Reissue CD Reviews
Jurinac and Ludwig = STRAUSS: Vier letzte Lieder; 3 Lieder; MAHLER: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; BRAHMS: 2 Lieder — Sena Jurinac, soprano/ Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano — BBC Legends
Soprano and mezzo stars of the postwar Vienna Opera in a fine program
Published on September 01, 2005
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Jurinac and Ludwig = STRAUSS: Vier letzte Lieder; 3 Lieder;
MAHLER: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; BRAHMS: 2 Lieder — Sena
Jurinac, soprano/ Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano/ BBC Symphony
Orchestra/Sir Malcolm Sargent (Strauss)/ Philharmonia Orchestra/Andre
Cluytens (Mahler)/ Geoffrey Parsons, piano/
BBC Legends 4107-2 66:47 (Distrib. Koch) ****:
Two stars of the postwar Vienna Opera grace this fine disc from the BBC archives, concerts inscribed 1957 (Mahler) to 1978 (lieder recital) in good to excellent sound. Christa Ludwig benefited from close association with conductors Karajan and Bernstein in the music of Mahler. The Mahler songs under the rare direction of Andre Cluytens (substituting for an indisposed Otto Klemperer) have a ravishing color and incisiveness of approach, with Ludwig’s highly dramatic characterization in Mahler’s songs (2 December 1957) of romantic rejection in the face of Nature’s indifference. Cluytens, a Frenchman who always had a strong sense of the German tradition, elicits glorious colors from the Philharmonia strings, winds and brass. The section where the narrator suffers emotional pangs, a burning knife in her breast, highlights both Mahler’s and Cluytens’ more operatic gestures.
Jurinac, who rose from the Zagreb Opera to become a darling in the music of Strauss, Mozart, and Beethoven, offers a direct, unaffected delivery in the Strauss valedictions (11 September 1961) for a life in retrospect; the orchestral parts being taken in a totally literalist manner by Malcolm Sargent, who thoroughly eschews the romantic manner of performance a la Celibidache. Geoffrey Parsons proves an able accompanist of dynamic sensitivity and deft coloration as well, able to subdue his keyboard for the intimacies in the Strauss Ruhe, meine Seele, or approximate the autumnal orchestral timbre for Mahler’s heart-rending Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, whose audience silence at its conclusion speaks volumes. Recorded 15 July 1978, the Ludwig song recital proffers a mature artist, whose voice no longer has the luster of youth but the mellow security of the seasoned veteran. Her Brahms Wiegenlied, the epitome of the familiar in sung music, has an innocent joy of palpable intensity, and the Wigmore Hall audience responds with immediate appreciation. At present, the distribution of BBC Legends seems in a state of suspension, so I advise serious collectors to grab up treasures like this one before they disappear.
--Gary Lemco
BBC Legends 4107-2 66:47 (Distrib. Koch) ****:
Two stars of the postwar Vienna Opera grace this fine disc from the BBC archives, concerts inscribed 1957 (Mahler) to 1978 (lieder recital) in good to excellent sound. Christa Ludwig benefited from close association with conductors Karajan and Bernstein in the music of Mahler. The Mahler songs under the rare direction of Andre Cluytens (substituting for an indisposed Otto Klemperer) have a ravishing color and incisiveness of approach, with Ludwig’s highly dramatic characterization in Mahler’s songs (2 December 1957) of romantic rejection in the face of Nature’s indifference. Cluytens, a Frenchman who always had a strong sense of the German tradition, elicits glorious colors from the Philharmonia strings, winds and brass. The section where the narrator suffers emotional pangs, a burning knife in her breast, highlights both Mahler’s and Cluytens’ more operatic gestures.
Jurinac, who rose from the Zagreb Opera to become a darling in the music of Strauss, Mozart, and Beethoven, offers a direct, unaffected delivery in the Strauss valedictions (11 September 1961) for a life in retrospect; the orchestral parts being taken in a totally literalist manner by Malcolm Sargent, who thoroughly eschews the romantic manner of performance a la Celibidache. Geoffrey Parsons proves an able accompanist of dynamic sensitivity and deft coloration as well, able to subdue his keyboard for the intimacies in the Strauss Ruhe, meine Seele, or approximate the autumnal orchestral timbre for Mahler’s heart-rending Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, whose audience silence at its conclusion speaks volumes. Recorded 15 July 1978, the Ludwig song recital proffers a mature artist, whose voice no longer has the luster of youth but the mellow security of the seasoned veteran. Her Brahms Wiegenlied, the epitome of the familiar in sung music, has an innocent joy of palpable intensity, and the Wigmore Hall audience responds with immediate appreciation. At present, the distribution of BBC Legends seems in a state of suspension, so I advise serious collectors to grab up treasures like this one before they disappear.
--Gary Lemco
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