Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Sublime, Deeply Poignant Collaboration Reflects the Love Story Between Two Astonishing Artists, January 4, 2007
It is impossible not to be moved by this wondrous recording by the estimable mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who passed away much too soon at age 52 last year. Possessing one of the most vividly lustrous and naturally radiant voices, she peaked at a later age than most of her fellow singers, allowing her the time and experience to build greater depth and texture into her exquisite interpretations. Sadly, Hunt Lieberson recorded sporadically during her career since she was something of a maverick when it came to managing her career. Beyond her exquisite vocal work on 2004's "Handel Arias" and 2003's "Bach Cantatas BWV 82 & 199", one of my prized possessions is the 2004 DVD of her luminous performance as Irene in the 1996 Glyndebourne Festival production of Handel's "Theodora".
With this posthumous release, we are fortunate to have a recording of her November 2005 performance in Boston's Symphony Hall under the baton of James Levine. Running scarcely over half an hour, the disc is all too brief, but the emotionalism is pungent with every movement. Impressed deeply by several love sonnets written by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, her husband Peter, the composer son of ballerina Vera Zorina and longtime Columbia Records CEO Goddard Lieberson, wrote lush musical settings for five of them. Each poem reveals a facet of love distinctive in its pronouncement as the succession of pieces moves from openly rapturous to inevitable grief at separation. One cannot help but draw parallels between the emotional arc of the compositions and Hunt Lieberson's long-running bout with cancer and her pending fate.
When one hears the unadorned joy in her voice in the first poem, "If your eyes were not the color of the moon", the intractable bond between composer and performer is palpable. The third poem, "Don't go far off, not even for a day" reflects an artist with an innate and highly plangent sense of her brief time on earth. However, it is the fifth poem, "My love, if I die and you don't", which really tugs most at the heartstrings as she sings of the eternal fate of true love in spite of any earthbound limitations a couple will face. The most sublime moment comes when she repeats the word "amor" at the end with a dream-like, faraway tone. This is magnificent, transcendent work from a singer for the ages and a composer whose enduring love for his wife has inspired his most profound work.
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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Song Cycle of the Century, December 26, 2006
If Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder was the great swan song that was hailed by many as the greatest lieder cycle set on score, then Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs, sung by his late wife Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, is perhaps the most insightful, passionate, and beautiful song cycle of our century. It harkens elements of Strauss' dissonant lyricism with a modern texture reminiscent of Webern and Berg, yet without the blaring atonality that detracts several novice listeners to their music. His careful, delicate orchestration sets a cool, plangent mood to the text of Neruda's poetry like a glove, and I adore the detail he gives the music. It does not sound overpowering, and rightly so because Neruda's fluid, passionate poetry deserves such a treatment.
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, in my opinion, is the greatest Handelian mezzo of the last two decades. Her committment to the music, her consummate artistry, and her gorgeous voice makes everything she touches a reference without the affected mannerisms of singers like Renee Fleming. I adore her Handel album (both of them!) and I love this even more! It is simply a most touching work, with honors going to the fifth song beginning with the words "My love, if I die, and you don't." She treats it with such love, such passion, that I ended up crying when she uttered that phrase. An artist like her will surely be remembered for the short, yet wonderful things she did in her prime unfortunately cut short.
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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sumptuous poetry, January 3, 2007
As a Pablo Neruda fan, I was swept away by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's interpretations and Peter's compositions. They suspend time and the heart in aria. As Mark Swed wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "Her final legacy was the Neruda Songs, her husband's exceptional beautiful love letter to her. These are among the most sumptuous orchestral songs ever written, and they are also a profuoundly inspiring public farewell by lovers." For an introduction to Neruda's poetry, I suggest City Lights' The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems which I had the honor of editing. As Pulitzer Prize winning Chilean/American writer Ariel Dorfman wrote, "What better way to celebrate the hundred years of Neruda's glorious residence on our earth than this selection of crucial works - in both languages! - by one of the greatest poets of all time. A splendid way to begin a love affair with our Pablo or, having already succumbed to his infinite charms, revisit him passionately again and again and yet again." The Bloomsbury Review wrote, "The call for a more accessible collection of Neruda's important poems is answered with City Lights' The Essential Neruda, a 200-page edition that offers 50 of Neruda's key poems. The editors and translators know how to extract gold from a lifetime of prolific writing. If you want a handy Neruda companion and don't know where to begin, this is it." The book makes an important accompanimient to Lorraine's incredible recording.
Peace,
Mark Eisner
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~ Lorraine Hunt
~ Johannes Brahms
~ George Frideric Handel
~ Orch. of Emmanuel Music
by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson 
