The Very Best of Jussi Björling

Jussi Bjorling (Artist), Giuseppe Verdi (Composer), Gaetano Donizetti (Composer), Giacomo Puccini (Composer), Georges Bizet (Composer), Ruggero Leoncavallo (Composer), Pietro Mascagni (Composer), Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Charles Gounod (Composer), Adolphe Adam (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti, Giacomo Puccini, Georges Bizet, Ruggero Leoncavallo, et al.
• Audio CD (April 22, 2003)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B000083GOH
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,808 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #95 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Operettas

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the very best, January 24, 2007

By 

Will (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Very Best of Jussi Björling (Audio CD)

Unless, you are as crazy as I am about Bjorling and willing to buy everything available anyway, this is the collection to purchase.

It includes the best of all the other compilations. The sound is very clean: much better than some of the records that I have with the same material.

The French stuff is wonderful -- especially Le Reve. There is something so melancholic about his voice. He doesn't need to act or add anything phony. As soon as he opens his mouth, you know this story is not going to end well.

The collection covers more than 20 years. It's amazing that the voice changed so little. His voice lost none of it beauty or power over the years.

Best Beethoven Adeliade ever. What a pity he never recorded any Schubert song cycles.

My God, this collection even includes Adam's Julsang -- which as far as I know existed only in a Swedish RCA 33 rpm. You will never think of "Oh, Holy Night" the same way again.

If you have not listened to Bjorling before, you will never think of some other famous tenors the same way either.

And a bargain. Two disks for $17? Start here.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine overview of career of great tenor, October 5, 2011

By 

Robert E. Simanski (Sterling, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Very Best of Jussi Björling (Audio CD)

Jussi Bjorling was one of the three greatest Italian-repertoire operatic tenors of the 20th Century, the others being Enrico Caruso and Luciano Pavarotti. Bjorling's career spanned the middle of the century, from 1935 to 1960. Caruso's widow said that Bjorling was the true successor to Caruso.

The content of this two-disc set, with a few minor differences, has been available since EMI issued three LPs of Bjorling's early recordings in the 1950s. They featured both arias and lieder recorded in the 1930s and 1940s. An earlier CD release on two separate discs duplicated the content of the LPs. For this two-volume set, EMI has dropped a couple of arias and added a few lieder.

Caruso recorded during the acoustical era, when the horns used to capture sound added distortion and their own tone to the recording. Therefore we don't know what Caruso really sounded like. Bjorling benefitted from electical recording, and his voice was a thing of beauty. Unlike Pavarotti, who tended to be a bit too emotional at times (he was Italian, after all), Bjorling believed in letting the music carry the emotion. His goal was to sing the music exactly as the composer intended, and in this he succeeded admirably. His sound was the purest that I have ever heard. His 1940s recording of Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" from the opera Turandot is the greatest single operatic-aria recording that I have ever heard, and it gives me chills whenever I hear it.

If you love Italian opera and you are not familiar with Jussi Bjorling's recordings, you owe it to yourself to buy this outstanding release.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Too Beautiful For Words, October 2, 2011

By 

Carolyn Luger - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Very Best of Jussi Björling (Audio CD)

Although Jussi Bjorling is known to have been one of the great tenors of the past,I admit that I was totally overcome by the beauty of his voice on this CD set. I had previously listened to a recording of his 1955 concert at Carnegie Hall which was also wonderful, but THE VERY BEST OF JUSSI BJORLING even topped that one.It's just a succession of one beautiful aria after another, each one delivered with seamless purity of tone. This music is meant to be savored.