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 Beverly Sills - Plaisir d'Amour
Release Date: 11/24/1998 
Label:  Sony   Catalog #: 60576   Spars Code: ADD 
Composer:  Jean Neuburger,  Georges Bizet,  Franz Liszt,  Charles Gounod,  Charles Koechlin, 
Léo Delibes,  Francis Poulenc,  Eva Dell'Acqua,  Enrique Granados, 
Manuel Ponce,  Carlos Castellanos,  Johann Paul A. Martini
Performer:  Beverly Sills,  Paige Brook
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Symphony Orchestra,  New York Philharmonic

Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 0 Hours 48 Mins. 

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Notes & Reviews   Works on This Recording  
This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic and includes liner notes.
 Notes & Reviews Back to Top 
In the introduction to this disc, Beverly Sills notes that her 1975 album of French song came as a "wonderful change of pace . . . from the loony ladies of Donizetti and Bellini [she] was singing so often at that time." But aside from recalling her friendship and working relationship with conductor André Kostelanetz, her memories are vague. She was apparently quite ill, but the sessions ("with the New York Philharmonic," she writes, though the orchestra is listed as the Columbia Symphony) could not be rescheduled. And she admits to having no memory of recording the three Spanish items at all. These are from 1961, with the New York Philharmonic also under Kostelanetz, and released here for the very first time. Fortunately Sills's thoroughly committed, engaging singing speaks volumes. Yes, she was past her vocal prime by the mid-70s, and the recorded acoustic for the French recital is decidedly odd, the voice seeming to float about in some sort of over reverberant chamber. But no matter. Here is an artist fluent in French, with a secure knowledge of French musical style, and a thoroughly solid musical technique, putting this largely unfamiliar program across as well as can be imagined. Sills's vocal timbre is of course instantly identifiable and communicatively personal; thus the disc also succeeds in conveying her ability to make listeners feel she was singing just for them, a trait so consistently appreciated by her audiences throughout her career. The most familiar items are Liszt's Oh, quand je dors and Poulenc's Les chemins de l'amour, the latter sung with impressively compelling restraint. And few can have given truer, more meaningful voice to Koechlin's Si tu le veux ("Unseen by anyone . . . I shall tenderly sing you a song of love . . ."). The three Spanish numbers are a welcome bonus, even if the disc's overall timing remains noticeably short. The closing number, Castellanos's La morena de mi copia ("The dark woman"), gives Sills an opportunity to kick up her heels, but Ponce's gentle Estrellita ("Little star who shines so bright in heaven . . . and sees my broken heart . . .") will linger in the mind as well.

FANFARE: Marc Mandel

 Works on This Recording Back to Top 
1.  Parlez-moi d'amour by Jean Neuburger
Performer:  Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: France 
 		Date of Recording: 10/1975 
Venue:  Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC 
Length: 3 Minutes 16 Secs. 
Language: French 
Notes: This work was written under the pseudonym Jean Lenoir. 
2.  Vasco da Gama: Ouvre ton coeur by Georges Bizet
Performer:  Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: France 
 		Date of Recording: 10/1975 
Venue:  Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC 
Length: 2 Minutes 17 Secs. 
Language: French 
3.  Oh! quand je dors, S 282 "Élégie Etienne Monnier" by Franz Liszt
Performer:  Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1842/1859; Germany 
 		Date of Recording: 10/1975 
Venue:  Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC 
Length: 4 Minutes 38 Secs. 
Language: French 
4.  Mireille: O légère hirondelle "Waltz Song" by Charles Gounod
Performer:  Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1864; France 
 		Date of Recording: 10/1975 
Venue:  Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC 
Length: 1 Minutes 54 Secs. 
Language: French 
5.  Mélodies (5), Op. 5: no 5, Si tu le veux by Charles Koechlin
Performer:  Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1894; France 
 		Date of Recording: 10/1975 
Venue:  Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC 
Length: 3 Minutes 1 Secs. 
Language: French 
6.  Les Filles de Cadiz "Chanson Espagnole" by Léo Delibes
Performer:  Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: France 
 		Date of Recording: 10/1975 
Venue:  Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC 
Length: 5 Minutes 5 Secs. 
Language: French 
7.  Léocadia: Les chemins de l'amour by Francis Poulenc
Performer:  Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1940; France 
 		Date of Recording: 10/1975 
Venue:  Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC 
Length: 4 Minutes 35 Secs. 
Language: French 
8.  Villanelle by Eva Dell'Acqua
Performer:  Paige Brook (Flute), Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
 		Date of Recording: 10/1975 
Venue:  Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC 
Length: 3 Minutes 34 Secs. 
Language: French 
9.  Goyescas: Intermezzo by Enrique Granados
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  New York Philharmonic
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1914-1916; Spain 
 		Date of Recording: 02/08/1961 
Venue:  Manhattan Center, New York City, NY 
Length: 2 Minutes 41 Secs. 
10.  Goyescas: La Maja y el Ruiseñor by Enrique Granados
Performer:  Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  New York Philharmonic
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1914-1916; Spain 
 		Date of Recording: 02/08/1961 
Venue:  Manhattan Center, New York City, NY 
Length: 7 Minutes 5 Secs. 
Language: Spanish 
11.  Estrellita by Manuel Ponce
Performer:  Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  New York Philharmonic
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1912; Mexico 
 		Date of Recording: 02/08/1961 
Venue:  Manhattan Center, New York City, NY 
Length: 2 Minutes 47 Secs. 
Language: Spanish 
Notes: Orchestrated: André Kostelanetz 
12.  La Morena de mi copla by Carlos Castellanos
Performer:  Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  New York Philharmonic
Period: 20th Century 
 		Date of Recording: 02/08/1961 
Venue:  Manhattan Center, New York City, NY 
Length: 2 Minutes 49 Secs. 
Language: Spanish 
13.  Plaisir d'amour by Johann Paul A. Martini
Performer:  Beverly Sills (Soprano)
Conductor:  André Kostelanetz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Period: Classical 
Written: by 1775; France 
 		Date of Recording: 10/1975 
Venue:  Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC 
Length: 3 Minutes 27 Secs. 
Language: French 
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