Lorraine Hunt - Lorraine Hunt Lieberson - Handel Arias
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Free Music Notes for Lorraine Hunt Lieberson - Handel Arias
Free Music Review: a bit of self indulgance here
Hit: 3 Stars
I must dissent a bit on the ravs this recording has received. For one thing, the tempi chosen in the Theodora arias are extremely slow, so slow in fact that the music almost seems to stop or at least hang there in mid-air. I have never heard these done anywhere near these tempi. This recording is a real outlier in that respect, for those statisticians out there. My feeling about the whole cd in general is that Hunt's voice is wonderful, but the performances show some signs of self indulgance, as in, "if I can sing it this way and it sounds good, I'll do it and the music be damned! " I have seen this in many other singers who started as fresh artists and then the fan applause went to their heads and they later became a caricature of their former selves. Examples would include: Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Battle and Pavoroti. I'm sure others came come up with other names. Whether Hunt-Leiberman is going down that road only time will tell. For me, most of this cd is an exercise in perversity.
I would not kick it out of my collection. It is a good example of an ego gone to far.
Free Music Review: Consistent excellence
Hit: 5 Stars
This CD comes well recommended and other reviewers have sung the odes. I cuncur that the performance is evenly excellent; everything sung with feeling and drama. Her "Ombra mai fu" raises hopes that the future will provide us with a brilliant Xerxes. I began to lament....why wasn't she recorded as Xerxes instead of the unattractive performances given in some modern recordings? The selection of arias from Theodora is a personal favourite though I still maintain that Susan Bickley's performance in the complete recording remains peerless.
There is no shortfall....Ms. Hunt-Lieberson delivers the full package and more.
Free Music Review: The joy of enlightenment
Hit: 5 Stars
I bought this album on the strength of the New Yorker review that compared Hunt Lieberson's and Fleming's recordings of Ombra mai fue. The amazing thing is that every time I listen to this recording it gets better--more insight, more nuance, more artistic control. Well, obviously, I'm just starting to catch up with the quality of the interpretations. The best thing I can say about it is that it makes Handel relevant. And if you think about it, here in the 21st century, over 250 years since the composer's death, that's the most remarkable thing. Don't buy it to understand great singing--although you will--nor to understand the texture of baroque performance practice--although it snaps the music into focus like a Leica lens; buy it because it will make clear to you that Handel's place in the musical empirium with Haydn and Schubert--and just below the divine three--is entirely earned.Free Music Review: A Voice To Lift A Thousand Hearts
Hit: 5 Stars
The female voice is the most poignant weapon available to a composer, and it is used here with power, control, elegance, and delicacy. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson sang some of this music at Glyndebourne (Handel's opera Theodora, available on DVD-ASIN B00023BN4M) and it was, according to the reviewers, "one of the most vocally beautiful and dramatically committed characterizations imaginable."
It is much, much more than that. It is an emotional ambush, and the music lover who does not weep on hearing this beautiful recording has no soul. Sometimes you get more than perfection, and this is one of those times.
Lieberson is magnificent, but there are many heroes on this recording--Harry Bicket (conductor of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment-a wonderful, true name), still at the time of the recording a half-year away from his triumph at the Met, and the recording engineers. But perhaps most of all, second only to Lieberson, Phoebe Carrai and the celli of the Orchestra who cradle her voice in a mother's hands.
I wasn't prepared for this experience, and the emotional impact was amazing. I had heard part of the recording ("Ombra mai fu") at a Christmas party full of musicians. Everyone hushed, even the children--it was that compelling. I knew this was going to be special, but at home, playing the whole CD for the first time, I heard "As with rosy steps..." from Theodora and was stunned.
Of course Lorraine has a beautiful voice, but she also has breath control which allows her an interpretative freedom that simply sets her apart and above her contemporaries. The notes may be as fragile as dandelion seeds on the wind, but they alight where she wills them to, and with an intelligence, taste, and delicacy that is hard to believe. What we hear is years of effort spent developing the instrument and the interpretative insight that directs it.
On the other hand, one of the true glories of this recording is the orchestral playing, directed by Bicket. The strings are ravishing, especially the celli. I have never heard playing like this; it is rich, glowing, elegant, and emotive. I have to say that, however beautifully Lorraine Hunt Lieberson sings, if it were not for the strings that surround and support her voice, this disk would not have been a leading Grammy candidate. But paired, the vocal and instrumental lines create something without parallel.
This is one of "The Great Recordings."
Free Music Review: Vocalism and musicianship on a very high plane.
Hit: 5 Stars
The difference between this disc and that of Ms. Flemings Handel offering is notable. First, the repetoire does not intersect, except for the ubiquitous 'Ombra mai fu'. One is a mezzo and one a soprano, so that does not surprise. Both ladies sing admirably, and I don't wish to disparage Ms. Fleming, but Mrs. Lieberson has to my ear the much more compelling offering. There is much to praise here. First, her intonation is ever faultless. That's a far tougher feat than one might think, but she is always directly on pitch. Her control of the trill is astounding, and she uses even the oscillations to very great effect. Next, her diction, (whether in English or Italian) is impeccable. If you think that doesn't matter, it's probably because you don't notice it, but when a singer is sloppy with diction, then it becomes glaringly obvious. The result with Lieberson is that you are not distracted by this, nor is the magnificence of the music impeded because of it.
Most of the arias on this disc are not the coloratura barnburners that Ms. Fleming has chosen. To be sure, she can handle the coloratura line with aplomb (il suol che preme, Questi la disperata). The ambience is different. This is a collection of reflective arias, but highly effective. What emerges is singing of integrity and power that is all too rare. The singing here is clarion, pure, and tremendously moving. This is a disc that gets better with repeated listenings. The playing of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is wonderful, and Harry Bicket is the same able accompanist here as he is for Ms. Fleming.
Finally, one of the reasons to be so enthusiastic about Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is that she seems to eschew the marketing über alles mentality of various record label execs. With her, it is ALL about the music. If you don't think this is a problem, take a look at some of the reviews of Ms. Flemings disc.
"She looks just gorgeous on the cover photo". How many sopranos would choose a photo as Mrs. Lieberson has done - plain black robe, dim lighting, no makeup. It's refreshing for a singer to be so unaffectatious about her art, and artist she is.