Customer Reviews

Songs My Father Taught Me

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a beautiful recording. It is wonderful to hear a contralto in all of her glory. Doing what suits her voice. The dramatic expression is the most exciting I have heard in years!

Like Claudia Muzio and other deceased singers invested with cult status, Kathleen Ferrier has been censured on grounds of faulty technique and (less fairly) of "dated" interpretations of music now performed with greater historical fidelity. Some of these criticisms of Ferrier openly target the reverence accorded her in Britain, where admiration for her art and personality can devolve into hagiography. Fortunately, two antidotes for such distortions are ready to hand: Christopher Fifield's artfully crafted presentation of her "Letters and Diaries" (2003), and this CD, which begins with Ferrier at the fag end of a New York dinner party (thrown by ... Andre Mertens?), presenting a rollicking parody of her own vocalizing - and of herself. Here is a carnival mirror edition of the "public" Ferrier, represented on this CD by a self-effacing yet regally articulated interview in Montreal. Reminiscences of distinguished colleagues are also provided, along with vocal recordings that suggest the range and depth of her work. And "depth" is the word, quite apart from her vocal register. The throaty laugh in the ludic tape that opens this collection is echoed in the somber resonance of her finest recordings; for Ferrier, like Muzio, can voice the core of disillusionment - less with existence than with hopes proved false, while she heralds the triumph of love retrieved from unworthy aims.

well they say you get what you pay for - meaning $5.98 might not be such a good cd !!! you couldn't be more wrong. this is a close up look and sound of kathleen. and we love her. not to be missed. voice/humor/not forgotten

A long-overlooked English talent, with a career cut tragically short. there are only a few of her (WWII era) recordings extant, but they are precious. This disk, contains her signature folk songs, sung in operatic style. A Talent taken too soon.