Tag Archives: Bohumil Gregor

Episode 309. Get to Know Věra Soukupová

November 22, 2024Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Forgotten Divas, Great Contraltos, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Twentieth Century MusicAlfréd Holeček, Alois Rybin, Anna Akhmatova, Antonín Dvořák, Antonio García Gutiérrez, Biblické písně, Bohumil Gregor, Bohumír Liška, Bohuslav Martinů, Camille Saint-Saens, Cesare Pavese, Ferdinand Lemaire, František Sláma, Friedrich Schiller, Gaspar Stamp, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Falke, Il Trovatore, Ilja Hurník, Ivan Moravec, Ivan Řezáč, Jan Hanuš, Jan Koutný, Jan Vladislav, Jaroslav Křička, Jaroslav Motlík, Jindřich Rohan, Jiří Baxa, Jiří Pauer, Jiří Pokorný, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Josef Páleníček, Karel Málek, Karel Řehák, Konstantin Balmont, Martin Turnovský, Milan Munclinger, Miloš Vacek, Miloslav Kabeláč, Naďa Mauerová, Otakar Hostinský, Petr Eben, Salvadore Cammarano, Samson et Dalila, Soběslav Soukup, Tomáš Vačkář, Václav Neumann, Vaclav Zítek, Věra Soukupová, Vítězslav Nezval, Vladimír Klár, Vladimir Sommer, Vladimír Válek, William Shakespeare, Zdeněk Benda, Zdeněk Fibich, Zdeněk Košlercountermelody

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:46:14 — 128.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

As a supplement to my ongoing series on great contraltos, and as a contrast to another outstanding Czech singer, soprano Hana Janků, recently featured on the podcast, I have been actively planning for some time now this episode on Czech contralto par excellence Věra Soukupová, still with us after recently celebrating her 92nd birthday in April. As I dug deeper and deeper into this fascinating artist’s recorded output, I was particularly taken by all the contemporary Czech work that she had sung and recorded and, in many cases, created. In this repertoire in particular, her voice leapt out at me, vivid and present, the musicianship profound, the vowel clarity astonishing, especially for a voice of such natural depth. This music and these performances deserve to be heard by a wider public. On this episode, I present stunning examples of the vocal and musical glory that is Věra Soukupová. I also offer a teaser for this week’s bonus episode, which features the artist in magisterial recordings of song cycles by Mahler and Dvořák, recorded in her prime in the mid-1960s.

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 support at whatever level you can afford.

Episode 302. The Haunted Opera House, 2024 Edition

October 28, 2024African American Singers, Broadway, Holiday Music, Listeners' Favorites, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century OperaAlfred Schnittke, Antikrist (Langgaard), Antonín Dvořák, Arthur Miller, Bernard Stambler, Bohumil Gregor, Božena Němcová, Chester Ludgin, Christoph-Mathias Mueller, Claude Debussy, Claudio Guastalla, Damn Yankees, Edgar Allan Poe, Edmond Fleg, Elisabeth Lugt, Emerson Buckley, Emmy van Lokhorst, Ercole Luigi Morselli, Ernest Bloch, Eugene Villanueva, Eunice Alberts, Felix de Nobel, Frances Bible, Gwen Verdon, Gwendolyn Killebrew, Halewijn, Howard Hanson Nathaniel Hawthorne, Inge Borkh, Iva Bittová, Jack De Lon, Jaroslav Kvapil, Jerry Ross, Johannes Spies, John Macurdy, Karel Jaromír Erben, La Chute de la Maison Usher (Debussy), Lajos Miller, Lamberto Gardelli, Lawrence Tibbett, Martha van Kerkhof, Martinus Nihjoff, Merry Mount (Hanson), Norman Kelley, Ottorino Respighi, Peter Vrabel, Pierre Colombo, Richard Adler, Richard Stokes, Robert Ward, Rued Langgaard, Rusalka (Dvořák). Teresa Stratas, Susanne Resmark, Sylvia Sass, The Crucible, Thomas Dausgaard, Tullio Serafin, Willem Pijper, William Dazeley, William Shakespearecountermelody

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:24:21 — 99.3MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

Two years ago for Halloween, I presented the first of my “Haunted Opera House” episodes. At the time, I had such a plethora of creepy musical material that I produced a bonus episode of material that otherwise would have ended up in the dung heap (like the body of Faust at the end of Schnittke’s Faust Cantata, which closes the episode). We also hear music from Damn Yankees featuring the red-hot Gwen Verdon; Dvořák’s Rusalka (a stunning duet with Teresa Stratas and Gwendolyn Killebrew); Respighi’s comic opera Belfagor (in which a devil [Lajos Miller] encounters his superior in a cunning young woman [Sylvia Sass]; Ernest Bloch’s Macbeth (in which Inge Borkh gives a luminous performance of Lady Macbeth’s Sleepwalking Scene); Willem Pijper’s strange musical drama based on the medieval legend of Halewijn, a Bluebeard of the Lowlands; La Chute de la Maison Usher, (the climax of Claude Debussy’s incomplete opera based on Edgar Allan Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher); and Antikrist, Rued Langgaard’s unique, indescribable, and nearly unstageable mystery play. But it is Iva Bittová’s gleefully deranged performance of Alfred Schnittke’s gruesome Faust tango which will, I predict, find its way into your nightmares!

Episode 239. Gwendolyn Killebrew (BHM 2024)

February 8, 2024African American Singers, Bel canto, Black History Month, Black History Month 2024, Canadian Singers, Forgotten Divas, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Great Tenors, Gustav Mahler, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, NYCO Divas, Opera in Translation, Orchestral Songs, Richard Wagner, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, VerismoAgostino Manni, Agostino Piovene, Andrea Chénier, Antal Dorati, Anton de Ridder, Antonín Dvořák, Antonio Somma, Barbara Scherler, Béatrice et Bénédict, Berislav Klobučar, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Bohumil Gregor, Božena Němcová, Carlo Bergonzi, Claudio Nicolai, Die Soldaten (Zimmermann), Die Walküre, Edgar (Puccini), Edith Kertész-Gabry, Emilio de’ Cavalieri, Eugène Scribe, Eve Queler, Ferdinando Fontana, Francis Poulenc, Friedrich Lenz, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gail Gilmore, Gary Bertini, George Darden, George Frideric Handel, George Gershwin, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Gwendolyn Killebrew, Harald Stamm, Hector Berlioz, Heinrich von Kleist, Heinz Wallberg, Hermann Prey, Hiroshi Wagusaki, Ira Gershwin, James Levine, Jaromír Weinberger, Jaroslav Kvapil, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Moriarty, Joseph Haydn, Karel Jaromír Erben, La fraîcheur et le feu, Leonard Bernstein, Lodovico Ariosto, Luigi Illica, Magnificat (Bach), Maureen Forrester, Maurice Ravel, Max Brod, Miloš Kareš, Nicola Haym, Nicolas Pradon, Nunziano Porta, Oh Kay!, Orlando Paladino (Haydn), Othmar Schoeck, Otto-Werner Mueller, Paul Éluard, Penthesilea (Schoeck), Peter Erckens, Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo, Richard Wagner, Rusalka (Dvořák), Seiji Ozawa, Shéhérazade, Sherrill Milnes, Stuart Burrows, Tamerlano (Handel), Teresa Stratas, Thomas Muraco, Tristan Klingsor, Umberto Giordano, Un ballo in maschera, Wilhelmenia Fernandez, William Shakespearecountermelody

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:19:56 — 89.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

This week’s “Forgotten Diva” is the mezzo-soprano / contralto Gwendolyn Killebrew (26 August 1941 – 24 December 2021), who made an indelible contribution to opera in particular during the active years of her career (1965 – 2009). Though the majority of her career was centered at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, she sang the world over with some of the most important opera companies (including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, the Salzburg Festival, Bayreuth, Washington Opera, Santa Fe Opera, La Monnaie, and the Bayerische Staatsoper), conductors (Pierre Boulez, Gary Bertini, Michael Gielen, Herbert von Karajan, Zubin Mehta, Georg Solti), and stage directors (Patrice Chéreau, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, August Everding, Giancarlo del Monaco, Christof Loy, and John Dew). She had an enormous repertoire from Monteverdi and Handel to Henze and Fortner, excelling in particular in various Wagner roles. She was also a superb actor, who, through the use minimal gestures and stage business, made an enormous impact. This episode presents her in a wide range of material, including both live and commercial recordings ranging from Cavalieri to Zimmermann, alongside such fellow singers as Teresa Stratas, Carlo Bergonzi, Hermann Prey, Stuart Burrows, Sherrill Milnes, and Gail Gilmore led by conductors Leonard Bernstein, Gary Bertini, Bohumil Gregor, Berislav Klobučar, James Levine, Heinz Wallberg, and Eve Queler. Of special interest is a rare live recording of her prize-winning performance of “Asie” from Ravel’s Shéhérazade at the 1967 International Voice Competition in Montréal. The episode opens with brief memorial tributes to soprano Wilhelmenia Fernandez and pianist Thomas Muraco.

Episode 173. Orchesterlieder I

December 2, 2022Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Holiday Music, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mirella Freni, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, NYCO Divas, Orchestral Songs, Richard Strauss, Twentieth Century MusicAlain Lombard, Alberto Ginastera, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Alphons Diepenbrock, André Caplet, André Jolivet, Andrzej Hiolski, Antal Dorati, Antoine Golea, Antonín Dvořák, Arthur Loosli, Bernard Kruysen, Bohumil Gregor, Brian Priestman, Charles Baudelaire, Charles Panzéra, Christoph von Dohnányi, Colette Herzog, Ernst Hermann Meyer, Francisco Araiza, Frank Martin, Franz Kafka, Franz Schreker, Giuseppe Martucci, Gundula Janowitz, Gwyneth Jones, Hans Effenberger, Hans Reisinger, Helen Donath, Herbert Kegel, Hermann Scherchen, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Irene Gubrud, Jan Krenz, Jean Sibelius, Kalevala, Karan Armstrong, Karl Friedrich Henckell, Kurt Sanderling, Lorin Maazel, Louis Fürnberg, Luonnotor, Mirella Freni, Ned Rorem, Nikolaus Lenau, Othmar Schoeck, Peter Schreier, Phyllis Curtin, Piero Coppola, Rabindranath Tagore, Rémy de Gourmont, Riccardo Muti, Richard Stamp, Richard Strauss, Roberto Abbado, Rocco Emanuele Pagliara, Tadeusz Baird, Theo Adam, Theo Loosli, Walt Whitman, Willem van Otterloo, William Shakespeare, Yi-Kwei Szecountermelody

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:33:23 — 108.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

This week is the first of a series of episodes focusing on songs with orchestral accompaniment. The genre is almost a contradiction in terms: the intimacy and textual focus of art song with the sometimes strenuous vocal demands of singing over an orchestra. The most celebrated and successful of such songs (by Berlioz, Mahler, Ravel, Barber, Strauss, and others) are heard over and over on symphonic concerts when vocal soloists are the featured guests. And rightly so, for they are among the most glorious classical music written for the human voice. Typically for Countermelody, however, today’s episode, however, will focus on repertoire and composers that are less celebrated to the point of being virtually unknown. Composers heard include Frank Martin, Alexander Zemlinsky, Jean Sibelius, Giuseppe Martucci, Franz Schreker, Othmar Schoeck, Antonín Dvořák, Alberto Ginastera, Alphons Diepenbrock and the two Andrés, Jolivet and Caplet, alongside many others, performed by such favorites as Gwyneth Jones, Phyllis Curtin, Peter Schreier, Gundula Janowitz, Yi-Kwei Sze, Mirella Freni, Francisco Araiza, Elisabeth Söderström, and Bernard Kruysen. Also heard are Helen Donath and Andrzej Hiolski, singers soon to be featured on their own episodes, alongside lesser-remembered names such as Arthur Loosli, Irene Gubrud, and Colette Herzog. Conductors include Kurt Sanderling, Antal Doráti, Herbert Kegel, Bohumil Gregor, Hermann Scherchen, and Lorin Maazel. I “guarantee” that your ears will be enchanted and your musical horizons will be expanded by this episode.

Episode 168. The Haunted (Opera) House

October 28, 2022African American Singers, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, NYCO Divas, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAldous Huxley, Alejo Pérez, Anna Moffo, Antonín Dvořák, Benjamin Britten Henry James, Bernard Ładysz, Bohumil Gregor, Božena Němcová, Charles Bruck, Charles de Coster, Charles Wilson, Chester Kallman, Claudio Guastalla, Der Schmied von Gent, Die Teufel von Loudun, Doktor Faust, Emanuel Balaban, Eugene Conley, Ferruccio Busoni, Francesco Molinar-Pradelli, Franz Schreker, George Shirley, Gian Carlo Menotti, Hans Sotin, Hans Wiers-Jenssen, Hilde Güden, Horst Wilhelm, Igor Stravinsky, James Levine, Jane Rhodes, Jaroslav Kvapil, Jascha Horenstein, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Corigliano, Karel Jaromír Erben, Krzysztof Penderecki, La Fiamma (Respighi), Leigh Melrose, Mack Harrell, Mara Coleva, Maralin Niska, Marek Janowski, Marie Powers, Myfanwy Piper, Ottorino Respighi, Pierre Beaumarchais, Rusalka (Dvořák). Gwendolyn Killebrew, Serge Prokofiev, Tatiana Troyanos, Teresa Stratas, The Fiery Angel, The Ghosts of Versailles, The Medium (Menotti), The Rake’s Progress, The Turn of the Screw (Britten), uvu Mpofu, Valery Bryusov, W.H. Auden, William M. Hoffman, Xavier Deprazcountermelody

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:02 — 71.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

This week’s episode celebrates Halloween while at the same time initiating my new ongoing series on Twentieth Century Opera. From Dvořák’s Rusalka, premiered in Prague in 1901, through Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, premiered in New York in 1991, there is a wealth of operatic material, some barely remembered today, that touches upon various aspects of the occult, be that witches, devils, exorcisms, demonic possessions, or those that conjure the dead. Alongside the aforementioned works, this episode also features work by Benjamin Britten, Gian Carlo Menotti, Igor Stravinsky, Ferruccio Busoni, Franz Schreker, Serge Prokofiev, Ottorino Respighi, and Krzysztof Penderecki, performed by Teresa Stratas. Tatiana Troyanos, George Shirley, Anna Moffo, Mack Harrell, Maralin Niska, Gwendolyn Killebrew, Jane Rhodes, and others in performances recorded between 1949 and… nearly yesterday. Some of it is folksy, some humorous, some creepy, some horrific, but it is peopled by characters that either haunt or are haunted.

Episode 134. Legacy (Black History Month 2022 Postlude)

March 4, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Bel canto, BHM2023WK4, Black History Month, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Queer Pride, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAdele Addison, Alan Curtis, Alfred Bachelet, Antonietta Stella, Antonín Dvořák, Aubrey Pankey, August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Béatrice et Bénédict, Bernard Greenhouse, Betty Allen, Betty Davis, Bohumil Gregor, Carmen Balthrop, Carolyn Watkinson, Charles Groves, Charles Jennens, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Clamma Dale, Claude Frank, Claudia Lindsey, Cynthia Haymon, Dagmar Průšová, Dorothy Maynor, Eight Songs for a Mad King, El Cimarrón (Henze), Ellabelle Davis, Erich Itor Kahn, Esteban Montoya, Eugène Adénis-Colombeau, Franz Schubert, Franz von Schober, Frederick Delius, George Frideric Handel, Gioacchino Rossini, Giulio Caccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Grace de la Cruz, Gwendolyn Killebrew, Gwendolyn Walters, Handel and Haydn Society, Hans Werner Henze, Harry T. Burleigh, Hector Berlioz, Heinrich Heine, Helen Colbert, Herbert von Karajan, Hubert Reichert, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Iphigénie en Aulide, Jean Baptiste Racine, Jean-Guy Bailly, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Jerzy Lefeld, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johannes Brahms, John Reilly, Joseph-Marie Canteloube, Josephine Veasey, Judas Maccabaeus (Handel), Julius Eastman, Kjell Olsson, Koanga (Delius), L’incoronazione di Poppea, Laurence Hope, Leonard Bernstein, Louise Parker, Marian Anderson, Marius François Gaillard, Marvin Hayes, Marvis Martin, Matthäus-Passion, Mattiwilda Dobbs, Maurice Abravanel, Messa da Requiem (Verdi), Messiah (Handel), Paul Hindemith, Peter Maag, Peter Maxwell Davies, Rhea Jackson, Robert Bloom, Seiji Ozawa, Seth McCoy, Simone Treillard, Spirituals, Thomas Morell, Thompson Stone, Walt Whitman, Warren Jones, William Pearson, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:49:50 — 119.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

This is the second part of my final episode of Black History Month 2022, continuing the exploration of the legacies of more than two dozen mostly underrecorded African American artists. Each piece of this aural mosaic fills in gaps in the recorded history of these artists. After opening memorial tributes to Josephine Veasey, Antonietta Stella, and Betty Davis, the episode is broken into several sections: first, recordings of Baroque music by Aubrey Pankey, Carmen Balthrop, Adele Addison, Betty Allen, Seth McCoy, Marvin Hayes, and a rare live recording by Marian Anderson, whose 125th birthday was observed this past week. There follow recordings of concert repertoire sung by Dorothy Maynor, Louise Parker, and Grace de la Cruz, with William Pearson and Julius Eastman leading us briefly into the bizarre world of the extended vocal techniques of the 1960s. There follow recorded performances of art song by Helen Colbert, Rhea Jackson, John Riley, Clamma Dale, Ellabelle Davis, Marvis Martin, and Cynthia Haymon, whereupon the episode concludes with some rare performances of operatic repertoire with Gwendolyn Killebrew, Claudia Lindsey, Dagmar Průšová, and Gwendolyn Walters, capped by an exquisite a cappella performance of “A City Called Heaven” by the great Mattiwilda Dobbs.

Episode 11. Janet Williams Interview III: Der ganze Unterschied

December 1, 2019African American Singers, Bel canto, Full-Figured Baroque, Interview, Singers of ColorAgrippina, Ann Panagulias, Ariadne auf Naxos, Berliner Staatsoper, Bohumil Gregor, Camilla Williams, Carl Heinrich Graun, Christa Ludwig, Cleopatra e Cesare, Dallas Opera, Daniel Gundlach, Das schlaue Füchslein, Deborah Polaski, Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, George Frideric Handel, Geraldine Farrar, Helena Tattermuschová, Janet Williams, Janice Baird, Judith Blegen, Karina Gauvin, Kathleen Battle, Leistung und Performance Vokal Akademie Berlin, Leos Janacek, Lynn Harrell, Mack Harrell, Marschallin, Mary Mills, Příhody lišky Bystroušky, Regine Crespin, Reri Grist, Richard Strauss, Spirituals, The Cunning Little Vixencountermelody

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:00 — 79.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

Podcast (https-countermelody-blubrry-net-feed-podcast): Play in new window | Download () | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

In the third and final part of our interview, recorded in July 2019, Janet Williams and I discuss how we reunited in 2004 (several years after our Merola connection); about her vocal studies with Régine Crespin, Denise Duplex, and David Jones; about some of the roles she sang during the illustrious career which took her around the world; and about her current activities with her newly-formed Leistung & Performance Vokal Akademie here in Berlin, where singers gain invaluable professional training in all aspects of what she calls “this illustrious but very difficult profession.” As always, the interview is interspersed with musical interludes and commentary, which are all cited on the Show Notes page (http://countermelodypodcast.com/episode-11-janet-williams-iii/).

Countermelody is a new podcast devoted to the glories of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great classical and opera singers of the past and present with the help of guests from the classical music field: singers, conductors, composers, coaches, agents, and voice teachers. 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 interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. Please also visit the Countermelody website for updates, additional content, and to pledge your support. www.countermelodypodcast.com