Dominick Argento: From the Diary of Virginia Woolf

Dominick Argento (Composer), Claude Debussy (Composer), Henri Duparc (Composer), Gabriel Faure (Composer), Hugo [Composer] Wolf (Composer), Janet Baker (Performer), Martin Isepp (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Janet Baker, Martin Isepp
• Composer: Dominick Argento, Claude Debussy, Henri Duparc, Gabriel Faure, Hugo [Composer] Wolf
• Audio CD (April 22, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: D'note Classics
• ASIN: B000003YNN
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #270,087 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, for voice & piano: The Diary

2. From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, for voice & piano: Anxiety

3. From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, for voice & piano: Fancy

4. From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, for voice & piano: Hardy's Funeral

5. From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, for voice & piano: Rome

6. From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, for voice & piano: War

7. From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, for voice & piano: Parents

8. From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, for voice & piano: last Entry

9. Spanisches Liederbuch, nach Heyse und Geibel, for voice & piano: Nun wandre Maria

10. Spanisches Liederbuch, nach Heyse und Geibel, for voice & piano: Die ihr schwebet

11. Spanisches Liederbuch, nach Heyse und Geibel, for voice & piano: Ach des Knaben Augen

12. Spanisches Liederbuch, nach Heyse und Geibel, for voice & piano: Herr, was trägt der Boden hier

13. Après un rêve ('Dans un sommeil'), song for voice & piano, Op. 7/1

14. Le secret ('Je veux que le matin l'ignore le nom'), song for voice & piano in D flat major, Op. 23/3

15. Le manoir de Rosamonde ('De sa dent soudaine et vorace'), song for voice & piano (or orchestra)

16. Phidylé ('L'herbe est molle au sommeil'), song for voice & piano (or orchestra)

17. Mandoline ('Les donneurs de sérénades'), song for voice & piano, L. 29

18. L'Enfant prodigue, scène lyrique for voices & orchestra, L. 57: Air de Lia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Miraculous, March 29, 2000

By 

essmac "smcsls" (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dominick Argento: From the Diary of Virginia Woolf (Audio CD)

Obviously the art songs are all at the superior level you expect from Dame Janet, but you will be blown away by the Argento. A stunning miracle of breath, technique, dramatic expressiveness, and emotional force. And it was recorded live- few other singers would dare these feats of phrasing in a studio, let alone in front of an audience. Don't worry that it's a live recording- the audience is utterly under Dame Janet's spell; it may sound cliched, but time absolutely stops while she is singing.

A humbling experience for anyone who deludes him/herself that he/she is a singer-- but this is a MUST MUST MUST have!

6 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Valiant Try, May 9, 2000

By 

John Cardenas "opera nut" (Ontario, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dominick Argento: From the Diary of Virginia Woolf (Audio CD)

Dame Janet is clearly the greatest postwar mezzo-soprano the British isles have ever produced. She had just about everything one could wish for in a singer: taste, sensitivity, passion, nuance, acting ability, superb vocal control, flexibility, an instantly recognizable timbre, and a dedication to championing lesser known works. She is the very definition of the serious-minded, committed artist who luckily also had great natural ability. She performs at her usual unassailable standards on this recording but somehow things don't add up to much. Perhaps the choice of material was to blame. The Argento songs are of that modern, atonal variety that, with the exception of a few original bars, sound pretty much like every other modern, atonal piece you've ever heard. And their straightforward passions don't evoke the cerebral, luminous Virginia Woolf at all (although, the liner notes indicate that the composer sought to exempt himself from criticism by claiming that he intended not to evoke Woolf specifically but suffering womankind in general). The Wolf Spanish lieder are instantly forgettable (he's one composer, along with Brahms, whose perhaps too subtle charms I have long been deaf to). Things perk up with the concluding French airs, but the Argento songs must have left an unpleasant residue because Baker is here uncharacteristically heavy and emphatic where she should be light and elliptical. By comparison, Regine Crespin's recording of Apres un Reve is appropriately dreamily sensuous whereas Baker's here is a tad emotionally overwrought and puritannical, as if the song were about Dido or Mary Stuart's dream. There's a currently unavailable recording of Baker singing Ravel, Chausson, and Delage that is one of the best things she's ever done, full of light arabesques and the right amount of French ivresse. Until that recording becomes available, I would not suggest this as a viable alternative.