Historical

Martin Cotton delves into a selection of recently released archival recordings

February Round-up

Black Voices Rise celebrates the contribution made by Africanamerican singers to the New York Met over 30 years, beginning with Marian Anderson in Verdi in 1955. The live recordings are variable in quality, but all pretty decent, and the impeccable coloratura of Mattiwilda Dobbs and Reri Grist in their prime is alluring: they stand proudly in the company of the better-known names – Leontyne Price, Grace Bumbry, Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle among them. Most are women, but George Shirley beguiles in Mozart, and the final track joins Simon

Estes with Roberta Alexander in an emotionally-charged performance of ‘Bess, You Is My Woman Now’. (Met Opera 810004201057 ★★★)

Kathleen Ferrier left relatively few recordings, so the discovery of a live Bach Magnificat from Vienna in 1950, in surprisingly good sound, is a welcome find in In Celebration of Bach. She features in only three of the numbers, and the other soloists are not always a match for her distinctive colour and style: Irmgard Seefried is an exception, and they appear together in ‘Suscepit Israel’, but Ferrier’s solo in ‘Esurientes Implevit Bonis’ is undoubtedly the highlight. The chorus isn’t always as sure-footed as the Bach Choir in the two cantatas recorded in 1949, and often previously reissued, but Ferrier is again the main attraction. (SOMM Ariadne 5004 ★★★★)

Another Bach cantata – No. 6 comes in Early Stereo Recordings, Vol. 3, again with the Bach Choir under Reginald Jacques. The stereo image sometimes drifts, and the performance now sounds oldfashioned in its slow tempos and sustained phrasing. A different sort of old-fashioned comes with the 20th-century harpsichords used in multiple concertos by Bach and Vivaldi. Piano-like, forward and widely spread in the sound, they do the music few favours, despite the lively playing of Thurston Dart, Eileen Joyce and George Malcolm. The Mozart Variations make more honest use of their timbre, but it’s four solo tracks from Ralph Kirkpatrick which restore stylistic integrity. (FHR FHR60 ★★★)

Norma Fisher at the BBC,

Vol. 2 brings more performances from a pianist who, despite a distinguished career before focal dystonia confined her to teaching, never made commercial recordings. More’s the pity: the Liszt works on the first disc, beginning with a superb Mephisto Waltz, and taking in two of the Transcendental Studies, before ending with transcriptions of Saint-saëns and Schubert, are models of musical pacing and technical virtuosity. Schumann’s Second Sonata, with the original finale, also reveals a fine tonal palette, somewhat disguised in the less clear sound in three Debussy Études, but fully on display in the Inventions by her contemporary André Tchaikowsky. (Sonetto Classics SONCLA 004 ★★★★)

From the early days of electrical recording, John Barbirolli – The First Orchestral Recordings needs a degree of suspension of disbelief, not only for the distant sound, but the playing, which lacks the polish expected today: it’s no less musical, though. Wagner’s Flying Dutchman Overture has a real feel of the theatre, as do the vocal excerpts from Madama Butterfly and Cavalleria Rusticana. Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro places it firmly in its time, with discreet portamenti: these are even more relished in Warlock’s Serenade for Delius’s Sixtieth Birthday, and Delius’s own Summer Night on the River. There’s complete authenticity throughout. (The Barbirolli Society SJB 1096 ★★★)