On Saturday morning, Berta Joncus discussed recent Handel recordings on the CD Review programme on BBC Radio 3. Here selection of recordings included Handel's Alcina from the Bavarian State Opera under Ivor Bolton and Danielle de Niese's recent recital record with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. Joncus played de Niese's account of Tornami a vagheggiar and compared it with the same aria from the Bavarian State Opera recording. She complained that de Niese's version was slower and heaver than the Bavarian account, suggesting that de Niese sang this music with an essentially 19th century type technique, adding that on stage de Niese's personality was dazzling so that you forgave her these musical issues, but that on disc the problems were more noticeable.
It was interesting to hear somebody articulate what I had felt about de Niese's singing. As soon as Joncus made her comments I realised that it made a great deal of sense to me. There are number of singers on the circuit, David Daniels is another, who often seem to attach the baroque repertoire in the same way that they would sing Rossini. It seems that for much of the time this goes uncommented.
Monday, 2 June 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra I get all sorts of mail, people sending my information on concerts and recordings. Everything gets gl... -
Helen Charlston (Photo: Julien Gazeau) On 8 May, mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston has a new solo disc out on BIS . It is something of a contr... -
James Baillieu (Photo: David Ruano) From this year, pianist James Baillieu and conductor/composer Ryan Wigglesworth begin a three-year tenu... -
Peter Tranchell (Courtesy: Independent Society of Musicians) Peter Tranchell: Tu es Petrus in fuga , Seven Pieces in Alphabetical Order, The... -
Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida On 12 June 2016, a gunman opened fire at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The attack killed 49 ... -
Suddenly it's that time of year and the BBC Proms programme has been launched again. This year there are 72 concerts at the Royal Albert... -
Verdi: Rigoletto - Royal Opera (© ROH 2023 Photo: Tristram Kenton) Verdi: Rigoletto ; Liparit Avetisyan, Robyn Allegra Parton, Hansung Yoo,... -
Music in Hospitals & Care Music in Hospitals & Care is looking for people to join its Board of Trustees Music in Hospitals & C... -
Anton Reicha was a Bohemia-born, Bavarian-educated, later naturalized French composer, who was a friend and contemporary of Beethoven. Whils... -
The Guildhall of St George in King's Lynn (Image: Matthew Usher ) Founded in 1951, the King's Lynn Festival has a long and distingui...
You don't precisely define the "problem" of singing Handel with a "19th Century technique" (whatever that might be). If you mean that de Niese and David Daniels sing legato and allow their voices to vibrate naturally, I can only wonder why you think it a problem. Some of us would rather not hear the vibratoless marcato yodeling usually passes for Baroque singing, and we find the tendency of the newer singers like de NIese and Daniels to engage in something more or less recognizable as mainstream operatic singing anything but a problem!
ReplyDelete