↧
Salieri - Prima la musica e poi la parole (Nikolaus Harnoncourt)
↧
Mozart - Der Schauspieldirektor KV 486 (Nikolaus Harnoncourt)
↧
↧
Madrigal Settings of 'Cor mio, deh non languire' Rooley
21 settings of Guarini
Luzzaschi, Rossi, Caccini, d'India, Banchieri, Scarlatti et al
(The Monteverdi Circle)
The Consort of Musicke
Kirkby, Tubb, Nichols, King, Agnew, Ewing
Anthony Rooley
Musica Oscura/Columns Classics 070989
(flac & scans)
Download
↧
Couperin le Grand born 350 years ago
From the collections of Thomas Cadfael, Carbozie and DutchPublisher; enjoy!
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François Couperin
Concerts Royaux & Les Goôuts Réunis
Stradivaria
Daniel Cuiller - direction
Label: Mirare MIR 005
Recorded February 2004
Download
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François Couperin
Les Nations
Juilliard Baroque
Recorded: Feb & Dec 2013
Label: Naxos 8.573347-48 (2 CDs)
Download
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François Couperin
Pieces de viole, Concerts Nos 3 & 11
Mieneke van der Velden - Viola da gamba
Glen Wilson - harpsichord
Label: Channel Classics CCS 18398
Recorded November 2001
Download
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François Couperin
Messe des Paroisses
Marie-Claire Alain
SagittariVs
Michel Laplénie - direction
Label: Triton TRI 331134
Live recording 9th October 2002
Download
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François Couperin
Organ Masses
Jean-Baptiste Robin - organ
Label: Naxos 8.557741-42 (2CD)
Recorded August 2004
Download
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François Couperin
Pièces de Clavecin Book 2 (selections)
Alan Cuckston - harpsichord
Label: Naxos 8.550460
Recorded October 1990
Download
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François Couperin
Motets
Jill Feldman, Isabelle Poulenard, soprano; Gregory Reinhart, bass;
Jaap ter Linden, viola da gamba; Davitt Moroney, organ
recorded: August 1984
Label: Harmonia mundi HMA 1901150
Download
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François Couperin
Pièces de Clavecin
Joseph Payne - harpsichord
Label: BIS CD-559
Recorded February 1992
Download
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François Couperin (1668-1733)
Les Ombres Errantes - Suites pour clavecin du Quatrième Livre
Mitzi Meyerson, harpsichord
Recorded: May 2004
Label: Glossa GCD 921802
Concerts Royaux & Les Goôuts Réunis
Stradivaria
Daniel Cuiller - direction
Label: Mirare MIR 005
Recorded February 2004
Download
François Couperin
Plaisir Sacre; Motets
La Bellemont
Rafael Munoz - direction
Label: Itinerant iE001
Recorded November 2012
Courtesy of member carbozie
Les Nations
Juilliard Baroque
Recorded: Feb & Dec 2013
Label: Naxos 8.573347-48 (2 CDs)
Download
François Couperin
Organ Masses
Serge Schoonbroodt - organ
Label: Aeolus AE-10301
Recorded August 2001
Pieces de viole, Concerts Nos 3 & 11
Mieneke van der Velden - Viola da gamba
Glen Wilson - harpsichord
Label: Channel Classics CCS 18398
Recorded November 2001
Download
François Couperin
Complete Sonatas
Les Dominos/Florence Malgoire
recorded: May 2012
Label: Ricercar RIC 330
Messe des Paroisses
Marie-Claire Alain
SagittariVs
Michel Laplénie - direction
Label: Triton TRI 331134
Live recording 9th October 2002
Download
François Couperin
Suites for viola da gamba
27e Ordre de clavecin
Mikko Perkola - viola da gamba
Aapo Häkkinen - harpsichord
Label: Naxos 8.570944
Recorded May 2011
Organ Masses
Jean-Baptiste Robin - organ
Label: Naxos 8.557741-42 (2CD)
Recorded August 2004
Download
François Couperin
Exultent superi - Motets choisi
Soloists of New College Oxford/Edward Higginbottom
recorded: March 2011
Label: Novum NCR1384
Pièces de Clavecin Book 2 (selections)
Alan Cuckston - harpsichord
Label: Naxos 8.550460
Recorded October 1990
Download
François Couperin
Lecons de Tènébres
Luce Crowe, Elizabeth Watts
La Nuova Musica
David Bates - direction
Label Harmonia Mundi HMU 807659
Recorded October 2015
Motets
Jill Feldman, Isabelle Poulenard, soprano; Gregory Reinhart, bass;
Jaap ter Linden, viola da gamba; Davitt Moroney, organ
recorded: August 1984
Label: Harmonia mundi HMA 1901150
Download
François Couperin
Messe pour les Paroisses
Messe pour les Couvents
Adriano Falcione - organ
Gruppo Vocale
Armoniosoincanto
Franco Radicchia - direction
Label: Brilliant Classics 94333 (2CD)
Recorded February/March 2012
Pièces de Clavecin
Joseph Payne - harpsichord
Label: BIS CD-559
Recorded February 1992
Download
François Couperin
Leçons de Ténèbres pour le Mercredi Saint, Motet pour le Jour de Pâques, Magnificat
Mieke van der Sluis, soprano; Guillemette Laurens, mezzo-soprano;
Marianne Muller, viola da gamba; Pascal Monteilhet, theorbo;
Laurence Boulay, harpsichord, organ
recorded: March 1988
Label: Erato 245 012-2
↧
Choral Music of the 20th Century
As I have done for other posts here, I've searched for an idea in the recordings I own – in this case Ligeti's Requiem and Schmidt's oratorio – and then I've added some other CDs coming from a public library.
For today's centenary I have collected some sacred choral music written after the First World War.
There are three famous Polish names and Arvo Pärt is not alone representing Estonia.
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Arvo Pärt (1935)
Miserere (1989)
Sarah Was Ninety Years Old (1976/90)
The Hilliard Ensemble, Western Wind Choir
Festina Lente (1988/90)
Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn
Dennis Russel Davies
ECM Records, 1430, 847 539-2 (1991)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
Arvo Pärt (1935)
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Litany (1994)
The Hilliard Ensemble, Tallin Chamber Orchestra, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Tõnu Kaljuste
Psalom (1985/95); Trisagion (1992/95)
Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra
Saulius Sondeckis
ECM Records, 1592, 449 810-2 (1996)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
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Henryk Górecki (1933-2010)
Miserere (1981)
Amen (1975); Euntes ibant er flebant (1972)
Chicago Symphony Chorus, Chicago Lyric Opera Chorus
John Nelson
Wisło moja, Wisło szara (1981); Szeroka Woda (1979)
Lyra Chamber Chorus
Lucy Ding
Elektra Nonesuch 7559-79348-2 (1994)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
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György Ligeti (1923-2006)
Requiem (1964)
Apparitions, for orchestra (1959)
San Francisco Polyphony, for orchestra (1974)
Barbara Hannigan soprano, Susan Parry mezzosoprano
WDR Sinfonieorchestrer Köln
WDR Runfunkchor Köln
SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart
Peter Eötvös
BMC Records 166 (2011)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
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Krzystof Penderecki (1933)
"Miserere"
[A cappella choral works, 1962-1992]
Netherlands Chamber Choir
Tõnu Kaljuste
Globe Records GLO 5207 (2004)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
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Cyrillus Kreek (1889-1962)
Choral Works, 1912-1958
various choirs
Tõnu Kaljuste et al.
EMIK CD 001 (2003)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
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Franz Schmidt (1874-1939)
Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (1937)
The Book with Seven Seals, oratorio
Eberhard Büchner tenor, Robert Holl bass Gabriele Fontana soprano, Margareta Hintermeier alto, Kurt Azesberger tenor, Robert Holzer bass, Martin Haselböck organ
Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien
Wiener Symphoniker
Horst Stein
Calig CAL 50 978/79 (1996)
[flac, cue, log, scans, translation of the sung text from a Chandos release]
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Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937)
Stabat Mater (1926)
Litany to the Virgin Mary (1933)
Demeter (1917)
Jadwiga Gadulanka soprano, Jadwiga Rappé alto, Andrzej Hiolski baritone
The National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice
Polish Radio Choir in Cracow
Antoni Wit
Dux 0349 (2002)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
For today's centenary I have collected some sacred choral music written after the First World War.
There are three famous Polish names and Arvo Pärt is not alone representing Estonia.
Miserere (1989)
Sarah Was Ninety Years Old (1976/90)
The Hilliard Ensemble, Western Wind Choir
Festina Lente (1988/90)
Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn
Dennis Russel Davies
ECM Records, 1430, 847 539-2 (1991)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
Arvo Pärt (1935)
Litany (1994)The Hilliard Ensemble, Tallin Chamber Orchestra, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Tõnu Kaljuste
Psalom (1985/95); Trisagion (1992/95)
Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra
Saulius Sondeckis
ECM Records, 1592, 449 810-2 (1996)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
Miserere (1981)
Amen (1975); Euntes ibant er flebant (1972)
Chicago Symphony Chorus, Chicago Lyric Opera Chorus
John Nelson
Wisło moja, Wisło szara (1981); Szeroka Woda (1979)
Lyra Chamber Chorus
Lucy Ding
Elektra Nonesuch 7559-79348-2 (1994)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
György Ligeti (1923-2006)Requiem (1964)
Apparitions, for orchestra (1959)
San Francisco Polyphony, for orchestra (1974)
Barbara Hannigan soprano, Susan Parry mezzosoprano
WDR Sinfonieorchestrer Köln
WDR Runfunkchor Köln
SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart
Peter Eötvös
BMC Records 166 (2011)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
"Miserere"
[A cappella choral works, 1962-1992]
Netherlands Chamber Choir
Tõnu Kaljuste
Globe Records GLO 5207 (2004)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
Choral Works, 1912-1958
various choirs
Tõnu Kaljuste et al.
EMIK CD 001 (2003)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (1937)
The Book with Seven Seals, oratorio
Eberhard Büchner tenor, Robert Holl bass Gabriele Fontana soprano, Margareta Hintermeier alto, Kurt Azesberger tenor, Robert Holzer bass, Martin Haselböck organ
Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien
Wiener Symphoniker
Horst Stein
Calig CAL 50 978/79 (1996)
[flac, cue, log, scans, translation of the sung text from a Chandos release]
Stabat Mater (1926)
Litany to the Virgin Mary (1933)
Demeter (1917)
Jadwiga Gadulanka soprano, Jadwiga Rappé alto, Andrzej Hiolski baritone
The National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice
Polish Radio Choir in Cracow
Antoni Wit
Dux 0349 (2002)
[flac, cue, log, scans]
↧
↧
Handel Cantata Aminta e Fillide Darlow
Aminta e Fillide
Gillian Fisher, Patrizia Kwella
London Handel Orchestra
Denys Darlow
Hyperion CDA 66118
(flac & scans)
Download
↧
Marenzio Madrigals Rooley
'Baci soave e cari'
Madrigals
The Consort of Musicke
Anthony Rooley
The Monteverdi Circle
Musica Oscura/Columns 070992
(flac & scans)
Download
↧
Catalani LA WALLY - Decca HD remastering
Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893)
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LA WALLY
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco
Justino Díaz, Piero Cappuccilli
Lydia Marimpietri, Alfredo Mariotti
Coro Lirico di Torino
L'Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo
dir : Fausto Cleva
Original stereo recording: June 1968, Salle Alcazar, Monte Carlo
Decca Analog Golden Age Volume Three Blu-Ray audio [P] 2016
High resolution audio files (24 bit/192 kHz)
prepared from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios
Digital remaster at Universal Music Mexico
FLAC files, scans, no libretto
Catalani was by instinct and temperament a post-Verdian (even an anti-Vcrdian) composer whose short life ended just as the post-Verdian age began. It brought him not triumph but despair: Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (first performed just as Catalani began work on La Wally, his last opera), Puccini's Manon Lescaut (whose success put La Wally into the shade and embittered the final months of Catalani's life), even Verdi's own Falstaf seemed more convincing models for the future than the one he had been labouring to perfect over 20 years and five previous operas.
A century later we don't have to be too hard on him for proposing a path that wasn't taken. He was abused for writing 'German operas' (four of his six stage works have romanticized Teutonic or Nordic settings) and he does have moments of atmospheric scoring that recall Weber but in La Wally, his maturest score, he is obviously and fundamentally an Italian who knew more about French opera than most of his compatriot contemporaries. He had, after all, spent perhaps as much as a year in Paris before going to the Milan Conservatoire, a year during which he could have heard most of Meyerbeer's grander operas, one of Massenet's, two by Ambroise Thomas and Weber's Der Freischutz.
Think of a blend of those influences (fairly well digested) plus long-lined Italian lyricism and a sort of hectic, driven vigour (is it too fanciful to attribute part of this to Catalani's by now galloping consumption?) and you will have a pretty good idea of the style of La Wally. Plenty of local colour, both in the obvious operatic sense (a huntsmen's chorus, a recurrent yodelling song—the work is set in the Austrian Alps) and, more impressively, in the evocations of cold in Act 4: piccolo and double-bass four octaves apart in the prelude, icily thin scoring in the opening scene on the snow-bound mountain peak, strangely Shostakovich-like chords in the soprano's despairing scena—Catalani's orchestral writing, though coarse now and then, has vitality and sometimes real poetry to it. Despite efforts not to be, La Wally is basically a number opera, and inevitably the big solo scenes stick most obstinately in the memory: the heroine's famous ''Ebben? ne andro lontana'', of course, but she has arias of similar melodic appeal in each of the other three acts (her baritone suitor and the tenor who first scornfully spurns her then learns to love her too late have their most characterful moments in duet with her); the melodic language is generous, with here and there a brusque, striking angularity. And in moments like the quite ingeniously complex ensemble in Act 2 (quartet and chorus) and above all in the sequence of not-quite-arias and notquite-declamatory-recitatives of the Fourth Act an individual voice begins to assert itself.
An immature voice, a crude and awkward one at times, and Catalani's characters are mere emblems with no depth or roundness to them. But the music of Wally herself can be filled out by a voice with Tebaldi's thrilling heft into a larger-than-life emblem of wild, proud independence, and when that happens you suddenly notice the skill with which the mood of her Act 1 aria is carried over into the following scene: she has cast her spell, and the act ends magically. Indeed in Tebaldi's performance, in Cappuccilli's as the decent but out-of-his-depth-in-waters-as-murky-as-these suitor (Wally has fallen for the tenor who ignored and then humiliated her) and in Cleva's lapel-seizing urgency Catalani's alternative route to postVerdian opera looks as though it might have been worth developing: what a pity he didn't live to do so. Stentorian belting from Del Monaco, decent support from the others and an excellent if rather bright recording with some endearing period sound effects.'
Michael Oliver (Gramophone)
LA WALLY
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco
Justino Díaz, Piero Cappuccilli
Lydia Marimpietri, Alfredo Mariotti
Coro Lirico di Torino
L'Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo
dir : Fausto Cleva
Original stereo recording: June 1968, Salle Alcazar, Monte Carlo
Decca Analog Golden Age Volume Three Blu-Ray audio [P] 2016
High resolution audio files (24 bit/192 kHz)
prepared from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios
Digital remaster at Universal Music Mexico
FLAC files, scans, no libretto
Catalani was by instinct and temperament a post-Verdian (even an anti-Vcrdian) composer whose short life ended just as the post-Verdian age began. It brought him not triumph but despair: Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (first performed just as Catalani began work on La Wally, his last opera), Puccini's Manon Lescaut (whose success put La Wally into the shade and embittered the final months of Catalani's life), even Verdi's own Falstaf seemed more convincing models for the future than the one he had been labouring to perfect over 20 years and five previous operas.
A century later we don't have to be too hard on him for proposing a path that wasn't taken. He was abused for writing 'German operas' (four of his six stage works have romanticized Teutonic or Nordic settings) and he does have moments of atmospheric scoring that recall Weber but in La Wally, his maturest score, he is obviously and fundamentally an Italian who knew more about French opera than most of his compatriot contemporaries. He had, after all, spent perhaps as much as a year in Paris before going to the Milan Conservatoire, a year during which he could have heard most of Meyerbeer's grander operas, one of Massenet's, two by Ambroise Thomas and Weber's Der Freischutz.
Think of a blend of those influences (fairly well digested) plus long-lined Italian lyricism and a sort of hectic, driven vigour (is it too fanciful to attribute part of this to Catalani's by now galloping consumption?) and you will have a pretty good idea of the style of La Wally. Plenty of local colour, both in the obvious operatic sense (a huntsmen's chorus, a recurrent yodelling song—the work is set in the Austrian Alps) and, more impressively, in the evocations of cold in Act 4: piccolo and double-bass four octaves apart in the prelude, icily thin scoring in the opening scene on the snow-bound mountain peak, strangely Shostakovich-like chords in the soprano's despairing scena—Catalani's orchestral writing, though coarse now and then, has vitality and sometimes real poetry to it. Despite efforts not to be, La Wally is basically a number opera, and inevitably the big solo scenes stick most obstinately in the memory: the heroine's famous ''Ebben? ne andro lontana'', of course, but she has arias of similar melodic appeal in each of the other three acts (her baritone suitor and the tenor who first scornfully spurns her then learns to love her too late have their most characterful moments in duet with her); the melodic language is generous, with here and there a brusque, striking angularity. And in moments like the quite ingeniously complex ensemble in Act 2 (quartet and chorus) and above all in the sequence of not-quite-arias and notquite-declamatory-recitatives of the Fourth Act an individual voice begins to assert itself.
An immature voice, a crude and awkward one at times, and Catalani's characters are mere emblems with no depth or roundness to them. But the music of Wally herself can be filled out by a voice with Tebaldi's thrilling heft into a larger-than-life emblem of wild, proud independence, and when that happens you suddenly notice the skill with which the mood of her Act 1 aria is carried over into the following scene: she has cast her spell, and the act ends magically. Indeed in Tebaldi's performance, in Cappuccilli's as the decent but out-of-his-depth-in-waters-as-murky-as-these suitor (Wally has fallen for the tenor who ignored and then humiliated her) and in Cleva's lapel-seizing urgency Catalani's alternative route to postVerdian opera looks as though it might have been worth developing: what a pity he didn't live to do so. Stentorian belting from Del Monaco, decent support from the others and an excellent if rather bright recording with some endearing period sound effects.'
Michael Oliver (Gramophone)
↧
CAV and PAG - Decca HD remastering
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA
Giulietta Simionato, Mario del Monaco
Cornell MacNeil, Anna di Stasio
Ana Requel Satre
Orchestra dell'Academia di Santa Cecilia, Roma
dir : Tullio Serafin
Original stereo recording: June 1960, Roma
Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1857-1919)
PAGLIACCI
Mario del Monaco, Gabriella Tucci, Cornell MacNeil
Piero de Palma, Renato Capecchi
Orchestra dell'Academia di Santa Cecilia, Roma
dir : Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
Original stereo recording: July 1959, Roma
Decca Analog Golden Age Volume One Blu-Ray audio [P] 2016
High resolution audio files (24 bit/192 kHz)
prepared from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios
Digital remaster at Universal Music Mexico
FLAC files, scans, no libretto
↧
↧
Giordano FEDORA - Decca HD remastering
Umberto Giordano
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FEDORA
Magda Olivero, Mario del Monaco
Tito Gobbi, Kiri te Kanawa
Leonardo Monreale, Lucia Cappellino
Choeur et Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo
dir : Lamberto Gardelli
Original stereo recording: May 1969, Salle Alcazar, Monte Carlo
Decca Analog Golden Age Volume Three Blu-Ray audio [P] 2016
High resolution audio files (24 bit/192 kHz)
prepared from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios
Digital remaster at Universal Music Mexico
FLAC files, scans, no libretto
FEDORA
Magda Olivero, Mario del Monaco
Tito Gobbi, Kiri te Kanawa
Leonardo Monreale, Lucia Cappellino
Choeur et Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo
dir : Lamberto Gardelli
Original stereo recording: May 1969, Salle Alcazar, Monte Carlo
Decca Analog Golden Age Volume Three Blu-Ray audio [P] 2016
High resolution audio files (24 bit/192 kHz)
prepared from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios
Digital remaster at Universal Music Mexico
FLAC files, scans, no libretto
↧
Marenzio Missa super Iniquos
Missa super Iniquos odio habui
Claritas
James Grossmith
Etcetera KTC 1225
(flac & scans)
Download
↧
Rossi Oratorios Christie
Oratorios:
Il pecator penito
O Cecità del misero mortale
Les Arts Florissants Ensemble
William Christie
harmonia mundi france HMA 1901091
(flac & scans)
Download
↧
Ritus Orphaeos
Simone Sorini (lutes)
2015
A collection of pieces from the middle ages to the renaissance exploring the enygmatic figure of the cantore al liuto, the solo singer accompanying himself on the lute. A very popular figure in european, and expecially italian, music history (Petrarca was one too).
For a quick preview I suggest searching
Musica Rinascimentale 1: Simone Sorini in "Zephiro spira" di Bartolomeo Tromboncino on youtube.
Download
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↧
Piccinni: Sakros
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Reicha: Wind Quintets (Thalia Ensemble)
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Charpentier Judith & Corrette Laudate Dominum
Judith Oratorio
Michel Corrette (1709-1795)
Laudate Dominum (Psalm 148)
Soloists
English Bach Festival Chorus & Baroque Orchestra
Ensemble Vocal et Instrumantal de Lyon
Erato ECD 55049
(flac & scans)
Download
↧
Charpentier Funeral Music for Queen Marie Therese
Musiques pour les Funérailles de la Reine Marie-Thérèse
In obitum augustissimae nec non piissimae gallorum Regiae
lamentum H409
Elévation H408
Luctus de morte augustissimae Marie Theresiae Reginae
Galliae H331
Choeur de Chamber de Namur
Musica Polyphonica
Louis Devos
(flac & scans)
Download
↧
↧
d'India Madrigals - Rooley
Il primo libro de madrigal a cinque voci, 1607
(The Monteverdi Circle)
The Consort of Musicke
Kirkby, Tubb, Nichols, King, Agnew,Ewing
Anthony Rooley
Musica Orcura/Columns Classics 070985
(flac & scans)
Download
↧
Kirsten Flagstad - Live in Berlin 1952
Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962)MUSIC OF RICHARD WAGNER AND RICHARD STRAUSS
Orchester der Städtischen Oper Berlin
Dir : Georges Sébastian
Label: Audite 23.416 (digital download, mono)
from master tapes of RIAS Berlin
Recorded at Titania-Palast, Berlin, May 1952, [P] 2010
FLAC files, booklet
From the booklet:
"The historical publications at audite are based, without exception, on the original tapes from broadcasting archives. In general, these are the original analogue tapes, which attain an astonishingly high quality, even measured by today's standards, with their tape speed up of up to 76 cm/sec. The remastering - professionally competent and sensitively applied - also uncovers previously hidden details of the interpretations. Thus, a sound of superior quality results. CD publications based on private recordings from broadcasts cannot be compared with these."
"Life consists of missed opportunities," according to a popular German saying, which could also apply to the association, or non-association, between Richard Strauss (1864–1949) and Kirsten Flagstad (1895–1962). Though she regularly performed his songs, the soprano never appeared in a Strauss opera during her international heyday, claiming distaste for the lurid subject matter of the tragic works. Late in her career she had her major Strauss opportunity in the Four Last Songs, which he composed with her in mind, and which she sang at the world-premiere performance, under Wilhelm Furtwängler, in London in 1950. Already there were some challenges for her in the writing, and she ducked a high B (substituting an F-sharp) in the first song, "Im Frühling." The Strauss–Flagstad saga is further marred by the disastrous technical quality of the recorded 1950 premiere of the Four Last Songs, which only a persistent and dedicated listener can enjoy.
It's therefore a great if belated pleasure to hear her in three of the four songs (this time the soprano skips "Im Frühling" altogether) in a version with more acceptable technical quality and a Flagstad in her fifty-seventh year and still formidable. Her mature strengths add force to the autumnal qualities, and her direct, focused treatment of words, musical discipline and astonishing uninterrupted phrasing make this a powerfully moving experience. In "September," she can't modulate the tone enough on the words "Sommer" and "Gartentraum," where lyric sopranos work their charm, but the final line is uniquely eloquent, thanks to her great presence in the middle and lower registers.
Georges Sébastien offers sympathetic, lively direction with a capable orchestra that includes solid soloists on violin and horn. If he lets the final song, "September," drag a little, it's well this side of the soporific treatment Kurt Masur gave it, accompanying Jessye Norman. The balance between voice and orchestra is not ideal, but the sound is adequate despite the live audience and some extraneous background thuds.
These excerpts come from a pair of concerts Flagstad gave in Berlin in May 1952, a month after her Met farewell appearance and shortly before the full-length Tristan recording under Furtwangler. Oddly, this is the second recording in recent years to be carved out of those Berlin appearances, and more oddly still, the earlier one, from Urania (URN 22.241), omitted the Strauss songs, although it duplicates several other items heard here. This is the set to have, even if the superfluous Tristan prelude seems to be included mainly to expand the content to two CDs.
Also justifying this set is the Flagstad–Sébastien Wesendonck Lieder, which fills another gap. Her version of the songs with Gerald Moore on piano is, to me, less satisfactory than an orchestral treatment, and her later orchestral set with Hans Knappertsbusch found her clearly past her prime. In this version from Berlin in 1952, fortunately, she is truly authoritative, equal to all demands, just occasionally a little less than poised on a muted high note, but grand and stirring in a range of emotional climates.
Another Strauss except, the "Orest" passage from Elektra, has some gorgeous lyrical moments. Though her Wagner selections offer nothing new, they are reminders of a lost art — typical Flagstad, especially impressive in view of their date, the voluminous programming and the live setting. ![spacer]( "spacer")
DAVID J. BAKER - Opera News
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Elena Suliotis - Decca HD remastered recordings
NORMA
Elena Suliotis, Mario del Monaco
Carlo Cava, Fiorenza Cossotto
Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma
dir : Silvio Varviso
Original stereo recording: Roma, 1967
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA
Elena Suliotis, Mario del Monaco
Tito Gobbi, Anna di Stasio, Stefania Malagù
Orchestra e Coro di Roma
dir: Silvio Varviso
Original stereo recording: Roma, 1966
Decca Analog Golden Age Volume Three Blu-Ray audio [P] 2016
High resolution audio files (24 bit/192 kHz)
prepared from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios
Digital remaster at Universal Music Mexico
FLAC files, scans, no libretti
Elena Souliotis Fans Rejoice For "Norma" Release Diva Turn: Souliotis in her prime
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Previously only available on compact disc in Japan, the 1967 recording of Bellini's Norma featuring 24-year old soprano Elena Souliotis now gets an international release. Sporting the original cover photo shot by Francesco Scavullo, this recording can be counted among the most worthy of owning. At times the young singer is vocally gentle and serene, while other moments (namely those with powerhouse veterans Fiorenza Cossotto and Mario Del Monaco) she is ferocious and fearless. Once thought of as a worthy successor to Maria Callas, the career of Ms. Souliotis burned hot and brief. The soprano spent most of her time in the studio during the mid-1960s setting down full operas and recital discs for posterity.
Originally recorded for Decca, the opera makes its worldwide debut for which many fans have been clamoring. Gramophone reviewed this set when it was released: "Elena Souliotis has the power, ferocity, energy for the role [...] Mario del Monaco’s 'Ferisci, ma non interrogarmi' is a splendid moment [...] Cosotto’s tone is always full and beautiful [...] Silvio Varviso’s direction is pleasantly spirited [...] The recording is spacious, clear and well-balanced." From the liner notes: "Bellini’s advice to librettists in 1834 might profitably hang above the desks of all who would pursue this singular art today: ‘Carve in your head in adamantine letters: Opera must make people weep, feel horrified, die through singing. It is wrong to want to write all the numbers the same way, but they must all be somehow shaped so as to make the music intelligible through their clarity of expression, at once concise and striking.’ Much of it could apply to his opera Norma. Most of the music was written between September and November 1831 at Blevio on Lake Como, where Bellini was a guest of the great diva Giuditta Pasta, who created the role of Norma. For more than a decade she was the greatest soprano in Europe and undoubtedly influenced the development of Bellini’s vocal style.
This recording, made in Rome in 1967, featured the great Greek soprano Elena Souliotis. Silvio Varviso conducts and the emphasis is on the drama and the creation of three-dimensional characters. It’s an approach that suited Souliotis. Her interpretation ranges from the ravishing simplicity of her ‘Casta Diva’ to desperate mood swings in the scene with the sleeping children (‘Dormono entrambi’) and in her dealings with Pollione. Mario Del Monaco is as strong as ever as the Roman proconsul Pollione; his high notes ringing and unforgettable. Adalgisa is sung by Fiorenza Cossotto (b. 1935), Italian mezzo-soprano regarded by many as one of the finest mezzos of the twentieth century. OPERA FRESH
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