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In Reply to: RE: Mozart Mass in C Minor posted by Bill the K on January 12, 2015 at 20:14:02
The # in parens is how many listings there are. Usually those only represent inclusions in differing compilations or couplings... .
Bartoli, Cecilia (2)
Battle, Kathleen (1)
Bonney, Barbara [Soprano Vocal] (1)
Brown, Donna [Soprano] (1)
Constable, John (1)
Davidson, Grace (1)
Dolukhanova, Zara (1)
Gauvin, Karina (1)
Gritton, Susan (1)
Gueden, Hilde (1)
Häger, Klaus (1)
Kremer, Annemarie (2)
Maniaci, Michael (1)
McNair, Sylvia (1)
Persson, Miah (1)
Raskin, Judith (1)
Ruiten, Lenneke (1)
Sampson, Carolyn (1)
Schlick, Barbara (1)
Schubert, Claudia (1)
Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth (1)
Seefried, Irmgard (1)
Stader, Maria (1)
Te Kanawa, Dame Kiri (1)
Ullmann, Marcus (1)
Wakim, Teresa (1)SURPRISINGLY not on their R list is one of my favorite Mozart songbirds, Lucia Popp. Treasurable. I have never heard a Lucia Popp recording I did not love.
Other faves of mine include Kiri te K., of course--but that is I am rather sure more of an operatic than sacred performance--and yes, I know that there was a rather large overlap between opera and sacred music, post-Council of Trent. And Sylvia McNair.
Scanning that list, I came across a singer I dimly recalled--Miah Persson. So I dialed up her version, and, it is, ach, really really great, and, tant mieux, oh la la, what a babe!
Wayul, a Mature Babe.
OK, a Mature Intelligent Lady Friend.
(First person who gets that dooble on-ton-dereh, email me and I will send you--something.)
Yeah, stir crazy with deadlines.
Some of us have not resigned...
JM
Edits: 01/14/15Follow Ups:
Some years ago I found myself in the front row for a performance of Der Rosenkavalier, overlooking the orchestra pit. The start of act II occasioned an intake of breath from the entire audience - the young singer (hitherto unknown to me) playing Sophie was simply incredibly beautiful. My wife whispered to me, "You have my permission to lust", but I was also interested in finding out if this vision could actually sing. I decided that she could, at a very acceptable level (and in tune).
At the end of the the Act I consulted my program and found that she was one Miah Persson, from Sweden, in the initial stages of her career. While I was perusing the program a cellist who had remained in the pit to practice some passages from Act III leaned over the wall and asked me if he could look at it. I noted he was reading the page containing biographical notes on the cast. When he handed it back to me he said, "I'm a substitute for tonight's performance and I've never rehearsed with the cast present, so I don't know any of them. I swear I'm going to climb onto the stage at the end and propose marriage (or something) to that hot blonde, and I'd like to know her name".
Of course he didn't, but this amusing incident prompted me to follow Ms Persson's career with more than usual interest. I was not surprised when it went from strength to strength. I was reminded then and now of the voice qualities of the late Lucia Popp, a soprano whom I revere and continue to worship.
One day I'll recount a funny story about attending a Lucia Popp recital in London. But it can wait until an appropriate time.
THANKS!
I am embarrassed to say that I had loved Lucia Popp's singing for years (decades?), thinking that she was just one more in the seemingly endless line of wonderful lady singers England somehow managed to produce, despite having little in the way of musical culture except for Cathedral singing (oops!), only to find out that Lucia Popp was the Hometown Honey of: Bratislava!
Wayul, shut my mouth!
And you know who else lines up in that fach? Sarah Connolly. IMHO.
I somehow wrangled backstage access for myself and my very talented singer daughter after Sir Colin Davis' final (final) Boston Symphony Gerontius, and when I stopped Miss Connolly walking by by using a cute pickup line, she definitely regarded me as just another brassy Yank. But not knowing how important or not I was, she had to play nice, I guess.
But, then I told her that her singing had so reminded me of Alfreda Hodgson's, and I really thought she was going to melt.
She changed so much--(my imagined thought processes for her) "Oh, he might really know something about music, and oh--that's not a girlfriend, that's his daughter, who sings."
I did not get out the trowel to lay it on that one of my daughter's vocal coaches had been Sir David Willcocks. Or that I had tried to hire Ms. Hodgson, but--too late. So I hired Kaaren Erickson, but then she died too, weeks before the CD was released.
All that said, the change in Miss Connolly's attitude was very gratifying.
So, here's a different version of what I heard Sarah Connolly sing twice in Boston:
Heartbreaking. But addictive.
ATB,
john
Even though I have no interest in that recording I still read your current column all through, engrossed. Years of lurking on Steve Hoffman's site have taught that the provenance of master tapes is not always obvious!
I also enjoyed your Christmas present ideas - very thoughtful.
Regards
13DoW
You can imagine how relieved I was to find out that the mid- to late-1970s LP I bought in Nashville was also sharp and fast. But not quite as sharp and fast as the Abbey Road SACD. So my failure to hear that the Abbey Road SACD set was sharp is partially understandable.
A helpful reader in NZ emailed me the timings of the Esoteric SACD, and it does seem that it is sharp and fast, and how could it not be? If Abbey Road sent them 24/96 files (Abbey Road does not have DSD capabilities...), those files are sharp and fast; but even if Abbey Road sent Esoteric (which I highly doubt) their (the UK) analog master, which is the 1973 replacement "Re-Mix Master Tape," that tape is fast and sharp too. That tape is the origin of the problem.
The chances of Esoteric having had access to the original, created at Capitol Studios razor-blade-edited stereo mixdown master tape are in my view non-existent. So, keep your wallets in your pants re: the Esoteric SACD.
To my delighted surprise, this column really seems to have struck a chord--an A-Major chord, I think! (My favorite section of the first movement.)
So, I have renewed my efforts to get Warner Music to task someone to search EMI/Angel/Capitol's US tape vaults. I know that there is little hope of that, but if you look at what Testament gets for the fastnsharp LP and what the OOP Esoteric SACD fetches on the used market, there remains robust demand, so there should be a business case for doing it one final time, with a straight to DSD transfer, and doing it right.
BTW, the companion in the EMI set is the Berlin LvB Triple Concerto, which, snob that I am, since my student days I have thought of as the Tripe Concerto, and it is even more off pitch than the Cleveland Brahms, but I don't care. It's a grim slog though a middling piece that nobody would know had it been penned by a nobody.
The photo is from a reader who loved the column and just by coincidence had the same bottle in his cellar.
Ciao,
JM
A few years ago a number of us were gathered at Robert Lang's home in Oakland to meet Jared Sacks of Channel Classics - Chris from Lafayette was there too, so he'll remember that Sacks told us that when it came to recording that particular day, Ms. Persson was completely unable to sing on key, so they had to piece the recording together bar by bar....you would never know - as I recall, we listened to the entire work all of the way through, and not only is it a great sounding recording, the group (mostly a bunch of middle-aged men) were visibly and audibly moved.
Perhaps not as perfect in the same songs as the studio recording of Margaret Price and Sawallisch, but, darn good.
Perhaps she needs a cabana boy?
Or, someone to whip her with birch branches?
OK, now I do rehab.
jm
She has a superb performance on record, though other aspects of that recording are less than ideal, imho.
Hey, she's only 45 years old. Let's not go too far with the "mature" bit.
Happy listening,
Jim
"The passage of my life is measured out in shirts."
- Brian Eno
No 'resigning', my friend.
Cheers
Bill
Here's another good one (same singer):
BTW, I agree with you about Lucia Popp's recording too. And if we're just talking about the Alleluia, you gotta hear Anna Moffo! (Not her usual repertoire by any means!)
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