Episode 434. Inez Matthews Sings Schubert (and More!)

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To kick off Black History Month 2026 (which, contrary to the current US administration, is still a thing, and not just on Countermelody, either!), I present to you another Zwischenfach singer, the (mezzo-)soprano Inez Matthews. She was born in Ossining, NY on 23 August 1917 and died in the Bronx on 28 March 2004. She is probably most famous for singing the role of Serena on the legendary 1951 (nearly) complete recording of Porgy and Bess (as well as lending her voice to the 1959 Otto Preminger film) which was conducted by Lehman Engel and starred icons Lawrence Winters and Camilla Williams. She also created the role of Irina in Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars (opposite Todd Duncan, who created the role of Porgy in 1935). She also sang in the 1952 revival of Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein’s Four Saints in Three Acts, alongside her brother Edward, who created the role of Saint Ignatius in the work’s 1934 premiere. In spite of these impressive credentials, Inez Matthews today is not nearly as well-remembered as, say, either Winters or Williams. In addition to these accomplishments, Matthews also recorded in 1954 Schubert’s two major song cycles Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise as well as the posthumous Schwanengesang collection. That as early the mid-1950s Inez Matthews was the first Black artist (and only the second woman after Lotte Lehmann) to record those Schubert cycles, is extroardinary; that her performances are so exceptionally good, lends these recordings more than mere historical value. However, until the song cycles were recently reissued by Parnassus Records as part of their “Black Swans” series, these remained virtually inaccessible to listeners. Today’s episode includes selections from almost all the above-mentioned recordings, as well as an exceptional 1953 recording of spirituals accompanied by Jonathan Brice, brother of the esteemed contralto Carol Brice. And let us also tip our hats to Herr Schubert, who just celebrated his 229th birthday!

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Jonathan Brice (1911 – ??), as photographed by Carl Van Vechten

Traditional Spiritual, arr. Roland Hayes: You Must Come in By and Through the Lamb. Inez Matthews, Jonathan Brice [1953]

Virgil Thomson, Gertrude Stein: Four Saints in Three Acts [two excerpts]. Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Virgil Thomson [1947]

Edward Matthews in *Four Saints in Three Acts*

Pigeons on the grass alas [Vision of the Holy Ghost] Edward Matthews, Charles Holland, Altonell Hines, Abner Dorsey, Randolph Robinson, David Bethea.
Let it be why. Inez Matthews, David Bethea.

George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Du Bose Heyward: My Man’s Gone Now (Porgy and Bess). Inez Matthews, J. Rosamond Johnson Chorus, Orchestra conducted by Lehman Engel [1951]