Elizabeth Soderstrom

[Barbirollians]

Just been listening after a long day to her BBC Legends disc including the Four Last Songs and Sheherazade .

I don't know much of her work apart from her contribution to the Klemperer Missa Solemnis and the Varviso Rosenkavalier extracts - both of which I have enjoyed - and I think this only got one spin when it first arrived for some reason .

That was an error I shall be making up for . She may not have the creamiest soprano voice to have recorded the Four Last Songs but what intelligent singing it is and words are painted and tone varied in a way that escapes prettier voices . The Sheherazade struck me as superb - in the Crespin/Baker league . The Mozart excerpts from Figaro that finish the CD are delightful .

Highly recommended and it appears one of the few BBC Legends not deleted . Any other recommended Soderstrom recordings forumites ???

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Any other recommended Soderstrom recordings forumites ???

The Janacek operas with Mackerras and the VPO.

And the complete Sibelius songs with Ashkenazy.

[Stanley Stewart]

My collection also includes an EMI 1982 Digital vinyl of Soderstrom in a Richard Strauss album: 4 Last Songs, Closing Scene, Capriccio and the Marschallin's Monologue from Der Rosenkavalier. Orchestra of WNO/Richard Armstrong.

The same forces in 1983: Britten, Our Hunting Fathers and a selection of Folksongs with orchestra.

This reminder has prompted me to transfer the LPs to CD-R.

I also saw Elisabeth Soderstrom in performance on a couple of occasions. She had a compulsive stage presence and was heart-rending in Poulenc's "La Voix Humaine" with Simon Rattle, CBSO -or was it London Sinfonietta? - in the late
70s, at the QEH. Some years later, she performed in cabaret at the Edinburgh Festival with such stylish verve and radiant charm.

[Roehre]

The Janacek operas with Mackerras and the VPO.

And the complete Sibelius songs with Ashkenazy.

I concur, and like to add Rachmaninov (also with Ashkenazy iirc).

[amateur51]

I concur, and like to add Rachmaninov (also with Ashkenazy iirc).

Likewise I'm sure

[LeMartinPecheur]

Stanley S and fhg have covered off all my Soderstrom favourites (I don't have the Strauss though). One thing I would like to see again is a short BBC2 TV recital with (IIRC) Gerald Moore from about 1970, one of a series with different singers including Schwarzkopf, I think DF-D and Victoria de los Angeles, and probably others.

I have a Medici Arts Schwarzkopf DVD from miscellaneous BBC sources which probably includes that recital which so struck me as as an impressionable teenager, but the river-people vouchsafe no hint of a similar Soderstrom offering.

Thinks: it's a teeny bit sad that 'ES' always means Schwarzkopf, never Soderstrom...

[Richard Tarleton]

Just been listening after a long day to her BBC Legends disc including the Four Last Songs and Sheherazade .

My default 4LS these days. Heard her perform it in 1972.

[verismissimo]

Great artist. Rarely mentioned on these boards. So thanks to you Barbie.

[Barbirollians]

I gather that the general view appeared to be that live 4LS is preferable to her studio recording with Armstrong . Sibelius songs sound well worth a punt .

[gurnemanz]

Just reviving this thread. Eloquence Twofer: Elisabeth Söderström: The Russian Songbook (+ Vladimir Ashkenazy). Recommended.

[pastoralguy]

Likewise I'm sure

Thirded!