Gluck: Opera Highlights

Kathleen Ferrier (Artist), Kirsten Flagstad (Artist), Christoph Willibald Gluck (Composer), . (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Conductor: .
• Composer: Christoph Willibald Gluck
• Audio CD (June 14, 2011)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: MUSICAL CONCEPTS
• ASIN: B001CINTDY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Orfeo: Stiedry's approach... now seems to accord with modern ideas of how to treat Gluck, not marmoreally as was then the general custom but as live drama. In consequence Ferrier's 'Che farò?' here sounds to today's ears much more plausible than the famous, more leisurely (later version). --Gramophone

Product Description

This title contains an abridged version of Christoph Willibald Gluck's 1762 landmark opera Orfeo ed Euridice, which was highly influential in the development of German opera, as well as five selections from Alceste, conducted by Fritz Stiedry and Geraint Jones respectively. A legendary recording of these works with spectacular performances by two of the twentieth century's greatest voices, Kathleen Ferrier and Kirsten Flagstad.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A souvenir of two great singers in stately music ideally suited to their voices, July 8, 2011

By 

Ralph Moore "Ralph operaphile" (Bishop's Stortford, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Gluck: Opera Highlights (Audio CD)

This Alto disc is very cheap and provides souvenirs of two great singers in favourite roles, singing music ideally suited to their gifts and timbre. Conductor Fritz Stiedry might have been unpleasant to Kathleen Ferrier about her acting skills but at least that proceeded from his proper sense of the dramatic, thus his tempi are surprisingly swift and his drive very welcome in music that can easily become bogged down. Ferrier's big numbers here sound far more involved than in other live performances and on her recital records. It is such a beautiful voice: a warm, vibrant viola tone with an emotional directness which plumbs the depths both literally and metaphorically. Her Italian vowels at this stage are still a bit British but really not too bad. The Glyndebourne chorus is surprisingly good in this 1947 recording even if some of the instrumental playing is scrappy and ill-tuned.

There is no denying that Flagstad's voice was worn by the time she recorded "Alceste" in 1956, when she was over sixty. There is some wear and edge in the tone and she tends to scoop, yet the B flat is still there, as is the majestic amplitude, the smooth legato and the broad phrasing underpinned by plenty of breath. Of course this is in good stereo whereas the "Orfeo" is in mono but cleaned up to remove the hiss without shaving off too many of the top frequencies.