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 Favorite classical singers and repertoire
Author: Micaela 
Date:   2003-10-08 23:55

There was a thread a few weeks ago about favorite instrumental soloists. Please stop me if this is too off topic but I'm interested in your favorite classical singers and repertoire. I haven't listened to much vocal music until very recently (I mean songs, I've listened to opera for a long time) but a few weeks ago my music history class talked about Schubert lieder and I've been listening to it ever since. :) So I don't know very much.
Right now I’m listening to Winterreise with Fischer-Dieskau and Dicterliebe with Ian Bostridge.
I'm still not getting into chorale music very easily. I'll have to give that one a little more time...
Micaela

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 Re: Favorite classical singers and repertoire
Author: Ken Shaw 2017
Date:   2003-10-09 14:18

Micaela -

John McCormack was, IMHO, the greatest singer ever. His best was recroded acoustically, but the voice and muscality shine through. Try http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000007N8N/qid=1065708957/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/002-9138707-4761617 and http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000037BA/qid=1065708975/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8/002-9138707-4761617?v=glance&s=music

My favorite Wintereisse and Dichterliebe are both by Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten (who was a stupendous pianist). F-D is great on both. Hans Hotter's Wintereisse is great, and Aksel Schiøtz's Dichterleibe is also at the top. You need the scores, which are available in inexpensive Dover editions, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0486226492/qid=1065708352/sr=8-5/ref=sr_8_5/002-9138707-4761617?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 , http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393099040/qid=1065708379/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9138707-4761617?v=glance&s=books

Schubert is a bottomless well of great songs. I have the entire Hyperion Schubert Edition, which is uniformly superior, and Graham Johnson's notes are uniquely informing.

You need a recording of Shepherd On the Rock. Elisabeth Schumann's version with Reginald Kell is my favorite. For more modern sound, get Beverly Sills and Gervase De Peyer or Benita Valenti and Harold Wright.

Text translations in CD booklets can be dreadful. For good versions, get "Ring of Words" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393006778/002-9138707-4761617?v=glance and, for Schubert, the complete texts and translations taken from the Hyperion edition. Fischer-Dieskau's Book of Lieder is also fine. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0879100044/ref=pd_sim_books_1/002-9138707-4761617?v=glance&s=books

Not all the great singers did classical. Mabel Mercer was one of the greqats by any standard. She recorded only in old age, and her late records are an acquired taste, but The Art of Mabel Mercer is something I return to again and again. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005MKCN/ref=m_art_li_1/002-9138707-4761617?v=glance&s=music

There's much too much to put in a single message. Keep exploring and let us know what reaches out to you.

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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 Re: Favorite classical singers and repertoire
Author: David 
Date:   2003-10-10 14:55

Andreas Scholl is just outstandingly good. So is Barbara Bonney. Just get anything by them.
For vintage tenors, Jussi Bjoerling walks all over anything (except maybe a Silversonic.)

David

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 Re: Favorite classical singers and repertoire
Author: David Peacham 
Date:   2003-10-10 15:23

You've already discovered Ian Bostridge. Listen to his recording of Schubert's Nacht und Traueme. To misquote another contributor to this board, "at the end of the song, the silence that follows is also by Schubert".

Listen to Kathleen Ferrier sing Mahler, most especially Der Abschied from Das Lied von der Erde. It's just a shame her German pronounciation was so appalling. (The recording is with Bruno Walter. There was a 50th-anniversary-of-death tribute to her on the radio on Wednesday, most of which I missed because I was at band practice. Late in the evening they played a bootleg recording of a live performance she gave of the same piece. It was .... well, let's just say it was interesting to hear it once.)

For choral music, I assuming you've started on Bach. Try Britten's War Requiem.

Then complete the circle by listening to Bostridge singing Britten...

-----------

If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.

To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.


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 Re: Favorite classical singers and repertoire
Author: D Dow 
Date:   2003-10-10 18:01

Frederich Schorr in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg is one of the all time greatest vocal acheivements...fantastick.

However, it was recorded in the 30s and some exerpts from the 20s/


Torsten Ralf was a very fine tenor.

Elizabeth Schwartzkopf and Gerhard Souzay are tremendous in Schubert....the Schumann Dicterleibe with Souzay and Cortot is a must for any serious musician!

David Dow

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 Re: Favorite classical singers and repertoire
Author: 68fordfalcon 
Date:   2003-10-11 19:33

I love all the singers mentioned so far. I'd like to add a couple others who I like, Titta Ruffo and Fritz Wunderlich. Wunderlich's recording of Dichterliebe is available on DG. Ruffo was a major opera star in the early 20th century and there are many reissued cd's of his recordings.

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