Jane Manning 1938-2021

[CallMePaul]

Just found on the Presto we bsite: /www.prestomusic.com/classical/articles/3896--obituary-jane-manning-1938-2021

She died on 31 March but this is the first I have heard the sad news. She was, of course, a big name in 20th Century music from Pierrot Lunaire to works by living composers. In her private life she was Mrs Anthony Payne, who wrote a number of works for her.

RIP Jane

[gurnemanz]

I heard the sad news via Petroc on Breakfast. He played her singing Justin Connolly, The Place of Solitaires. I was slightly taken aback since I always seem to think of her as a young woman. What an incomparable contribution she made to the singing of modern music over the decades.
I shall play her disc of Satie songs with Bojan Gorisek. Adieu

[Lordgeous]

A sad loss, and condolensces to Anthony. I knew them both many years ago. What an astonishing career she had - excellent obituary in the Guardian.

[ahinton]

A sad loss, and condolensces to Anthony. I knew them both many years ago. What an astonishing career she had - excellent obituary in the Guardian.

Yes, I heard this very sad news from a fellow musician last week. I have had the priviliege to know Jane and Tony for almost 45 years. I knew that she had suffered poor health in recent times and it seems that even her optimism, indefatigability and indomitable, irrepressible energy was not enough to prevent her succumbing. She was indeed an extraordinary artist; great soprano, excellent musician, highly intellectual and at home in a vast range of repertoire. Apparently she sang a programme mainly of late 19th/early 20th century English song with Richard Rodney Bennett for her BBC audition. She was the first singer to perform any of Sorabji's songs in almost 60 years when she broadcast six of them with Yonty Solomon some four decades ago, much to the composer's delight. She gave some lovely performance of some Tagore settings of mine. I have very fond memories of her in Debussy with John McCabe and Rachmaninoff with Howard Shelley - the kind of performances that some might overlook or be unaware of, such was her commanding presence in the field of contemporary music. Condolences to Tony indeed; they were married for almost 55 years. RIP.

[Bryn]

A fine tribute on Music Matters from two of today's finest exponents of the repertoire she revelled in, I thought.

[Pulcinella]

Obituary in today's Times:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jane-manning-obituary-2dt9p8c65?shareToken=ee897e59bae3b0cd6a325aa096ce07a3

She also featured in the Stravinsky 'river', last Saturday:

Igor Stravinsky
2 Poems of Konstantin Bal'mont
Performer: Richard Rodney Bennett. Singer: Jane Manning.
CHANDOS.

[Serial_Apologist]

I was almost transfixed the other day, listening to a 1980s broadcast of the Gothic Symphony, and hearing her soaring unaccompanied voice at the pin-drop moment during the second part of the Te Deum section of that remarkable work: the bit which immediately precedes the trumpet fanfare introducing the mass release of all the forces - one of the most glorious moments in all music, for me. I bet her husband treasured that moment.

[Bryn]

I was almost transfixed the other day, listening to a 1980s broadcast of the Gothic Symphony, and hearing her soaring unaccompanied voice at the pin-drop moment during the second part of the Te Deum section of that remarkable work: the bit which immediately precedes the trumpet fanfare introducing the mass release of all the forces - one of the most glorious moments in all music, for me. I bet her husband treasured that moment.

Ah yes, he Ole Schmidt performance. I was up in the Gallery, directly opposite the stage. A very fine performance, though the extra bands were reduced and grouped into two, rather than four. The recording to cassettes that I set the timer for was not really up to scratch. However, I had the very good fortune to have been provided with a lossless copy of the Beeb's archive DAT recording (sans 19kHz stereo pilot tone which is to be found on the Testament issue of the earlier Boult performance at the same venue).