Avsnitt
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Five years ago, I awoke to the horrifying news of the murder of George Floyd by a member of the Minneapolis Police Department. I had been working on cobbling together an episode on French Glamour, which quickly gave way instead to an impromptu episode of protest music through the ages which remains one of the Countermelody episodes of which I am most proud. Yesterday was the five-year commemoration of that horrific event, which sparked worldwide protests and which, for a while, seemed as if it might lead to systemic change. Five years later, we find ourselves in a true global nightmare. Almost everything that has changed has been for the worse, but my feelings about the system that has produced such calamity remains exactly the same as it has always been. For that reason, I am republishing that episode from five long years ago, in which I sought to “defer to those on the front lines to speak of their own experience and truth” in a program of protest music from the early twentieth century to the recent past. Nina Simone’s song of rage “Mississippi Goddam” was a guiding force as I put the episode together, but we hear from a wide range of singers, from Donny Hathaway, Micki Grant, Pete Seeger, Mahalia Jackson, Odetta, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, to Joan Baez, Cher, Barbra Streisand, Paul Robeson, and Marlene Dietrich. If you don’t want to hear a political program, for goddess’s sake, keep away, but if you do want to be infuriated, engaged, and ultimately uplifted, please listen in.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
I’ve been so lucky this week to cross paths with several beloved friends and colleagues, in some cases for the first time in ages. One of those friends of many years’ standing is the legendary countertenor Drew Minter, with whom I made my very first appearances on the New York concert stage… well, a few years back now! Seeing Drew made me think not only to his influence on me in my early years of singing, but also of the influence of the earliest (and still to my mind the greatest) of all American countertenors, Russell Oberlin. A few years ago, I dedicated a pair of episodes to him, and today I present to you the second of those episodes, originally fashioned exclusively for my Patreon subscribers, yet another “refurbished” Countermelody episode that now sees the light of day. I explore Oberlin’s performances of medieval and renaissance music, both with the New York Pro Musica (The Play of Daniel, Dufay, and Dowland) and with the Experiences Anonymes record label (Byrd and 13th Century French Polyphony). I also offer examples of Oberlin’s expertise in performance of baroque music, offering two Bach arias (one performed with Leonard Bernstein, the other with Glenn Gould), and several Handel selections, including a complete cantata from one of his rarer LP releases. In addition, we hear a live excerpt of his Oberon in Midsummer Night’s Dream opposite the late British soprano Joan Carlyle, as well as a surprising outing as one of the commedia dell’arte players in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, opposite the Zerbinetta of the great African American coloratura soprano Mattiwilda Dobbs. There are additional surprises along the way. The episode opens with a heartfelt tribute to Drew, my reunion with whom prompted this episode in the first place.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
Saknas det avsnitt?
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Benjamin Luxon, the esteemed Cornish baritone who died at the age of 87 last July, had one of the most wide-ranging repertoires of any singer of the past century, from the classical repertoire (including opera, oratorio, art song over the course of at least four centuries and in a host of languages, including work written expressly for him) through Victorian parlor song, to traditional folk. Additionally, in the early 1980s he recorded a trilogy of crossover albums for British RCA, all three of which are sampled on this episode. The first, Some Enchanted Evening, features show tunes; the second, As Time Goes By, a broad spectrum of movie-related songs; and the third, Something Else Again, highlights folk rock arrangements as well as original compositions by singer-songwriters of the period. In addition, I read from a particularly perceptive 2009 interview with Luxon in which he candidly discusses his hearing loss and how that impacted his singing career and his life as a performer.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
The earliest selection on last week’s Elisabeth Söderström episode featured the soprano at 24 singing the title role of Madama Butterfly. In that live recording, we also heard as Sharpless her compatriot the baritone Hugo Hasslo, to whom I introduced my listeners last fall. Today I dive a little bit deeper into Hasslo’s extant recordings. Considering what a great singer he was, and how his reputation has merely grown with the passage of time, it’s shocking how rarely Hasslo recorded in the studio. Therefore the majority of this episode consists of live recordings, from as far back as Hasslo’s operatic debut in 1940 as Guglielmo under the baton of Fritz Busch, through to his performance as di Luna alongside Jussi Björling’s final operatic appearance in Sweden twenty years later. Along the way we hear excerpts from Rigoletto, Il tabarro, Yevgeny Onegin (or should I say Eugen Onegin), Il trovatore, and… Porgy and Bess (?!?!). I also include a sample of the singing of Hasslo’s teacher, the Scottish tenor Joseph Hislop to show that the apple did not fall far from the tree! Other singers appearing on the episode include Sena Jurinac, Einar Andersson, Sigurd Björling, Eric Sædén, Margareta Hallin, Arne Tyrén, Aase Nordmo Løvberg, Apollo Granforte, and a surprise visit from last week’s subject, the transcendent Elisabeth Söderström.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
There are very few singers that mean more to me than does Elisabeth Söderström. I was first made aware of her at the tender age of ten, when I became obsessed with Pelléas et Mélisande after hearing the (at the time) brand new recording of the opera conducted by Pierre Boulez which featured Söderström and George Shirley in the title roles. Further explorations yielded further delights: the complete Rachmaninov songs with Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Janáček heroines under Charles Mackerras. I began grabbing every recording of hers that I could get, and every time I encountered her unique voice, frail yet passionate, I fell further and further under her spell. And then I saw her onstage, both in recital and as the Marschallin on the Met Tour and I became an even more passionate devotee. When I was recently reminded that May 7 was her birthday, I determined that it was time to revisit her legacy and artistry. Because she was so quintessentially Swedish, I have chosen a program featuring Söderström singing primarily in Swedish, including a healthy sampling of music by Swedish composers (Blomdahl, Nordheim, Lindberg, Alfvén, Larsson, Nystroem, and Rangström). And because she sang so many of her operatic roles in Swedish translation, we also get to hear her as Charpentier’s Louise and Puccini’s Cio-Cio-San. Vocal guest stars are fellow great Swedish singers Erik Sædén and Hugo Hasslo. Also expect some delicious and delightful surprises, as this most spontaneous and inspired of singers always had something unexpected up her sleeve!
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.
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Today I offer three different recordings of excerpts, sung in German, from Charles Gounod’s opera Faust, which was known in the day in Germany as Margarethe. The Germans have always regarded this work with more than a little scorn because it has so little to do with Goethe’s towering masterpiece upon which it is based. The earliest of today’s excerpts is from a complete 1908 recording on the Berlin branch of the Grammophon label (when such a thing as a complete operatic recording was virtually unheard of), featuring Emmy Destinn, Karl Jörn and Paul Knüpfer under the baton of Bruno Seidler-Winkler. Much later came two recordings of excerpts in German: the first released on Deutsche Grammophon in 1958 with stalwart recording artist Maria Stader; nonpareil Kavalierbariton Eberhard Wächter; fierce Finnish bass Kim Borg; and the late German lyric tenor Heinz Hoppe under Ferdinand Leitner. The latter was released on Philips in 1963 with Ernst Kozub (recently featured on a “rehabilitational” Countermelody episode; the extraordinary German bass Franz Crass, and Swiss mega-soprano Colette Lorand (soon to be featured in her own Countermelody episode) under Marcel Couraud. As a bonus, I also feature a very young Sylvia Sass in one of her very first recordings from 1975 singing Marguerite’s Jewel Song in Hungarian.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
Directly after the disastrous November election in the United States, I compiled a setlist for two episodes self-explanitorially entitled “Mezzos on the Verge” and “Mezzos in Extremis.” One of the featured singers was the great Russian mezzo-soprano Irina Arkhipova, whose 100th birthday on January 2 of this year was one of the few positive things to happen in January! I happened to have a number of LPs featuring Arkhipova, and this episode features material from a number of those records, plus a CD reissue from a few years back entitled “The Art of Irina Arkhipova,” which features the 1970 recording of Mussorgsky and Rachmaninov songs that the singer made in Moscow with my teacher John Wustman while they were judges in that year’s Tchaikovsky Competition. Arkhipova is also featured in songs by Tchaikovsky; Russian opera arias by Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky; and selections from both Carmen and Il Trovatore, which feature tenors Zurab Andzhaparidzye and Vladislav Piavko, the latter of whom was also Arkhipova’s protégé (and later husband).
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.
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I have been reminded over and over again in recent weeks of the preciousness of life as numerous dear friends and family members face loss of loved ones and their own life-altering health crises. This got me to thinking about how much my mentors have shaped my life. So with this latest episode I inaugurate a new Countermelody series entitled “Honor Your Mentors.”
I have already posted numerous times on the podcast about my beloved teacher John Wustman. This coming July my friend and colleague Chanda VanderHart’s monumental book Accompaniment in America: Contextualizing Collaborative Piano, co-authored with Kathleen Kelly and Elvia Puccinelli, will be published by Routledge. Chanda has put together an astonishing digital archive featuring a wealth of material related to the book: https://accompanimentinamerica.website/index.html Included in this material is an interview I did with Chanda about Mr. Wustman. Chanda has given me permission to include that interview on my podcast. This is supplemented by a sampling of (mostly) studio recordings of John featuring, among others, Régine Crespin, Carlo Bergonzi, Brigitte Fassbaender, Luciano Pavarotti, and Irina Arkhipova: truly an astonishing feast for the ears!
Additionally, I was enormously saddened last week to read of the death of Joan Caplan, my first serious voice teacher in New York, and a phenomenal singer in her own right. Joan also remained a close friend through the years. In recent years she had been living at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey. I was able to visit her there last summer and had intended to go see her again later this month. Alas, that can no longer happen, but I will also be featuring Joan in an upcoming episode in the “Honor Your Mentors” series. In her memory today, I present her in a scintillating recording of Orsini’s Brindisi from Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia.
Finally, though I’m sure no one needs to be reminded of this, please, my dears, tell all those you love how much they mean to you; don’t wait until their funerals to give them their flowers!
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
Only recently have I become fully aware of the exceptional voice and artistry of the late April Cantelo (02 April 1928 -16 July 2024). When she died last summer, I began more fully exploring her recorded output and to my surprise and delight, I found myself ranking her among the very finest 20th century British sopranos. It’s my great privilege to offer a full episode showing the wide range of musical genres that she effortlessly assayed. If her performances of Handel seemed near-definitive, it must also be remembered that she created the role of Helena in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream in the summer of 1960 and championed the work of countless contemporary composers, including two heard here, Hugh Wood, and Malcolm Williamson, with whose works in particular she was closely associated. She is also featured in recordings of Grieg, Berlioz, Arne, and Wagner.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
The composer Joseph-Marie Canteloube is primarily known for his lush orchestral arrangements of folk songs from his native Auvergne region. However, he also composed other work, including arrangements of French folk songs (from regions other than the Auvergne!) as well as original works including the lush orchestral song cycle Triptyque and a fascinating and unique cycle for voice and piano entitled L’arada (The Tilled Earth), set to poems in the Languedoc dialect. This work has been studied, promoted, and recorded by soprano Karen Coker Merritt, who deserves our especial thanks for bringing this unique work to our attention. Examples of all of these works are featured on this episode, which also does not shy away from exploring Canteloube’s difficult political legacy as a proud right-wing nationalist and supporter of the collaborationist Vichy government during World War II. I believe that we can and should decry such positions while at the same time exploring these works independently of and stripped (as much as possible) of their political associations. Performers (several accompanied by the composer himself) include Georges Thill, Karen Coker Merritt (performing two songs from L’arada with the exceptional pianist Sean Kennard), Geneviève Rex, Lucie Daullène, Véronique Gens, Netania Davrath, Bruno Laplante, María Bayo, and, transcendently, Frederica von Stade.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.
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This is the second part of an episode begun last week featuring the cream of the crop of today’s young artists. As with the performers heard last week, they represent the finest opera and classical singers working today; it is my distinct pleasure (and honor) to present them to you. They include sopranos Francesca Pia Vitale and Ewa Płonka; mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor; countertenors John Holiday, Key’mon Murrah, and Reginald Mobley (pictured); tenors Laurence Kilsby and Zachary Wilder; baritones Artur Ruciński and Theo Hoffman; and bass-baritones Philippe Sly, Joseph Parrish, and Georg Zeppenfeld in repertoire ranging from Monteverdi and Vivaldi to Rebecca Clarke, Hall Johnson, and Paul McCartney. It has been my pleasure to hear many of these singers live and I look forward to hearing them all again in person (and as soon as possible!)
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
I have been fascinated for years by operas performed in the vernacular, a phenomenon which was common in Germany until quite recently. Even more interesting in many ways is the performance of art song in the language of the audience. Some time ago I produced an episode featuring the Lieder of Franz Schubert performed in both French and Russian translation. As a supplement to that episode, I present here two of the featured artists from that episode, the French baryton martin Camille Maurane (1911 – 2010) and the Russian lyric tenor Ivan Kozlovsky (1900 – 1993), quintessential representatives of their respective vocal categories, both of whom happened to live well into their nineties. They are featured singing the songs of Schubert in their native languages in recordings made between 1946 and 1962. Certain songs are sung by both artists, allowing one to make direct comparisons between their very different vocal styles. In addition I feature excerpts from Schubert’s two supreme masterpieces, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, the latter excerpts sung in Finnish, Swedish, and English, with an additional shocking surprise before the end. The episode begins with brief memorial tributes to three significant musicians who have died recently: composer William Finn, basso buffo Peter Strummer, and Heldentenor Peter Seiffert.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
Today we celebrate 350 episodes of Countermelody since the inception of the podcast in the fall of 2019. Given that this is a momentous occasion (probably mostly to me, just for sticking with this thing!), I wanted to do something special today. For some time I have been promising an episode on Young Singers I Admire. This is different than the usual Countermelody fare because I almost always focus on great singers of the past. The world of the “opera singer” is very different today than when I was trying to carve out a professional career as a countertenor more than 30 years ago. I would say the huge difference is the way that social media has become such a prominent tool in shaping and maintaining a career. Even today, however, it is possible to do both of these things, to be a singer primarily focused on her technique and expressing the integrity of the music, as well as focusing on their marketing and their identity, whether that be queerness, Blackness, glamour, physical fitness, or whatever. Every single singer I feature today displays a solid and viable vocal technique and a profound connection to the music that they are singing while also, in most cases, deftly managing their online presence. Listen to these young singers and see if you don’t agree: sopranos Lisette Oropesa, Sabine Devieilhe, Nicole Car, and Vera-Lotte Böcker; contralto Jasmin White; mezzo-soprano Rachael Wilson; baritone Huw Montague Rendall; and countertenor Maayan Licht. Midway through constructing this episode, I realized that I had enough material for two episodes, so a pendant to this episode will be published next Easter Monday. It thrills me to celebrate these young artists: all possessors of gorgeous voices, fine technique, superb communicative powers, and a much, much better sense of entrepreneurship than I ever had!
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
I’ve already done a Lententide episode devoted to contraltos singing the music of Bach, but it seemed to me that in the upheaval of today’s vengeful and war-hungry world, we could use another contemplative episode to provide us with meditative (and even tuneful!) music to calm our spirits. The tunefulness comes especially from recordings of favorite religious music by Gounod, Franck, and other 19th-century French composers sung by Camille Maurane, Marcel Journet, Richard Verreau, and Françoise Pollet. Also included are a live excerpt from Parsifal with Jon Vickers and Hans Knappertsbusch; the miraculous yet voiceless Hugues Cuénod performing an excerpt from the first of Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres; the unsung German-British soprano Ilse Wolf in a live performance of the Bach Johannes-Passion conducted by Pablo Casals; Gundula Janowitz in a searing but brief aria from Mendelssohn’s Paulus; excerpts from settings of the Stabat Maters of Haydn and Dvorák, sung by Alfreda Hodgson, Sena Jurinac, and Heinz Hoppe; the original version of Hendrik Andriessen’s exquisite Miroir de Peine cycle for voice and organ featuring our beloved Elly Ameling; and Jennie Tourel in an excerpt from her ultra-rare recording of Hindemith’s Das Marienleben preceded by Lotte Lehmanns’s recitation of the same Rilke poem. The episode begins and ends with realizations by Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett of Baroque masters Henry Purcell and Pelham Humfrey sung, respectively, by Peter Pears and John Shirley-Quirk.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
After I post a Countermelody episode on a cherished singer, my relationship with these artists continues: one of those manifestataions is that I never stop seeking out rare and unusual recordings featuring those singers. This results in a grab-bag of fascinating and often obscure material that is simply too good not to share with my listeners. Today I present you with the second episode of such genre, which I have collectively dubbed “Rescue Mission.” On this episode I feature singers you’ve heard on the podcast over the course of the past several weeks and months, including, among many others, Janet Baker, Oralia Domínguez, Eugene Holmes, Ellabelle Davis, Gilda Cruz-Romo, Benjamin Luxon, Mara Coleva, Hugo Hasslo, Margaret Marshall, Gloria Davy, and Mady Mesplé, performing work by Handel, Verdi, Weill, Bach, Brahms, Boito, and Mozart. The episode concludes with Eleanor Steber (because, as I affirmed laast week, you can never have enough of her), in a 1949 performance of “Ah, Perfido!” that will have you picking your dislocated jaw up off the floor. Also expect shout-outs to friends of the podcast, old and new, as well as a certain amount of political snippiness!
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
Because there is no such thing as too much Eleanor Steber, today’s episode once again features the prodigiously gifted singer, in my opinion the greatest soprano the United States has ever produced, singing a dizzying range of material, most of it recorded live between the years 1958 and 1979. These recordings were nearly all private releases on Steber’s own record labels.. First, ST/AND Records, which she formed with her second husband Gordon Andrews, and which between 1960 and 1962 produced approximately fifteen LPs, all but one of them featuring Steber. Second, recordings released under the aegis of the Eleanor Steber Music Foundation, which she formed in 1973 and which released a few choice live recordings of Steber’s late career recitals. The material ranges from selections from the Christian Science Hymnal, piously presented; sentimental ballads, tackily arranged; Bach and Mozart arias; art songs by Rorem, Barber, Britten, Debussy, Berg, and Beethoven; and opera arias from I Puritani, Der Freischütz, Giulio Cesare, and Tosca, the last performed at her campy Live at the Continental Baths concert in October 1973. Though as Steber grew older, her voice occasionally sounded blowsy, on the vast majority of these recordings she sounds stunningly good. And no matter what repertoire she was singing, her impeccable technique and pristine musicianship remained intact throughout. Much of source material from which these performances stem is exceedingly rare, and for the most part difficult and costly to obtain. So in my role as supreme Steber groupie, I am honored and thrilled to share these recordings, all of them from my own personal collection.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
Hello, Campers! Once again it is April Fool’s Day, which means that here at Countermelody, we’re doing another in my “Alternate Universe Bel Canto” series. This year the featured diva is Olive Middleton, still remembered by a certain kind of opera lover who adores fearless singers who throw caution, technique, and discretion to the winds. In the case of Middleton, she became, late in life, the lead soprano of the La Puma Opera Company (officially titled the La Puma Opera Workshop), where she fearlessly undertook the most challenging soprano roles of the operatic repertoire. Today, as last year, I am joined by my friend the redoubtable Thomas Bagwell, whose love of bad taste and cringe-worthy artistic expression surpasses even mine. We have a rollicking conversation about Middleton, interspersed with choice live selections from La Puma in the 1960s. Along the way, we discuss the “so bad it’s good” phenomenon and its manifestations in film, on stage, and on the printed page, including an abominably bad poem about Olive that Thomas specifically for this episode. In the end, we arrive at many conclusions, first and foremost that singers like Middleton were motivated, in the words of John Ardoin, “a love for singing, a love for music, a love for her audience. She disperses this primary element in unstinting fashion, sharing with her public a devotion to and pursuit of art that is surely without parallel.” If you have not yet experienced the force of nature (and mind over matter) that is Olive Middleton, you are in for a listening experience like none you have ever had!
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
Over the course of the past year, I have done a number of episodes on contraltos singing a wide range of material. Toward the end of last year, I did a program on Bach contraltos, which featured just a few of the best (and my favorite) contraltos in this genre. At the time, I had an overflowing cornucopia of material and today I have reorganized and expanded that material to bring you a set of Bach arias particularly appropriate for the Lenten Season. And thus I present to you today, arias from the Passions sung by Julia Hamari, Marian Anderson (pictured), and Friedel Beckmann, but also cantata arias by such eminent contraltos as Kathleen Ferrier, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Carol Brice, Jennie Tourel, Carolyn Watkinson, Ria Bollen, Brigitte Fassbaender, Norma Lerer, Alfreda Hodgson, Birgit Finnilä, Elena Obraztsova (yes, you read correctly!), Anna Reynolds, and Else Brems. Non-contralto guest appearances include Arleen Augér, Peter Schreier, and Aldo Baldin. If you are not a Christian, fear not, for behold, there is much in Bach’s music that draws the listener in on any number of levels, not just (or even primarily) a theological one.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. -
This past March 7 would have been the 94th birthday of the great French coloratura soprano Mady Mesplé. This episode begins a new series of episodes devoted to “Queens of the Night,” the surprisingly wide variety of sopranos who at one time or another sang this role. After a sampling of Mesplé singing this role (in French), we also hear back to back comparisons with Janine Micheau (Mesplé’s teacher) and Mado Robin (one of Mesplé’s most famous predecessors); a Gounod duet with Nicolai Gedda; a stunning avant garde showpiece composed expressly for Mesplé; a series of mélodies by Debussy, Roussel and Ravel; a live late-career performance of Poulenc’s final composition, the dramatic monologue La Dame de Monte-Carlo; an effervescent live 1969 performance of Zerbinetta’s aria; and a deeply moving recording of La Mort de Socrate by Erik Satie. Further proof, if such were needed, of Mesplé’s versatility, virtuosity, and profound musicianship and humanity.
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.
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As a follow-up to my Mezzos on the Verge series, which seemed to resonate with so many of you, today I present the first in a new ongoing series, Over-the-Top Sopranos. As I first began exploring this repertoire, my first thoughts were focused on Italian repertoire. But then I gave myself the challenge of focusing on the French style instead, thinking that I would not have as easy a time of it. Was I ever wrong! There is such a profusion French (and non-French) singers going to the brink with life or death performances of French music that thrills one to the core. Naturally I focus on familiar composers of both French grand opera (Meyerbeer, Halévy, Gounod) and opéra-comique (Massenet, Bizet) but, as always with Countermelody, there are repertoire surprises along the way, including operas by Ernest Reyer and Sylvio Lazzari. And the wealth of sopranos heard here boggles the mind: again ranging from favorites such as Ninon Vallin, Rosa Ponselle, Mariella Devia, Germaine Lubin, Elisabeth Rethberg, and Carol Neblett, to such lesser-known lights as Andrée Esposito, Françoise Pollet, Madeleine Sibille, Mattiwilda Dobbs, Charlotte Tirard, and Margarete Teschemacher, alongside many others. This is the kind of episode I absolutely love to produce, one rich in both discoveries and old favorites, performed by old and new favorites. Goûtez-vous-en!
Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford. - Visa fler
