Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall [Live]

Kathleen Battle (Artist), George Frederick Handel (Composer), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Composer), Franz Liszt (Composer), Richard [1] Strauss (Composer), Sergey Rachmaninov (Composer), George Gershwin (Composer), Spiritual Traditional (Composer), Gustave Charpentier (Composer), Johann II [Junior] Strauss (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: George Frederick Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Liszt, Richard [1] Strauss, Sergey Rachmaninov, et al.
• Audio CD (August 11, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B000001GG5
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #156,334 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #31 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Divas > Battle, Kathleen

Editorial Reviews

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars E X C E L L E N T ! ! !, September 1, 2002

By 

"adelefalk" (Overland Park, Kansas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall (Audio CD)

Kathleen Battle, a woman with the voice today being known as that of an angel's. This CD includes some of the most famous lieder, melodies, italian art songs, arias, broadway, and spiritual pieces of all time. Some highlights would be Handel's "Ombra mai fu", one of his most beautiful and famous arias. Kathleen's recitative in "Ombra mai fu" is not boring at all, it is actually quite enjoyable to listen to, unlike most singers where you just hate their recitatives with a living passion.

Kathleen then moved onto Mozart, and instead of singing his lighter lyric arias that we are used to hearing from Kathleen, we hear two of his art songs. Perhaps one of his most famous art songs, "Ridente la calma" is a soft, pure, and gentle song about love, much like his "Deh Vieni" that Susanna sings in "Le Nozze di Figaro." Kathleen sings this with a soft purity that will just melt your heart. Her high notes are always right in the head, and her placement of notes is superb. Something you will want to play over and over again.

Liszt. A composer that most people know best for his piano music and not his vocal music. He did write some very pretty french melodies, such as "Oh! Quand je dors." It is very pretty, and haunting, and of course, only Kathleen could make it that way.

After the Liszt french set, we move on to a set of R. Strauss lieder, very pretty, and cute music. I still prefer the music of french, but Kathleen did do an amazing job on both lieder, her tone properly placed, her vowels in the correct place, just an amazing job.

Then comes in a set of Rachmaninov, including his "Vocalise", which is sung with excellent technique, breath control, vocal legato line, pure tone, every thing just excellent. Very haunting, making you get goose bumps up and down your spine. A great pleasure to hear.

Then we pull over on Broadway to hear one of Kathleen's broadway tunes, "Summertime" from 'Porgy and Bess.' The tone placed a bit differently then the placement on the classical, but that is still good, because "Summertime" is more jazz like then opera like.

My favorite on the CD is "Adele's Laughing Song" (Mein Herr Marquis) from 'Die Fledermaus,' with the great belly laughs sounding like Kathleen is really laughing. The expression in this aria is superb. The trills, the high Ds, the long run at the end are all very amazing showing off the very best of Kathleen's beautiful voice.

How ever, I did take off one star because of all the spirituals on this disc. I don't care for spirituals in the least, no matter who is singing them. It is not any thing that Kathleen did wrong, I just don't like them, and I think she could have saved the audience and her voice by cutting those pieces out, and if she really had to put one in she could have put in "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."

Overall, this is a very enjoyable CD. Buy it and enjoy for a lifetime. A true treasure.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous Singing, October 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall (Audio CD)

Miss Battle presents absolutely fantastic program and divine inspired singing. Of particular interest, there are five songs by Rachmaninov and Kathleen does full justice to them through wonderful Russian diction (which I can appreciate as a native speaker) and thorough understanding of difficult texts and scores. The great contralto Marian Anderson was in the audience and I have to thank DG for not excluding Kathleen's dedication of "In the silence of the night" to her. It makes the album very personal and endearing. Say what you will about her ways off-stage, but there should be no doubt that Miss Battle is one of the most talanted, versatile and dedicated artists of our time and an absolute delight to hear.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely, July 21, 2003

By 

Marcia A Cupples (Glenolden, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall (Audio CD)

Kathleen has a beautiful voice, and it's wonderful to have a CD that includes both traditional opera pieces as well as fun gospel songs. I recommend this!