Customer Reviews

Strauss: Four Last Songs; Death and Transfiguration; Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

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

 

 

This very fine recording serves as a true introduction to the art of Christine Brewer who is one of today's leading dramatic sopranos. She is ably assisted here by Donald Runnicles conducting a superb sounding Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Of great interest is the fact the Brewer and Runnicles have just released the complete 'Tristan und Isolde' and that may explain the very close mutual understanding of this taxing yet soul-satisfying music of Wagner.

Runnicles opens the CD with the Prelude to Tristan and is then joined in the 'Liebestod' by Brewer who sails over the orchestra with complete ease and without a hint of strain. Hers is a huge voice, lush throughout the registers, and flexible, sensitive, and commanding - all prerequisites for a great Isolde. She is magnificent here.

Runnicles wisely programs the 'Tod und Verklarung' of Richard Strauss and draws a powerful convincing performance from the Atlanta ensemble. Then, with the introduction of Strauss' musical line solidly given, Christine Brewer joins him for the radiant Four Last Songs. She has the power to make these songs soar with the seemingly unending line that Strauss wrote, never giving the feeling that she has any problem with the breathing of these extended phrases. Her enunciation is perfect and she gives poignant interpretations to these demanding songs. If 'Im Abendrot' doesn't fade away with the resignation that say Schwarzkopf had, then consider that fact that Brewer is new to this cycle and there is no doubt that living with these songs a bit longer will establish her as one of the finest proponents of them. Recommended without reservation. Grady Harp, October 06

The selection and the order of compositions, the unhurried pace of the conductor, and the artistic excellence of the performances, provide a full hour of musical rapture.

The editorial review by Robert Levine on Amazon sums it up. Further accolades are superfluous, except to mention that the program notes by Nick Jones are, as always, worth the price of the album.

Wagnerites, rejoice! The stylish, wimpy sopranos after Birgit Nilsson need be endured no longer. Ms. Brewer has the pitch and the power to lift Wagner's notes from the score to the heavens. This lady knows her Isoldes from her Mimis!

Many sopranos have recorded the Strauss songs; a powerful voice, delicately applied, seems to work best. It's impossible to decide on one recording of choice. Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Jessye Norman are the gold standard. Ms. Brewer is a worthy contender. To net: Brewer soars, Schwarzkopf broods, Norman soars broodily.

The Telarc recording is technically perfect, but perhaps a bit more. The "presence" of the solo voice is startling: as though one is seated directly before Ms. Brewer, surrounded by the orchestra. Curiously, there is no background noise whatsoever: no one fidgets in his chair, turns a page of the score, or fusses with an instrument. Have the 150+ musicians and technicians at the recording sessions acquired miraculous self-restraint? Or, has art taken counsel with electronic wizardry at the mixing/editing console?

I have heard Christine Brewer may times and find her performances warm and brilliant at the same time. I attended the first Atlanta performance of this program and loved it. I've also heard Runnicles many times in San Francisco. He sometimes seems to overpower the singers; I say "seems" to, because it turns out that he knows exactly what he is doing. His singers become instruments in the overall musical staging. In the Liebestodt, one often couldn't pick Brewer out, but, at the same time, the orchestra would have an especially radiant quality, which was coming, of course, from Ms. Brewer. However - Telarc did not appear to trust Donald Runnicles' musical judgment. The engineers seem to have tried to isolate and boost the soprano's sound so that she can be heard more distinctly. This also boosts the hall reverberation caused by her singing. It sounds as though Ms. Brewer was recorded separately, perhaps in a nearby airplane hangar. This is the worst sound I've heard from Telarc in a long time. It does some justice to the orchestra alone, but is really awful when Christine Brewer sings.

As the 4 last songs are my favourite song cycle, I had to purchase this after reading the wonderful reviews. Christine Brewer has the right voice type for Wagner and Strauss and her readings are impressive. Runnicles and the ASO provides able support, however there is a lack of build-up or tension to sustain the music and the overall effect is a tad disappointing. However, the recording is sonically perfect, with TELARC again providing fantastic sound

This is the history of my aural relationship with Christine Brewer: I first bought the Chandos CD of Barber's 'Vanessa' hoping that all the critical chatter would reveal a recording finer than that of Steber or of exerpts by L. Price or R. Fleming or C. Van Ness. DISAPPOINTED!!!

Then I acutally saw her onstage as Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes in Santa Fe. VERY GOOD!!!!!

Then I saw her onstage as Leonore in Fidelio here in San Francisco and she STANK!!!!!!!

Then I saw her in Opera in the Park before the start of the 2006/07 opera season in San Francisco, in which she sang "Non mi dir" from D. Giovanni and it was UNBEARABLE!!!!! Then she sang a standard pop tune mentioning her home town of St. Louis and it was MOST UNIMPRESSIVE!!!!!

So, I didn't have much hope for her Isolde in SF. I mean, if you can't sing Leonore, how could you possibly sing Isolde? But she did, and she did it WELL!!! I was in the balcony stratosphere, so whatever acting she might have been doing (meager, per the reviews) was lost on me, but her voice shone through the orchestra and, vocally, she was a vivid, vital character. There were no signs of fatigue in the third act, and her Liebestod was as fresh as her Curse, although it was a tad lacking in finesse. So, now I'm in a bit of a quandary about what to think of this singer with the essentially lyric sound whom they're trying to make the next Jane Eaglen (not a compliment, I assure you.)

I bought this CD with the hopes of a repeat of the Runnicles/Brewer Tristan evening.

But, as competently as she sings the Liebestod in this recording, it doesn't touch me at the core like Nilsson or Meier, or even Norman in a studio exerpt. Every note shines above the orchestra, but there's no connection to the text or to the emotion. We don't know that this beautifully proper-sounding Isolde is preparing herself to pass through the door of ecstasy to join her dead lover in solemn bliss. Runnicles is also to blame....he was much more expansive in the opera house.

The Death and Transfiguration inclusion is basically thematic, the Grundsatz or defining concept of the recording. Runnicles draws much tension and color from the ASO, making this performance of Strauss's tone poem, stolen from by so many film composers (especially John Williams), a memorable one.

I rather have the same thoughts about the Four Last Songs as I did about the Liebestod: Very properly sung without a bad note, but somehow lacking in sparkle. Not that these songs of reflection and farewell need sparkle, but a pointed melancholy would have sufficed as well. Not to be found here. I think Runnicles is as much to blame as Brewer: solemnity rules, which means that phrasing is languid and monotone. You can do a lot with melancholy, little with solemnity. But there is still much beauty.

So, I have a new-found respect for La Brewer, and hope that she can someday re-record the Strauss with Andrew Davis. We then might have the recording to cherish in the new millennium. Until then, I'll give her 4 stars and advise her to stop clipping phrases and to immerse herself in the texts. Then maybe 5.