I believe it's this one:  https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-8115/

No recital discs with Scotto.

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

I did a tiny bit of digging around in my Verdi CDs.  I do have Scotto in Otello with Levine, etc.  [Also on LP].  Alas the only Nabucco that I have is with Cerquetti.  It's from 1960  I believe it's this one:  https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-8115/

No recital discs with Scotto.

PD

Well, if you ever decide you'd like a studio recording of the opera in decent sound, then the Gardelli is an excellent choice. I'd recommend it above all others.

[Tsaraslondon]

It was in 1979 that Kurt Weill's widow, Lotte Lenya, saw Stratas singing the role of Jenny in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny. Knocked out by Stratas's performance, she called her her "dream Jenny", and afterwards she wrote to her, "nobody can sing Weill's music better than you do," and offered her a number of unpublished songs that she had closely guarded since Weill's death in 1950.

The result was the first of these two discs, recorded in 1981, in which Stratas sings a collection of songs to piano accompaniment by Richard Woitach. Unfortunately, for the CD release, Nonesuch omitted the lyrics and translations that were included with the original LP, and what notes that remain are in minuscule print, almost too small to read without a magnifying glass. This seems little short of a crime, given Stratas's vividly dramatic performances. Even without the aid of translations you can get a gist of their meaning, but how much more satisfying the disc would be be if we knew exactly what she was singing.You might be able to find texts and translations of some of them by scouring the internet, but it's a long and arduous task.

Most people had no doubt got used to Lenya singing Weill's songs in her gravelly baritone, but, as Lenya herself pointed out, her voice dropped over the years, and Stratas was performing them in the original keys. That said, most of these originally written for cabaret, had hardly ever been performed since and were here receiving their first recordings, though they are much better known now, and Weill selections have appeared from artists as diverse as Anne-Sophie von Otter and Ute Lemper.

Teresa Stratas was 54 at the time of the first recording. She had made her professional debut at the age of 20, joining the Met company the following year (1959), becoming a Met favourite until her final performance there in 1995 (in the role of Jenny in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny). The voice can be termed useful rather than beautiful, and, though a diminutive figure, she had a powerful stage presence, great personal beauty and was a superb actress. This might explain why she made comparatively few recordings, the most famous probably being Pierre Boulez's recording of the completed Lulu, a role she had made her own in the Paris premiere. Beautiful or not, it was the perfect instrument for Weill's songs, which rely on expression rather than beauty of tone.

Favourites for me here are the two settings of the same melody, one French, one German Wie lange noch and Je ne t'aime pas, the two Propaganda Songs Buddy on the Night Shift and Schikelgruber, and the glorious Youkali. Though the second disc is enlivened by the orchestral accompaniments, I have a special affection for the more intimate piano settings.

This second disc appeared four years later, and is more far reaching, though much of the material was more well known. The Y Chamber Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz has an undeniable whiff of a theatre orchestra about it, which is perfect for the material. The songs are taken from Broadway musicals, and both German and French theatre works. Texts and translations are at least included, though print is again minuscule.

Stratas's range is formidable. Though capable of the "Brechtian bark" we are probably more used to, it is bound into the fabric of her performance, as is the full operatic soprano at key moments. Consequently not only do we get the full meaning of the lyrics, but the lyricism of Weill's writing is revealed to a much greater extent. Take the most famous song on the album, Surabaya Johnny, which emerges almost as a mini psycho-drama for solo performer. Her French and German are both impeccable, her command of the Broadway idiom just about perfect (a few years later she was to record the role of Julie in John McGlinn's first ever complete recording of Jerome Kern's Showboat). One of the most glorious performances is of Lonely house from Street Scene, which is swirlingly lyrical with an aching loneliness.

Both discs are an absolute must.

[Roasted Swan]

t was in 1979 that Kurt Weill's widow, Lotte Lenya, saw Stratas singing the role of Jenny in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny. Knocked out by Stratas's performance, she called her her "dream Jenny", and afterwards she wrote to her, "nobody can sing Weill's music better than you do," and offered her a number of unpublished songs that she had closely guarded since Weill's death in 1950.

The result was the first of these two discs, recorded in 1981, in which Stratas sings a collection of songs to piano accompaniment by Richard Woitach. Unfortunately, for the CD release, Nonesuch omitted the lyrics and translations that were included with the original LP, and what notes that remain are in minuscule print, almost too small to read without a magnifying glass. This seems little short of a crime, given Stratas's vividly dramatic performances. Even without the aid of translations you can get a gist of their meaning, but how much more satisfying the disc would be be if we knew exactly what she was singing.You might be able to find texts and translations of some of them by scouring the internet, but it's a long and arduous task.

Most people had no doubt got used to Lenya singing Weill's songs in her gravelly baritone, but, as Lenya herself pointed out, her voice dropped over the years, and Stratas was performing them in the original keys. That said, most of these originally written for cabaret, had hardly ever been performed since and were here receiving their first recordings, though they are much better known now, and Weill selections have appeared from artists as diverse as Anne-Sophie von Otter and Ute Lemper.

Teresa Stratas was 54 at the time of the first recording. She had made her professional debut at the age of 20, joining the Met company the following year (1959), becoming a Met favourite until her final performance there in 1995 (in the role of Jenny in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny). The voice can be termed useful rather than beautiful, and, though a diminutive figure, she had a powerful stage presence, great personal beauty and was a superb actress. This might explain why she made comparatively few recordings, the most famous probably being Pierre Boulez's recording of the completed Lulu, a role she had made her own in the Paris premiere. Beautiful or not, it was the perfect instrument for Weill's songs, which rely on expression rather than beauty of tone.

Favourites for me here are the two settings of the same melody, one French, one German Wie lange noch and Je ne t'aime pas, the two Propaganda Songs Buddy on the Night Shift and Schikelgruber, and the glorious Youkali. Though the second disc is enlivened by the orchestral accompaniments, I have a special affection for the more intimate piano settings.

This second disc appeared four years later, and is more far reaching, though much of the material was more well known. The Y Chamber Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz has an undeniable whiff of a theatre orchestra about it, which is perfect for the material. The songs are taken from Broadway musicals, and both German and French theatre works. Texts and translations are at least included, though print is again minuscule.

Stratas's range is formidable. Though capable of the "Brechtian bark" we are probably more used to, it is bound into the fabric of her performance, as is the full operatic soprano at key moments. Consequently not only do we get the full meaning of the lyrics, but the lyricism of Weill's writing is revealed to a much greater extent. Take the most famous song on the album, Surabaya Johnny, which emerges almost as a mini psycho-drama for solo performer. Her French and German are both impeccable, her command of the Broadway idiom just about perfect (a few years later she was to record the role of Julie in John McGlinn's first ever complete recording of Jerome Kern's Showboat). One of the most glorious performances is of Lonely house from Street Scene, which is swirlingly lyrical with an aching loneliness.

Both discs are an absolute must.

What a great overview of these two discs and their singer - thankyou!

[Pohjolas Daughter]

What a great overview of these two discs and their singer - thankyou!

+1

I've heard very little of his music, so muchly appreciated! 

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

What a great overview of these two discs and their singer - thankyou!

Thank you. I actually wrote it for my blog a couple of years ago, but I was listening to the discs again today and thought I'd post it. It's amazing how pertinent some of Weill's political songs are, even today.

[Tsaraslondon]

This is basically a reissue of Sutherland's first recital disc, made shortly after her breakthough success as Lucia at Covent Garden in 1959, with the addition of a couple of tracks from The Art of the Prima Donna and her stunning Santo di patria from Attila, taken from The Age of Bel Canto.

It's good to be reminded of tjhe fact that she once had excellent diction, which in no way impeded her legato. A more extended review on my blog Joan Sutherland – Grandi Voci.
 

[Tsaraslondon]

Stunninhg vocalism of course, though this time around I noticed a few droopy portamenti I could have done without. Margeurite's Jewel Song was particularly afflicted, no doubt in an attempt to sound girlish, but ended up sounding affected. Still this is one of the milestones of vocal excellence.

A fuller review on my website Joan Sutherland – The Art of the Prima Donna
 

[Florestan]

Gisueppina Strepponi, the role's career and Verdi's eventual wife, also sang it quite a lot and she too was sung out by the time she was thrity-one. The recordings she made for Decca between 1965 and 1971 chart the decline quite well.

I just love this inadvertent error. 

[Tsaraslondon]

I just love this inadvertent error. 

Oops! I've changed it.

[Tsaraslondon]

A four disc set, that includes both early studio recordings and live recordings.

The first disc is called L'allieva e la maestra and pits Tebaldi against her teacher, Carmen Melis. Excerpts from Tebaldi's first recordings of La Boheme and Madama Butterfly under Alberto Erede and arias from Manon Lescaut and Tosca. Many will no doubt revel in the glory of that voice filling out Puccini's wonderful melodies, but for me she too often oversings and the finale to La Boheme, which is given in its entirety has both Tebaldi and Giacinto Pradelli over-emoting like mad. The love duet from Madama Butterfly with Giuseppe Campora likewise has no sense of the young girl's gradual awakening to love and sounds as if it could have been lifted from Tosca. Melis is caught in excerpts from Tosca and Massenet's Manon. She is a singer who is new to me, and I must say I found her very impressive, though the top C at the line Io quella lama gli piantai nel cor is a little precarious, and she takes the upper option on the word cor. The Manon excerpt is Manon's N'est-ce plus ma main (in Italian) from the duet with Des Grieux, and she is wonderfully seductive and persuasive.

[Tsaraslondon]

Disc 2 in this set is entitled La nascita d'una leggenda. We have some extended excerpts from a 1951 concert performance of Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco with Carlo Bergonzi and Rolando Panerai. Though she is taxed by some of the coloratura, and she tends to aspirate when the music asks her to move a little faster, the role suits her well. Also excellent are the two extracts from a 1950 performance of the Verdi Requiem under Toscanini, with Giacinto Pradelli, Cloe Elmo and Cesare Siepi. It is somewhat dimly recorded, but you can hear how fine she was in this work. Why Decca never recorded her in it is a mystery to me. A reminder that, like Callas, she sang Wagner (in Italian) in her early career comes with Elisabeth's Dich, teure Halle (in Italian) from Tannhäuser, though, to my ears, she comes across as more agressive than joyful. It is good to hear the young Di Stefano in a 1950 concert performance of the Act I duet from Madama Butterfly. This concert also included Margherita's L'altra notte in fondo al mare from Mefistiofele. In both the aria and the duet, Tebaldi oversings and overacts and her singing as Butterfly is so powerful that she sounds more like a Tosca or Minnie to me. Many will respond to the beauty of the voice, but she doesn't conjure up an image of Butterfly, for me at least.

[Tsaraslondon]

Disc 3 covers studio recordings made for Decca and Fonit Cetra in 1949 and 1950, arias from Aida, Madama Butterfly, Faust, Manon Lescaut, Tosca, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Otello, La Boheme, Mefistofele, La Wally, Andrea Chénier and, most surprisingly Susanna's Deh vieni from Le Nozze di Figaro, though she makes a very heavyweight Susanna, and this is the least successful item on this disc. Recorded sound here is fine and there is no doubt that this is an extraordinary voice the like of which we don't hear anymore, and perhaps haven't since. Her legato is mostly superb as is her diction. On the other hand, as one aria follows another, we don't really get a gallery of different characters. Her Aida isn't really very different from her Butterfly, her Manon no different from her Mimi, and, in an attempt to be dramatic, she often over-emotes. The reading of the letter before Addio del passato is hopelessly melodramatic and she ends the aria forte rather than in the fil di voce Verdi asks for.

[Tsaraslondon]

The fourth and final disc in this set entitled Gli Inediti, and is presumably of previously unissued recordings. In concert she sings the Countess's Porgi amor but, though more suited to the character than she is to Susanna, who put in an appearance on Disc 3, Mozart is not really her métier. The excerpts from a 1949 performance of Andrea Chénier wih Del Monaco are prime examples of that hamminess I alluded to, though all the singers go way over the top. The audience lap it up, so they no doubt give them what they want. A poised 1949 performance of the Ave Maria from Otello is ruined by a surfeit of little sobs, but she gives us a lovely performance of Louise's Depuis le jour (in Italian). It lacks Callas's quiet intensity and mounting rapture, but is much more securely sung and works well on its own terms. The disc closes with a small piece of history; a 1945 performance of the love duet from Otello, with the then almost sixty year old Francesco Merli, though recording here is at its dimmest. Nevertheless it affords us a glimpse of the great tenor in one of his most famous roles.

I have equivocal feelings about Tebald. There's no doubting the quality of her instrument, but I often feel she makews un-musical interpretive choices. A fuller review of the whole set is on my blog Renata Tebaldi – I Primi Anni di Carriere

[Tsaraslondon]

Te Kanawa first came to prominence as a Mozart singers and this recital plays to her strengths, though it does tend to concentrate on gracefully flowing arias, which means there is little variety. Of course there is much pleasure to be gained from the beauty of Dame Kiri's creamy soprano, and her technical command of the music, but she evinces little character and the recital tends to settle back comfortably into its frame. You could of course argue that the music demands no more than it is given, and, for most of the music you'd probably be right, but when it comes to the recitative and aria from Cosí fan tutte, my mind kept going back to a more sharply characterised, but no less scrupulously sung version by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and I couldn't help but wonder what she would have made of a similar collection.

Still, we should be grateful for what we have. It is rare indeed to hear such accomplished singing (and orchestral playing) allied to such a glorious voice. The disc certainly plays to her strengths, that is a voice of creamy beauty, even throughout its range, and maybe it is better experienced piecemeal, rather than in one sitting, when you'd be less inclined to notice the lack of variety in the programme.

[Tsaraslondon]

This compilation is of recordings made bewteen 1940 and 1947, when Teye was approaching 60. Three tracks (Mignon's Connai-tu le pays?, one of two versions of Duparc's L'invitation au voyage and the bonus track, Cherubino's Voi lo sapete) are from a radio 1947 broadcast with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Monteux, and the rest are of studio recordings made for EMI, some of which were unpublished at the time. Most are with Gerald Moore on the piano, but the second recording of L'invitation au voyage is with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Leslie Heward. I'd suggest that is this the better of the two recordings. By the time of the second one with Monteux she has to take more breaths, though the tempi are virtually identical. Even so, even in 1947 the voice remains incredibly firm and totally free of wobble or excessive vibrato. Her singing throughout in fact is wonderfully clean and precise and her intonation is perfect.

So too, of course is her French, though we shouldn't be surprised when we remember that she spent a good deal of her early career in Paris, was coached by Debussy himself for her début as Mélisande and worked with Chausson, Duparc and Reynaldo Hahn, who evidently had a great deal of affection for her. When she said to him once about the temp oof one of his songs. ' You play it quicker than I though,' he replied, 'ma chère, any way you sing it will always be right.'

This is a valuable collection and includes recordings that were either not published or had only a limited circulation in their 78 format, though some of them also appear on EMI's two disc set entitled, Mélodies françaises . The excerpts from Hahn's Mozart and Ciboulette are absolutely charming. The other songs are by Debussy, Chausson and Duparc. Debussy was always a particualr speciality and she somehow makes the three songs she sings from Debussy's rather obscure Proses lyriques come across as quite simple and direct. She also sings a couple of extracts from Pelléas et Mélisande with piano, which gives us a direct link to Debussy himself.

Teyte should be better known than she is these days. She was one of the greatest ever interpreters of the French song repertoire.

[Tsaraslondon]

More Maggie Teyte.

These recordings were all made in the 1930s and so pre-date the Naxis disc I was listening to yesterday. The second part of the disc is taken from a 1937 radio broadcast, and one of the songs (Armstrong Gibbs' The fields are full of summer still) was newly discovered in 2001 and first published on this CD.

We start with one of Dame Maggie's most famous performances, that of Périchole's Tu n'es pas beau, sung with great affection, a twinkle in the eye and with that wonderful dip into her inimitably glorious chest voice. Though a light soprano with pure, firm top notes, Teyte's lower register was admirably rich and full in a manner we rarely hear today, more's the pity. The orchestra here sounds like a palm court orchestra at a tea dance, but the singing is another matter entirely and alone well worth the price of the disc. The two excerpts from Messager's Véronique, which follow are also absolutely delightful.

Teyte was particularly renowned for her interpretations of French song, but we are vouchsafed only two (very well known) songs from that field, Fauré's Après un rêve and Hahn's Si mes vers avaient des ailes. The Fauré is much better than the one she recorded with Gerald Moore around ten years later, where I feel she fussed with the song too much making it lose its natural flow, and the Hahn is as lovely as the later recording with Gerald Moore. These are followed by two Dvorak songs, Christina's Lament, which turns out to be his Humoresque arranged for voice and piano, and the ubiquitous Songs my mother taught me, both beautifully sung.

These are followed by a group of songs from light musicals, mementoes of her days spent in British Music Hall. They may be musically slight, but Deep in my heart, dear from Romberg's The Student Prince was actually one of Dame Maggie's favourite recordings. It crests with a high B, which she thought the most beautiful note she had ever recorded. Certainly the note rings out clear and clean as a bell.

The lion's share of the disc, however, is given over to a 1937 BBC broadcast recital, which couples popular songs by Schumann and Brahms to a group of English songs by turn of the century composers Quilter, Bridge, Delius, Armstrong Gibbs and (completely new to me) Amherst Webber and Graham Peel. As ever, the voice is bright and pure, her manner direct and disarming, her diction and intonation well-nigh perfect. Admittedly, there are aspects of her singing which some might find quaint and old fashioned today, but her technique is superb and her voice remained firm and clear well into her sixties.

Perhaps because of some of the material, this is not quite so recommendable as the EMI two disc set of French songs, but I would never want to be without it, if only for the wonderful aria from La Périchole.
 

[Tsaraslondon]

This is a wonderful two disc set, which is no doubt no lober available, even as a download, though you can probably find different tracks on a variety of different labels.

The recordings were all made quite late in her career, but the voice is beautifully produced, with no sign of excessive vibrato or wobble. I have written quite a fairly extensive review on my blog

Maggie Teyte – Chansons Françaises

[Tsaraslondon]

Dame Maggie Teyte in concert, at the age of sixty no less! Teyte, a famous Mélisande who studied the role with Debussy himself, trather eccentrically sings extended excerpts from the opera with piano accompaniment, singing all the roles. It shouldn't work, but somehow it does. It takes her the first song in the recital (Grétry's Rose chérie) to warm up, but thereafter you would never believe this was the voice of a sixty year old woman. She also sings Britten's Les Illuminations in a version for piano, making me wish she had recorded the orchestral version, although preferably a few years earlier. Just occasionally there is a flicker of frailty in the middle voice, although the top register remains firm and clear as a bell. The encores include a lovely performance of Hahn's popular Si mes vers avaient des ailes.

The disc concludes with privately recorded excerpts from Strauss's Salome also with piano, from when Teyte was preparing the role for Covent Garden about fifteen years earlier, a project that unfortunately never came to fruition. Her bright, slivery soprano might just have been the voice Strauss imagined.

[Tsaraslondon]

Jennie Tourel was born in Russia in 1900 of Jewish parents, but she and her family left just after the Revolution, temporarly settling in Danzig before moving to Paris. She fled to Lisbon just before the Nazis occupied France and from there to the USA, becoming a naturalised Amercian in 1946.

She had an illustrious career both in the opera house and on the recital stage, and was the creator of the role of Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. She was still active when death ended her career in 1973, in fact in the middle of performances of Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment in Chicago. The longevity of her career is testament to her sound technique, but if the years were kind to her voice, she was also careful never to overtax it. She knew what suited her and stuck to it.

The tracks on this disc are taken from two Decca LPs, recording dates unknown, but the Italian and French items are stereo, which would place them at least from the early to mid 1950s. Her voice is still admirably firm, with no trace of wobble or excessive vibrato. Her legato isn't always perfect, and her runs can be lightly aspirated, which mars her performance of the Rossini items, and also of Bizet's Adieux de l'hotesse arabe, though she sings it with more personality and drama than many.

Berlioz's Absence is sung with piano, and is notable for the firmness of the line, though personally I prefer a more inward display of longing. Tourel is too loud in places and she rushes the phrase la fleur de ma vie. Much better are Poulenc's Violon and Liszt's Oh! Quand je dors and I particularly enjoyed Ravel's Kaddish, which exploits her rich lower register.

The Russian items are all worth hearing, beginning with a mournful Tchaikovsky None but the lonley heart, the cello obligato adding to the pervading sense of melancholia. As befits the general mood of the Russian items, she uses a bigger, more dramatic sound, but she can also be lightly high-spirited in a song like Dargomizhsky's Look darling girls. In all she displays a strong personality and superb musicianship.