Recital at Ravinia – Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano/ Drew Minter, countertenor/ Peter Serkin, piano
Harmonia mundi 907500, 76:39 ***1/2:
Well, they seem to keep on coming, these Lorraine Hunt Lieberson post-mortems, and I for one am not complaining. In fact, I am sure I would have been thrilled to have been sitting in that Ravinia Summer Festival audience on August 5, 2004, especially if prescience had been kind enough to inform me that we would have access to this unique artist for only two more years. The program is a typical one of Lieberson, a fine mix of all sorts of styles, something American, something Handelian, with a smattering of other composers as well (she was broadly catholic in her tastes). But it is difficult to judge from this recording how exactly fit the voice was at that time. Some people who were there have indicated that everything was fine, but I must confess that when I compare this recital with others a year or so before this one that the voice seems different. I will say that this is not the best recording I have heard—obviously it is “live”, and obviously it is set in a large stage surrounding, for one can hear the empty space around her. The piano is too far forward, and the voice loses some of its quality in comparison. And I must say, fan though I am of Peter Serkin, his accompanying here is not the best I have ever heard, and there are several instances of note slips and inconsistent following of the mezzo. Serkin has traditionally been a very exact pianist, so this surprised me, even on a live recording where such little blips are expected.
Lieberson’s voice does not have the tonal allure it usually possesses, and again, I am uncertain as to whether this is attributable to the recording or to reality. Since there are portions of this recital (indeed most of it, to be fair) where her voice is up to its olden and golden qualities, I must say that it may indeed be symptomatic of the illness that would capture her life a few years later—who can speak of such things with any degree of assurance? But the reader should know that if they are looking for a “representative” Lieberson recital for their collection, this is probably not the one.
Her fans, however (and I am a big one) will swipe this up without thinking twice, for what we do get in abundance is the thing that makes her music-making so exceptional—her interpretative abilities. This is an album dedicated to “love”, and her passionate singing more than makes up for any loss of quality in the voice, or distorted recording mechanisms. We can be grateful that HM has let this one out of the can.
TrackList:
BRAHMS: Unbewegte laue Luft, Op. 57: no 8.; Ruhe, Süssliebchen, Op. 33: no 9;
Von ewiger Liebe, Op. 43: no 1.
MOZART: Dans un bois solitaire, K 308 (295b); Als Luise die Briefe, K 520; Abendempfindung, K 523; Die ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls Schöpfer ehrt, K 619.
HANDEL: Giulio Cesare, HWV 17: Son nata a lagrimar; MEDLEY: Oh numi eterni, HWV 145 "La Lucrezia": Oh numi eterni-Già superbo del mio affano; MEDLEY: Oh numi eterni, HWV 145 "La Lucrezia": Ma voi forse nel cielo-Il suol che preme; MEDLEY: Oh numi eterni, HWV 145 "La Lucrezia": A voi, padre, consorte-Già nel seno comincia compir.
BURLEIGH: Jubilee Songs of the USA: Deep River.
DEBUSSY: Chansons (3) de Bilitis
TELSON: Baghdad Café: Calling you.
— Steven Ritter