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.
Jessye Norman’s long-time label, Philips, celebrates the artist’s sizeable recorded heritage with an expansive series of double CDs of re-releases, under the sobriquet The Jessye Norman Collection.
Thankfully some care has been taken to bring together recordings of compatible repertoire, whether it be a set of live recitals, another focusing on stark modernism (Schoenberg and Stravinsky), or two of her Christmas holiday extravaganzas. The singer’s ample gifts are on display on every set—but whether one has the appetite to devour a heaping platter of 5 of the sets in succession really depends on a strong preference for her voice of dark chocolate laced with honey. In the right amounts, what a stunning treat. In excess—an unhealthy wallow.
Each of the sets presents the original cover art for the CDs (except for A Wagner Collection, the second CD of which contains a compilation of excerpts from complete opera recordings). The original liner notes accompany a biographical note, reprinted in every set, which details Ms. Norman’s concert appearances in recent years and many honors bestowed on her. The prose here wanders fearfully close to obituary mode, but then an air of a “career achievement” retrospective covers the whole enterprise.
Of the five sets under review, your reviewer found the Live at Hohenems & Salzburg Recital set most enjoyable. The amount of applause recorded on the former could have been cut back, but tolerance wins the day, as the singer is in exemplary voice, in repertoire starting with Handel, working up to a large Schubert sampling, and ending with spirituals as encores. Few will want to hear Lascia ch’io pianga always sung with this ostentatious gorgeousness, but why not once in a while? Norman makes a substantial case for giving into temptation.
The second disc, with James Levine in impeccable accompaniment, has very disciplined but lively Wolf lieder, broken up with 5 satisfying dollops of Debussy.
The studio lieder sets (Schubert & Mahler Lieder) can’t be faulted for not possessing the extra aura of vitality a live recording bestows, but a sense of formality and restraint comes over both recordings at times.
The Wagner set has a first disc of rather short duration, with Colin Davis leading the LSO in the Tristan und Isolde prelude before Norman’s self-conscious but exquisite love death. A fine performance of the Wesendonk lieder follows. On the second disc, the excerpts from Parsifal, Lohengrin, and Die Walkure partner Norman with Placido Domingo for the first two and Gary Lakes for the last. The Norman voice exhibits its full power here—in company with a certain remoteness from the drama. Perhaps she is not helped her by a tentative quality in Domingo and Lakes’s adequate but uninspiring contribution.
Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex has never come close to giving the Firebird or Le Sacre du Printemps any competition as one of the composer’s most popular pieces, but those who respond to the work can surely find much to value in Seiji Ozawa's recording, with Peter Schreier in the title role and a young Bryn Terfel as Creon. Norman’s refulgent tone here offers some aural compensation for those unenamored of Stravinsky’s dry approach. The second disc has Norman’s offering similar virtues to Schoenberg’s Erwartung, 25 minutes of a woman losing her mind in atonal agony. Many will sympathize. Several of the composer’s cabaret songs end the set with a sense of humor and style Schoenberg not too frequently allowed himself. Or us.
The last of these five sets will separate the Norman besotted from the Norman tolerant. Disc one, Christmastide, will fill the former with a grand, exuberant expression of the holiday spirit. The latter will cringe in pain and moan in despair at the lugubrious ballads and manic up-tempo numbers. And Philips has to release a larger version of that cover photo, for the perversely curious. What is going on with the singer’s hair? The Bride of Frankenstein would look askance. In the Spirit, the second disc, thankfully redeems the first (or supplements it beautifully, for those fans). Here the arrangements have taste and restraint, and Norman’s singing revels in the finer music, truly offering reason to be grateful.
Philips has several more of these two-disc sets, including Norman’s luxuriant Strauss and a compilation of her forays into spirituals. The best singing on the sets has an incomparable grandeur and beauty, so new comers to her art have many a treat in store for them. Her fans probably have most if not all of these already, and for those indifferent to the pleasures of releasing oneself into the all-encompassing embrace of her immense gift—they can skip these collections as they did the first time. Many great singers engender such a wide-range of responses, and Jessye Norman’s huge career deserves this generously proportioned celebration.
Chris Mullins
Los Angeles Unified School District, Secondary Literacy