Episode 401. Sena Jurinac, Liedersängerin
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SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM
On October 24, we observe the 104th birthday of the nonpareil Croatian soprano Sena Jurinac. Like Hildegard Behrens, whose prowess as a purveyor of art song we explored a few weeks ago, Jurinac was best known as an opera singer, specializing (in her case) in Mozart and Strauss heroines, though she was also beautifully suited to the Lieder repertoire. Jurinac was a singer of enormous warmth, poise, and humanity gifted with a voice that combined warmth and ease. It was her directness and spontaneity which, alongside her peerless musicianship and rock-solid vocal technique, has made her a favorite of many generations of lovers of great singing. Central to this episode is a rare 1976 album of Lieder by Johannes Brahms, which displays, even more than thirty years after her operatic debut, all her most treasurable qualities. The Brahms is supplemented by her 1953 studio recording of Ottorino Respighi’s extended vocal chamber work Il tramonto, a setting in Italian of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “The Sunset”; as well as a rare live 1961 recording of Richard Strauss’s “Im Abendrot” from his Vier letzte Lieder, like the Respighi a meditation on two souls at the setting of the sun.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Sena Jurinac singt Lieder von Johannes Brahms [1976]. Sena Jurinac, soprano; Georg Fischer, piano. Poets listed below.
Friedrich Halm: Der Jäger, Op. 95/4
Georg Friedrich Daumer: Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen, Op. 32/2
Georg Friedrich Daumer: Ach, wende diesen Blick, Op. 57/4
Klaus Groth: Wie Melodien zieht es mir, Opl 105/1
Heinrich Heine: Sommerabend, Op. 85/1
Eduard Mörike: Agnes, Op. 59/5
Paul Heyse: Mädchenlied, Op. 107/5
Volkslied: Die Trauernde, Op. 7/5
Detlev von Liliencron: Maienkätzchen, Op. 107/4
Volkslied: Vergebliches Ständchen, Op. 84/4
Karl Candidus: Alte Liebe, Op. 72/1
Georg Friedrich Daumer: Schön war, das ich dir weihte, Op. 95/7
Detlev von Liliencron: Auf dem Kirchhofe, Op. 105/4
August Graf von Platen: Wie rafft’ ich mich auf, Op. 32/1
Traditional Hungarian, adapted Hugo Conrat: Zigeunerlieder, Op.103:
- I. He, Zigeuner, greife in die Saiten ein!
- II. Hochgetürmte Rimaflut
- III. Wißt ihr, wann mein Kindchen
- IV. Lieber Gott, du weißt wie oft
- V. Brauner Bursche führt zum Tanze
- VI. Röslein dreie in der Reihe
- VII. Kommt dir manchmal in den Sinn
- VIII. Rote Abendwolken ziehn am Firmament
Ottorino Respighi, Roberto Ascoli [after Percy Bysshe Shelley]: Il tramonto, P. 101. Sena Jurinac, Barylli String Quartet [Walter Barylli, Otto Strasse, Rudolf Streng, Richard Krotschak] [1953]
Richard Strauss, Joseph von Eichendorff: Im Abendrot (Vier letzte Lieder, AV 150/4). Sena Jurinac, Malcolm Sargent, BBC Symphony Orchestra [live London 11.IX.61]
