Episode 487. Jill Gomez In Memoriam
Jill Gomez, the brilliant, intrepid Trinidadian-British soprano, known for the last fifteen years of her life as Jill Carnegy, Countess of Northesk, died on August 11, just a few weeks short of her 84th birthday. She is a singer that I have loved and followed for decades, and one whose recordings I collected assiduously and that I had earmarked for a special celebratory episode, one that, like with Ben Luxon a few years ago, is instead being offered as a posthumous tribute. Not nearly as universally known as her younger colleague Felicity Lott, who died this spring, Gomez was a similarly eclectic, adventurous artist. Her accomplishments covered the gamut from the classiest, most pristine singer of Baroque music, to the most deep-delving recitalist, from the most playful purveyor of crossover material to the creator of roles in challenging contemporary operas including Michael Tippett’s The Knot Garden in 1970 and Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face 25 years later. She also sang a wide range of operatic parts (primarily in the UK) from Mozart to Massenet. This episode, which includes collaborations with Robert Tear, Pierre Boulez, Franz Grundheber, John Constable, Ria Bollen, Felicity Palmer, and Benjamin Luxon, presents as wide-ranging a portrait in sound as you are ever likely to encounter anywhere, including excerpts from all the works mentioned above, to music by Ravel, Donizetti, Turina, Mahler, Schumann, Rameau, Wolf, Monteverdi, Debussy, Pergolesi, and Britten. The icing on the cake is an intimate and exquisite rendition of Satie’s “Je te veux” that will remain in your mind’s ear long after the episode is over.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Maurice Ravel, Stéphane Mallarmé: (Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, M. 64/1). Jill Gomez, Pierre Boulez, Members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra [Howard Shelley, David Butt, Christine Messiter, Colin Bradbury, Roger Fallows, Eli Goren, Jeffrey Wakefield, John Coulting, John Boyce] [1977]
Joaquín Turina, Ramon de Campoamor: Cantares (Poema en forma de canciones, Op. 19). Jill Gomez, John Constable [1975]
Robert Schumann, Moritz Hörn: Nimm hin mein Glùck, du kleines Herz (Die Rose Pilgerfahrt, Op. 112). Jill Gomez, Ian Partridge, Pierre Boulez, BBC Symphony Orchestra [live London 09.IV.75]
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Simon-Joseph Pellegrin [after Jean-Baptiste Racine]: Amants, quelle est votre faiblesse (Hippolyte et Aricie). Jill Gomez, Anthony Lewis, English Chamber Orchestra [1966]
Claudio Monteverdi: Pulchra es (Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610). Jill Gomez, Felicity Palmer, Nicholas Kraemer, Malcolm Hicks, Alastair Ross, Robert Spencer, Jennifer Ward Clarke [1974]
George Frideric Handel, John Dryden: But oh! what art can teach (Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, HWV 76). Jill Gomez, Philip Ledger, English Chamber Orchestra [1981]
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Quis est homo (Stabat Mater). Jill Gomez, Ria Bollen, Karel Aerts, Kamerorkest Marjeta Delcourte-Korosec [1977]
Gaetano Donizetti, Domenico Gilardoni [after Molière, Charles-Gaspard Delestre-Poirson, Eugène Scribe]: Già vel promisi, e basta… Un raggio in quel detto (Il giovedì grasso). Jill Gomez, Ugo Benelli, David Atherton, Radio Telefis Eireann Symphony Orchestra [live Wexford VIII.1970]
Michael Tippett: Flora; Flora, love, stop crying (The Knot Garden). Jill Gomez, Robert Tear, Yvonne Minton, Colin Davis, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden [1973]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte [German version by Ernst Poettgen, after Hermann Levi, Walther Dürr: Ach, schweig mein Herz, sei stille! [Ah, taci, ingiusto core] (Don Giovanni). Jill Gomez, Franz Grundheber, Hans George Ahrens, Wolfgang Gönnenwein, Orchester der Ludwigsburger Festspiele [1978]
Jules Massenet, Louis Gallet [after Anatole France]: Baigne d’eau tes mains et tes lèvres (Thaïs). Jill Gomez, Thomas McKinney, Jacques Delacôte, Orchestra of the Wexford Festival [live Wexford X.1974]
Claude Debussy: De Grève (Proses Lyriques, L. 90a/2). Jill Gomez, John Constable [1974]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Das Veilchen, K. 476. Jill Gomez, John Constable [1977]
Hugo Wolf, anonymous Spanish text arranged and translated Paul Heyse: In dem Schatten meiner Locken (Spanisches Liederbuch, II/25). Jill Gomez, John Constable [1994]
Traditional French [Auvergne], collected, arranged, and orchestrated Joseph Canteloube: L’Antouèno (Chants d’Auvergne, Book II/2). Jill Gomez, Vernon Handley, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra [1985]
John McCabe, Anonymous medieval text: Somnia (Notturni ed alba, No. 4). Jill Gomez, Louis Frémaux, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra [1973]
Alberto Dominguez, Milton Leeds, arranged by Jeff Atmajian: Perfidia. Jill Gomez, Barry Wordsworth, National Philharmonic Orchestra [1990]
Benjamin Britten, W.H. Auden: When you’re feeling like expressing your affection. Jill Gomez, Martin Jones [1992]
Gustav Mahler, text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, collected and arranged Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim: Selbstgefühl (Seven Early Songs, orchestrated David Matthews). Jill Gomez, John Carewe, Bournemouth Sinfonietta [1992]
Wiliam Alwyn [after August Strindberg]: You know why I came here tonight… Midsummer Night, O, night of magic (Miss Julie). Jill Gomez, Benjamin Luxon, Della Jones, Vilem Tausky, Philharmonia Orchestra [1979]
Thomas Adès, Philip Hensher: So that is all (Powder Her Face). Jill Gomez, Thomas Adès, Almeida Ensemble [1998]
Erik Satie, Henry Pacory: Je te veux. Jill Gomez, John Constable [1988]