Notes and Editorial Reviews
PURE DIVA: Tribute to Joan Hammond
•
Cheryl Barker (sop); Timothy Young (pn); Guillaume Tourniaire, cond; Queensland SO
•
MELBA MR 301129 (SACD: 78:45
Text and Translation)
TCHAIKOVSKY
Yevgeny Onegin:
Letter Scene.
VERDI
Otello:
Willow Song
and
Ave Maria.
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class="ARIAL12bi"> Don Carlo:
Tu che le vanità.
DVO?ÁK
Rusalka:
Song to the Moon
. KORNGOLD
Die tote Stadt:
Marietta’s Lied.
OFFENBACH
Tales of Hoffmann:
Elle a fui
. PURCELL
Dido and Aeneas:
When I Am Laid in Earth.
SETTLE
Shadows.
BISHOP
Home Sweet Home.
COATES
The Green Hills of Somerset.
TRAD
The Last Rose of Summer
Australian soprano Cheryl Barker has put together a wonderful tribute to her teacher, the undervalued Joan Hammond, and come up with a disc that is a true pleasure to experience. Part of that pleasure is the program itself, a varied and engaging mixture of repertoire that is hardly typical of most recital discs. And the other part is Barker’s intelligent, musical, sensitive singing.
Barker, whom I would guess is now in her early-50s, has retained her vocal luster through more than a quarter century of singing. There are a few flashes of a tremolo that was not there five or 10 years ago, but they are fleeting and do not distract from the overall beauty of her accomplishment here. She is a true lirico-spinto soprano (much like her teacher). She has neither the vocal plushness of a Tebaldi nor the weight of a Milanov; imagine a Sills with more vocal heft. The lower register is more than strong enough when called upon, she can float lovely
pianissimi
, and the voice takes on a plangent ring at climactic moments without turning hard. She has a wide range of colors at her disposal, which she applies intelligently. Above all, she sings with stylistic mastery, whether of the long floating lines of Desdemona’s scene from
Otello
or the passion and power of Tatiana’s Letter Scene from
Yevgeny Onegin.
Vocal collectors can probably point to a favorite classic version of many of these arias (Milanov’s
Rusalka
aria, Tebaldi’s “Willow Song,” and
Ave Maria
, Lehmann’s version of “Marietta’s Lied” sung with Tauber as a duet, as it is in the opera, or Vishnevskaya’s Tatiana). But we who love voices can never live with one recording of anything, knowing that no single performance can say everything there is to be said about an aria or song. The point of a recital disc of this nature is to provide genuine and lasting satisfaction through the range of material. Barker does that. Her singing is sensitive to text and mood, and to the shape and style of the music. The Hammond classics like
Home Sweet Home
and
The Last Rose of Summer
are sung with a simple beauty that holds the listener. The
Tote Stadt
scene is a highlight, with some gorgeous floated soft notes. Kudos to Melba, by the way, for not gopping up the songs with a saccharine orchestration, but allowing Barker to be accompanied by a single piano, lovingly played by Timothy Young.
The Queensland Symphony Orchestra plays well throughout, though I would have liked a darker and richer string sound in the
Onegin
scene, and Guillaume Tourniaire accompanies sensitively without over-indulging the singer. He brings both lyricism and rhythmic spine to the music. Melba’s sound (heard in two-channel stereo) is superb, suffering from none of the artificial “ambience” that one finds on too many vocal recordings these days. It is well balanced with the voice a bit forward without slighting the orchestra. Superb notes about Hammond by the late, lamented John Steane round out the package. I expect to return to this disc many times.
FANFARE: Henry Fogel
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Works on This Recording
1.
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24: Tatiana's letter scene by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Performer:
Cheryl Barker (Soprano)
Conductor:
Guillaume Tourniaire
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1877-1878; Russia
2.
Otello: Piangea cantando...Ave Maria by Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Cheryl Barker (Soprano)
Conductor:
Guillaume Tourniaire
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1887; Italy
3.
Don Carlos: Tu, che la vanitá conoscesti del mondo by Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Cheryl Barker (Soprano)
Conductor:
Guillaume Tourniaire
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1867/1884; Italy
4.
Rusalka, Op. 114/B 203: O moon high up "Song to the moon" by Antonín Dvorák
Performer:
Cheryl Barker (Soprano)
Conductor:
Guillaume Tourniaire
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1900; Bohemia
5.
Die tote Stadt, Op. 12: Glück, das mir verblieb "Mariettalied" by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Performer:
Cheryl Barker (Soprano)
Conductor:
Guillaume Tourniaire
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1920; Vienna, Austria
6.
Les contes d'Hoffmann: Elle a fui, la tourterelle! by Jacques Offenbach
Performer:
Cheryl Barker (Soprano)
Conductor:
Guillaume Tourniaire
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1881; Paris, France
7.
Dido and Aeneas, Z 626: Thy hand, Belinda...When I am laid in earth by Henry Purcell
Performer:
Cheryl Barker (Soprano)
Conductor:
Guillaume Tourniaire
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Period: Baroque
Written: 1689; England
8.
Shadows by Ronald Settle
Performer:
Cheryl Barker (Soprano)
Conductor:
Guillaume Tourniaire
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
9.
Clari: Home, Sweet Home by Henry Bishop
Performer:
Cheryl Barker (Soprano)
Conductor:
Guillaume Tourniaire
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1823; England
10.
The Green Hills o' Somerset by Eric Coates
Performer:
Cheryl Barker (Soprano)
Conductor:
Guillaume Tourniaire
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1916; England
11.
The last rose of summer by Traditional
Performer:
Cheryl Barker (Soprano)
Conductor:
Guillaume Tourniaire
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
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