Paul Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, first heard in 1907, once seemed important. Arturo Toscanini conducted the Met premiere in 1911 with Farrar and later arranged some of its music for a 1947 recording with his NBC Symphony.
The economics of the recording companies dictate much that is not ideal. Wagner’s operas were not composed as they were in order to permit the extraction of bleeding chunks, even on those occasions when strophic song forms do occur.
Among the recent recordings of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, Valery Gergiev’s release on the LSO Live label is an excellent addition to the discography of this work.
While not unknown, the songs of Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942) deserve to be heard more frequently.
Recorded on 5 and 6 May 2008 and 17 and 18 January 2009 at the Lisztzentrum (Raiding, Austria), this recent Bridge release makes available the piano-vocal versions of three song cycles by Gustav Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert-Lieder, and Kindertotenlieder performed by mezzo-soprano Hermine Haselböck, accompanied by Russell Ryan.
Contraltos rarely achieve the acclaim and renown of sopranos. Assigned few leading roles in opera, they are condemned to playing the villain or the grandmother, or to stealing the castrati’s trousers in en travesti roles.
Following their 2011 Decca recording of Striggio’s Mass in 40 Parts (1566), I Fagiolini continue their quest to unearth lost treasures of the High Renaissance and early Baroque, with this collection of world-premiere recordings, ‘reconstructions’ and ‘reconstitutions’ of music by Giovanni and Andrea Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Palestrina, and their less well-known compatriots Viadana, Barbarino and Soriano.
Eternal Echoes is an album of khazones [Jewish cantorial music] for cantorial soloist, solo violin and a blended instrumental ensemble comprising a small orchestra and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.
Michael Tilson Thomas’s recording of Mahler’s Third Symphony is an outstanding contribution to the composer’s discography.
Oliver Knussen burst into British music with an unprecedented flourish. In 1967, the London Symphony Orchestra premiered Knussen’s First Symphony, with István Kertész scheduled to conduct.
Based on performances given in Summer 2010 at the Lucerne Festival, this recording of Beethoven’s Fidelio is an admirable recording that captures the vitality of the work as conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) was one of the most popular composers of his day in Poland, and of the many works he wrote for the stage, two are performed from time to time, Halka (1848) and Strazny dwór [The Haunted Manor] (1865).
The Polish alto Jadwiga Rappé is a familiar voice in various stage and concert works, and the recent release of a selection of songs by Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) is an opportunity to hear her performing artsongs.
Originally released on multiple discs in 1981 this reissue on two CDs is a comprehensive collection of art songs by Italian and French composers from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
An exciting contribution to the discography of this popular opera, the live performance of Richard Strauss’s Salome from the Festspielhaus at Baden-Baden is a compelling DVD.
Released in late 2011, Deutsche Grammophon’s DVD of the new staging of Berg’s Lulu at the Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona is an excellent contribution to the discography of this fascinating opera.
A recent release by the Metropolitan Opera, this two-disc set makes available on DVD the famous performance of Berg’s Lulu that was broadcast on 20 December 1980 as part of the PBS series “Live from the Met.”
The novels of Sinclair Lewis once shot across the American literary skies like comets, alarming and fascinating readers of that era, but their tails didn’t extend far behind them.
Once the province of only the most dedicated opera fanatics, mid-20th century recordings of privately taped live performances have become more widely available.
Flute players in opera orchestra around the world must look forward to the frequent appearances of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, knowing that while the stage spotlight in the mad scene will be on the soprano, the orchestral spotlight will be on their instrument.
If anyone had played the soundtrack of those first numbers of the 1955 telecast, I would have looked up in surprise at first and would have wondered if an electronic wizard had cleaned up the acoustic recordings of that giant of French singing: Jean-Emile Vanni-Marcoux.
This was that kind of singing at its very best: each syllable and of course each word perfectly enunciated while not once chopping up the line and keeping perfect legato; a noble and warm timbre with a fresh, round and very attractive small vibrato. Then doubt would have set in as the voice was somewhat higher-lying with an even more homogenous sound than Vanni-Marcoux had. In short this was Gérard Souzay at the height of his powers; a legendary baritone whom nobody French nowadays even approaches. Maybe José van Dam during the seventies, early eighties came somewhat near though the very impressive voice of the Walloon never had that utter beauty. And Souzay didn’t solely rely on his sound but employed it to tell a story with all its shades and corners in the two mélodies and the one opera aria that was broadcast in 1955. The kinescope picture is black and white and clear but with this kind of singing one would have even accepted murkiness.
Eleven years later Souzay once more appeared on Québec Television with a far longer programme. Though still in black and white television had taken some strides and such a thing as a simple registration from a lieder and melodies-recital wasn’t good enough anymore: imagine that some viewers “watching the show” would be bored so a director made it somewhat jollier. Thus Souzay recorded several opera arias and then acted them on camera in costume and with the aid of a few sets while his dubbed sound ran on. And those scenes were inserted between a recital of well-known mélodies so that a little action was served. At the end of the recital the director even had some more clever ideas. A traditional song was illustrated with arty photographs that had no whatsoever relationship with the text of the song Souzay sang. To my delight I even saw a picture of a boy reading “L’Etoile Mystérieuse”, an adventure of comic hero Tintin produced during the war, all anti-Semitic illustrations carefully deleted in the album the boy had in his hands. Meanwhile Souzay was enumerating all kinds of birds in May. And why the great singer consented to have his voice used as an echo during the famous “Baïlero” is anyone’s guess.
Anyway one can grumble as much as one wants but it’s not as if VAI had a choice and one can only be grateful for this issue which may well be commercially less rewarding than another tenor disc.
In the second part of the DVD the singer was eleven years older and was now slowly on the way back. The voice is still beautiful but the 48 year old baritone had been on the scene for more than 20 years and some of the velvet had gone. The top still rings free and clear but in the lower register there is some huskiness. The timbre is less warm because the vibrato has somewhat gone out of the voice. These beautiful overtones, typically for the sheen on all youthful voices, have now gone. The pianissimo is still beautiful but the honeyed sound is less remarkable. This is still a magnificent voice and what artistry but he cannot completely compete with his unique younger self. Of course he has lost nothing from his interpretative powers. His diction remains impeccable and one listens in awe to the opera arias where there are far more competitors. Such beautiful French and such fine legato and one doesn’t think for one second of French as a nasal and difficult language; a complaint one always get from less talented singers. His German is fine too and for this reviewer he is even helped by the fact he is not a native speaker so that he doesn’t fall in the trap of Dieskau- or Schwarzkopf-mannerisms. It is good to see his legendary accompanist Dalton Baldwin too, who, as always, makes a perfect team with the baritone. In short, this DVD is a must.
Jan Neckers