Episode 460. A Countermelody Nosegay (Mostly Mezzos Edition)

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One of my favorite kinds of episodes to produce is the potpourri a collection of singers. Music, and recordings, that is charming and enchanting me at that given moment. Sometimes there’s even an overriding theme, however hard I have to tax my cognitive powers to devise one! Such is today’s episode, which began as a setlist that I compiled about six months ago and never got around to turning into an episode. As I was re-arranging this setlist last week, I realized that I had a particularly enchanting bouquet of musical delights, or, to coin a favorite word from my childhood, a “nosegay.” I ended up culling out all but one of the male singers I had programmed, and found myself with a list of primarily mezzos and contraltos. Hence the title of today’s episode, the pendant of which, featuring a similar complement of tenors, will follow anon. Today’s bevy of vocal beauties includes such old favorites of mine as Helen Watts, Ninon Vallin, Lisa Kirk, Mitsuko Shirai, Tatiana Troyanos, Elena Obraztsova, Sarah Walker, and Françoise Hardy; joined by new favorites Gertrude Niesen, Mimi Hines, Viorica Cortez, Marie Thérèse Escribano, and Helen Merrill, with the slender but delectable voice of long-lived Swiss tenor Hugues Cuénod guiding the way to the treasure trove of tenors that will follow in his wake in a few weeks.

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Henry Purcell, Henry Heveningham [after William Shakespeare]: If music be the food of love. Helen Watts, Thurston Dart, Desmond Dupré [1957]

Arnold Schoenberg, Stefan George: Litanei [Tief ist die trauer] (String Quartet No. 2 in f# minor, Op. 10/3). Marie Thérèse Escribano, Ramor Quartet [Erwin Ramor, Andreas Sandor, Zoltan Thirring, Vera Nogrady] [1962]

Traditional British, arr. Maurice Jacobson: Ca’ the yowes. Kathleen Ferrier, John Newmark [1950]

John Dankworth, Spike Milligan: English Teeth. Sarah Walker, Roger Vignoles [live Dartington Hall, Devon 1982]

Alec Wilder: Soft as Spring. Helen Merrill, Hal Mooney and His Orchestra [1957]

Alec Wilder, William Engvick: A Heart to Call My Own. Lisa Kirk, Percy Faith and His Orchestra [1956]

Alec Wilder blowing bubbles as an amused Marian McPartland looks on.

Vincent Youmans, Edward Eliscu: Orchids in the Moonlight. Gertrude Niesen [radio recording IX.1937]

Jule Styne, Bob Merrill, arr. Don Costa: People (Funny Girl). Mimi Hines, Orchestra conducted by Phil Ford [1967]

Guy Bontempelli: Ma jeunesse fout le camp. Françoise Hardy, Orchestra conducted by Charles Blackwell [1967]

Emmanuel Chabrier, Eugène Leterrier, Albert Vanloo: Ô petite étoile du destin (L’étoile). Ninon Vallin, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande [Swiss Radio Recording, Génève 07.II.1941]

Emmanuel Bondeville [after William Shakespeare]: Ô douleur d’être seule (Antoine et Cléopâtre). Viorica Cortez, Louis De Froment, Grand Orchestre Radio-Télé-Luxembourg [1977]

Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky [after Friedrich Schiller, et. al.]: Yes, the hour has come… Farewell, forests [Да, час настал… Прости, прелестная природа] (The Maid of Orleans [Орлеанская дева]). Elena Obraztsova, Boris Khaikin, Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra [1965]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pietro Metastasio: Ah, perdona al primo affetto (La clemenza di Tito). Benita Valente, Tatiana Troyanos, Julius Rudel, New York City Opera Orchestra [1991]