ivanmaxim
6/10/2013 3:35:00 AM
On Saturday, June 8, 2013 4:41:03 PM UTC-4, Christopher Webber wrote:
> On 08/06/2013 19:07, Mort wrote:
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> > Any comments upon the Sutherland-Horne version on Decca CDs?
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> It rather depends on your reaction to Sutherland. She was in a "moony"
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> phase of her career, and though she does much vocally which is
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> guaranteed to enchant her fans her characterisation and tonal range are
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> limited. Yet although she does little with the text, her purity of line
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> and emotional vulnerability are surprisingly touching.
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> Still, to my way of thinking Horne - vivid, tonally varied and
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> theatrically alive - takes the lion's share of vocal and dramatic
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> honours. The tenor (John Alexander) is an asset; not the most individual
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> voice, but wielded with surprising freshness, power and subtlety. The
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> bass (Richard Cross) is by contrast on the anonymous side, but he sings
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> it well enough. The chorus are tremendous.
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> Bonynge's conducting tends to extremes, but he is never jog-trot and
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> gets considerable subtlety out of the score. His work is, in my opinion,
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> often foolishly denigrated: here his verve and scholarship - his
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> attention to details other people miss - is a positive asset for a set
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> which, compared to the various Callas's and the Caballe, must be
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> accounted a curate's egg.
Christopher - I was wondering your opinion of exactly what caused the abrupt change in Sutherland's vocalism circa 1961- if you listen to her Acis and Galatea, Art of the Prime Donna, her first operatic aria collection under Santi, and the Italin and English songs and the EMI Don Giovanni you hear bright, forward vocalism, and rhythmic snap. In the months between Aug 1960 (the Prima Donna set) and May 1961 there was an incredible change. An air of tristesse is now slathered over everything (her first recitatives in Messiah before the first aria sound mournful (!), the diction is awful and she sometimes lags behind the tempo. What happened????? Wagner Fan