Kathleen Ferrier - your favourite of her recordings

[Karafan]

I expect you're already aware of this documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CakiMlTfeUc

Thanks Mercia - hadn't come across that before. Interesting one on Rita Hunter there, too. ;-)

[Barbirollians]

I love most of her recordings, but for me the one where she's still completely unrivalled is Mahler's Um Mitternacht (Ruckert Lieder). That power! Even Dame Janet doesn't get close.

fhg: in case you don't know, there is a tiny sample of her her Gerontius Angel ("My work is done...It is because..."), piano-accompanied by Gerald Moore, from a 1944 HMV test pressing, first published 1978 on HMV Treasury HLM 7145. But this doesn't of course take away from your general point

Listened to the Ruckert Lieder this evening - and you are absolutely right about Um Mitternacht . Her Ich Bin der Welt is extraordinarily moving but nobody comes close to her power and the darkness of that Um Mitternacht - always an experience to hear it .

[Barbirollians]

My admiration for Ferrier has only been enhanced by reading Maurice Leonard's biography of her this week. Obviously, he still had access to many people who knew her when he wrote it in 1988 including her sister and Bernie Hammond her PA /nurse .

The way she battled on working when the breast cancer had already spread and she suffered from severe back pain was extraordinary . Apparently , she had twisted her already very painful back when she sang Um Mitternacht . It had appeared she could not finish recording it until she dragged herself from her chair and gave it one last go .

Listening today to her in Pergolesi Stabat Mater - despite the extraordinarily style of the recording her singing is remarkably moving in this work that transcends all the issues of performance practice .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I played my copy of the new SOMM disc for the first time last week - and was instantly captivated by the way those intense, unique timbres have been reproduced. I played the CD twice that day, and have done so every day since. The lieder are superb, the English songs less "essential", though valuable to hear Ferrier in anything (and, I think, unique to hear her singing the wrong notes in the last of the three Rubbra Psalms). I bought the disc as a treat to myself on an "anniversary", and it has already become an important disc in my collection, confirming what I have often said throughout my life, that I know of no more beautiful sound than that of Ferrier's singing.


Barbs - on another Thread, which I haven't been able to find, you asked me if I'd bought the Clement Krauss Strauss box yet. I meant to reply that not only had I not done so, I had even completely forgotten about the set! Your timely reminder has put the box high on my "Wish List" - I'll probably get it early in the New Year. Many thanks for the nudge