Wolf, Hugo (1860-1903)

[gurnemanz]

Has anyone heard the John Shirley Quirk/Janet Baker Italienisches Liederbuch? I'm tempted to order it.

I got it as soon as I noticed its availability a few years ago, in large part impelled by being a Janet Baker fan (who isn't?) and after reading some generally positive reviews. I had several versions already and we had just seen the whole cycle live for the first time - Jonas Kaufmann/ Diana Damrau in 2018 at Barbican. I tend to prefer a sop/tenor combination but would certainly recommend it. Plenty of interpretative insights and the sense of a live event - with some audience reaction.

[smittims]

I assume you mean their 1977 Aldeburgh Festival performance, on ICA Classics. I bought it in 2012 when it came out and have listened to it, er... twice.

Hmm... much as I admire both singers, I couldn't help wondering if they were right for this music , or if it was right for them. I know one shouldn't pigeonhole or type-cast singers, but as with Fischer-Dieskau as Hans Sachs or Nicolai Gedda as Gerontius, I felt uneasy. If it had been Brahms I'd have loved every minute.

I suppose if you were there it would have been terrific, though I'm glad I wasn't . Janet's dress was simply awful, ghastly. I can't look at it.

By the way, the songs are performed 'in a sequence devised by Steuart Bedford'. I;ve no quibble with that.

[CallMePaul]

Recommendations appreciated for the three Michelangelo songs. I have and love Hotter on Testament - I want to hear others!

Try Sir John Tomlinson on Chandos, coupled with Michelangelo settings by Britten and Shostakovich. He performed the contents of this album in late 2016 at RNCM - I was there and enjoyed the concert very much.

[Mandryka]

By the way, the songs are performed 'in a sequence devised by Steuart Bedford'. I;ve no quibble with that.

I found a copy for £1.50 on amazon so I've ordered it. Elly Ameling and Gerard Souzay also changed the sequence for their recording. In fact, that one forms part of my favourite performance on record -- I take the Ameling part from the Souzay recording and dump the Souzay, and I take the tenor part from the later recording Ameling made with Tom Krause. That way I have a young Ameling -- and Krause is a force of nature.

[smittims]

Elly Ameling was wonderful. I was fortunate to hear her live towards the end of her career .

Apart from the inevitable Schwarzkopf/Fischer-Dieskau recording, a favourite of mine is Dawn Upshaw and Olaf Bar on EMI.

[Mandryka]

I suppose if you were there it would have been terrific,

Exactly that. And for that reason I'm glad to have it - it's a glimpse into a very good concert.

Janet's dress was simply awful, ghastly. I can't look at it.

That reminds me of when I saw Jessye Norman sing Erwartung in a tent, and Rosalyn Tureck play The Goldberg Variations in a dress made of curtains.

[smittims]

When I saw Jessye Norman come on stage at the 1979 Proms to sing in A Child of Our Time, it looked as if Madama Sosostris was being wheeled on in her tent! I wonder if Michael (who was conducting ) noticed the coincidence. It would have appealed to his sense of humour.

There's a photo of the occsaion in Oliver Soden's magnificent (Indispensible, indeed!) book.

[gurnemanz]

Talk of Jessye Norman concerts revives an unhappy memory. We were visiting my mother-in-law who lived in Leipzig. She had scrutinized the Gewandhaus schedule for the time of our stay and purchased tickets for Jessye Norman doing the Four Last Songs with Kurt Masur. It was around the time of their famous recording. To our immense sadness the concert was cancelled at short notice due to the indisposition not of Jessye N but of Masur. We, and others, also felt a bit annoyed that if Jessye was in town, they might have found someone else to stand in as conductor. It may not have been feasible at short notice, and I suppose that Masur would have vetoed such a suggestion, anyway.

[smittims]

That is curious, isn't it? After all,those songs , however hard to sing, are not at all dificult to conduct , surely.

[Mandryka]

Colin Balzer is a flexible, young sounding lyric tenor and JaeEun Lee has the voice which is at times a bit like the Princess Marie Thérèse von Werdenberg and a bit like Sophie von Faninal. You've guessed it - Ralph Gothoní's orchestration makes it sound like the best orchestral song cycle Richard Strauss never wrote - with occasional intimations of Kurt Weil and Mahler.