I feel like I have just come from a vast, dark and cold space. I may return here one day in the future but for now, respectfully this one is placed at the back of the tea cabinet.
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I feel like I have just come from a vast, dark and cold space. I may return here one day in the future but for now, respectfully this one is placed at the back of the tea cabinet.
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The second time listening to disc 1 and the first time listening all the way through both discs... and I quite enjoyed what I heard... but then I have been a long-time fan of Jake Heggie, who is almost certainly Ned Rorem's heir to the title of the great composer of American "art song".
"Suppose you were an idiot ... And suppose you were a member of
Congress .. But I repeat myself." -Mark Twain
Cecilia Bartoli has long been one of my favorite singers. Not only do I love her rich mezzo voice (many of my favorite singers are mezzos) but I find her an incredibly intelligent singer... discovering and/or promoting marvelous works and composers outside of the core repertoire who are worthy of her attention. Steffani's Stabat Mater certainly numbers among such.
On the slightly comic side... I discovered not long after first getting this recording that I already had a recording... and a damn fine one at that... of Steffani's Stabat Mater:
I suspect that I was so much more enthralled with Handel's Dixit Dominus that I wholly forgot the Steffani.
Oh well... another version... with Bartoli... will never hurt.
"Suppose you were an idiot ... And suppose you were a member of
Congress .. But I repeat myself." -Mark Twain
Waiting in the wings... another Bartoli disc:
But my God... this one must surely have one of the worst ever covers in classical music... even worse than her Sacrificium disc:
Indeed... this cover is even worse... (Dare I say it?)... than Anna's "scary Medusa lady" cover:
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"Suppose you were an idiot ... And suppose you were a member of
Congress .. But I repeat myself." -Mark Twain
With Christmas about a month away, I've started listening to my various recordings of Messiah. This one with Sir Malcolm Sargent conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Huddersfield Choral Society is a classic, and my favorite overall. The aria, "But Who May Abide the Day of His Coming," is sung by the bass, not the alto soloist -- as it should be, at least according to the vocal score published by G. Schirmer, Inc., and edited by T. Tertius Noble (copyrighted 1912!).
Any cover graced with Jonas Kaufmann's likeness is by definition good!![]()
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