March: Featured Classical Music

Siegfried
OP1426. Live Performance, 13 Jan., 1962, w.Leinsdorf Cond. Hans Hopf, George London, Paul Kuën, Gottlob Frick, Birgit Nilsson, Jean Madeira, Martina Arroyo, etc. (Slovenia) 3-Melodram GM 5.0064. $39.95, the Set.

“Nilsson’s Brünnhilde is the revelation of the afternoon. Brilliant tone, secure top notes, thrusting energy of phrase – these are the expected elements of any Nilsson portrayal, and they surface in the final joyous phrases of the grand duet. But they are the lesser components of her beautiful conception and execution of the entire scene….with the loveliest, gentlest tone, like a sliver of silver from the most innocent and youthful of maidens. Banished is the warrior from voice and heart….In page after page of the score, the soprano underplays, maintaining a stream of argent tone, tenderly embracing Wagner’s phrases. The ice inherent in Nilsson’s voice has melted – only its purity remains.”

- Paul Jackson, SIGN-OFF FOR THE OLD MET, p.294

Petre Munteanu
V1153. w.Franz Holetschek (Pf.): Die Schöne Müllerin; Schwanengesang
(both Schubert); Dichterliebe; Liederkreis; Myrthen (all Schumann). (Austria) 3-Preiser 89306, recorded 1952 & 1954, Westminster. $49.90, the Set.

“The word that best describes [Munteanu’s] singing is ‘delicacy’. The voice is a leggiero in the best sense of that category. It is a light tenor, suffused with an attractive, flicker vibrato, and capable of melting sweetness of tone. He reminds one of Schipa….This is singing of rare grace and fastidious taste, and always accomplished with charm and a real ‘face’….To represent this aristocrat of a tenor in your collection is precisely what record collecting is all about.”

- Larry Lustig, THE RECORD COLLECTOR, 2004