Tag Archives: Charles Munch

Episode 314. Yi-Kwei Sze Revisited

December 10, 2024Art Song, French Opera, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Interview, Lieder, Listeners' Favorites, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Orchestral Songs, Rescue Mission, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAfanasy Afanasyevich Fet, Alexander Dargomizhsky, Alexander Pushkin, Alexander Tcherepnin, Antonín Dvořák, Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov, Bernard Haitink, Boris Godunov, Brooks Smith, Charles Gounod, Charles Munch, Chester Kallman, Christoph von Dohnányi, David Zinman, Dichterliebe, Dmitri Shostakovich, Emanuel Schikaneder, Faust, Francis Poulenc, Franz Schubert, George van Renesse, Gerard van Blerk, Giuseppe Verdi, Hector Berlioz, Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johannes Brahms, Jules Barbier, Karl Kritz, Louis Lane, Michel Carré, Mikhail Lermontov, Modest Mussorgsky, Nancy Lee Sze, Nikolai Maksimovich Vilenkin, Nikolai Minsky, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Robert Freeman, Robert Schumannn, Serge Rachmaninov, The Magic Flute, Vier ernste Gesänge, W.H. Auden, Warwick Braithwaite, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Xuean Liu, Xueqin Cao, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Yi-Kwei Szecountermelody

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One of the great personal revelations for me in the early years of producing Countermelody was discovering the great Chinese American bass Yi-Kwei Sze (斯義桂). As the first Chinese singer to pursue a career in Western classical music, his historical significance is undisputed. What I hope to demonstrate in this episode is that his importance extends to artistic, vocal, and musical matters as well. When Sze first came to the United States, he studied under the great Ukrainian bass Alexander Kipnis, and over the course of his long career, he bore that mantle proudly. Today’s episode once again explores the hidden corners of Sze’s recorded legacy, which yields enormous treasures, and includes recordings of operatic (and quasi-operatic) excerpts by Verdi, Gounod, Mozart, Berlioz, and Mussorgsky as well as an excerpt of a legendary live performance of Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar” Symphony, one of the first in the West. Also heard are live and studio recordings of Russian songs by Mussorgsky, Dargomizhsky, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Balakirev; and song recordings by Poulenc, Schumann, Schubert, Tcherepnin, Xuean Liu, Dvořák, and Brahms.

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.

Episode 154. Adele Addison @ 97

July 22, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Crossover, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersA.E. Housman, Aaron Copland, Adele Addison, Albert da Costa, Andre Previn, Arthur Rimbaud, Benjamin Lees, Brooks Smith, Canterbury Tales, Celius Dougherty, Charles Munch, Claude Debussy, Dawn Upshaw, DuBose Heyward, Earl Kim, Emily Dickinson, Francis Poulenc, Frederic Waldman, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Frideric Handel, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Leonard Bernstein, Lester Trimble, Lukas Foss, Milton Katims, Paul Verlaine, Porgy and Bess, Povla Frijsh, Robert Conant, Robert McFerrin, Robert Shaw, Samuel Beckett, St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Walt Whitman, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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This Sunday, 24 July 2022, the great African American lyric soprano Adele Addison observes her 97th birthday. This Countermelody tribute presents this great artist in live and studio recordings during the glory years of her career, including performances conducted by three of her most important conductor collaborators, Robert Shaw, Charles Munch, and Leonard Bernstein. Addison might be best remembered today as providing the ghost voice for Dorothy Dandridge in Otto Preminger’s controversial 1959 film of Porgy and Bess, but her greatest artistic achievement undoubtedly centers on her concert and recital work. Among countless world premieres in which she participated, the most significant was probably the Gloria of Francis Poulenc, first heard in Boston in January 1961. Other contemporary composers represented in this episode are Aaron Copland, Lester Trimble, Lukas Foss, and Benjamin Lees; Addison’s exceptional performances of Handel, Bach, Mozart, and Debussy are also featured. Vocal guest stars include Robert McFerrin, with whom she duets in an excerpt from Porgy; the eminent recitalist Povla Frijsh, who was her voice teacher and coach; and Dawn Upshaw, probably her most renowned student. Please join me in celebrating the long life and legacy of this exceptional artist and teacher.

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. Bonus episodes available exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available and further bonus content including interviews and livestreams is planned for the upcoming season.

Episode 150. Francis Poulenc and Pierre Bernac [Pride 2022]

June 24, 2022Art Song, Great Baritones, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Queer Pride, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersBanalités (Poulenc), Bernard Kruysen, Chansons villageoises (Poulenc), Charles d’Orléans, Charles Munch, Claude Debussy, Darius Milhaud, Denise Duval, Dichterliebe (Schumann), Emmanuel Chabrier, Éphraïm Mikhaël, Ernest Chausson, Fiançailles pour rire (Poulenc), Francis Poulenc, François Villon, Genevieve Touraine, Guillaume Apollinaire, Heinrich Heine, Hugues Cuenod, Johann Sebastian Bach, Léo Latil, Louise de Vilmorin, Maurice Fombeure, Mélodies passagères (Barber), Paul Éluard, Pierre Bernac, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Casadesus, Robert Schumann, Roger Désormière, Samuel Barber, Trois ballades de François Villon (Debussy)countermelody

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Something about this week’s episode has really gotten to me. I guess I’m just madly in love with the melodies of Francis Poulenc, and as a result, increasingly in love with the artistry of Pierre Bernac. These two formed an artistic partnership similar in intensity to that shared by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, except that in the case of the Gallic couple, this alliance did not include a romantic element. In spite of that, the pair achieved an artistic intimacy that is sometimes almost painfully honest. Maybe it’s that part of their story that so moves me: that two gay men, neither one sexually involved with the other, still achieved, on an altogether different plane, the deepest kind of intimacy. This episode features performances of the duo in melodies by Poulenc set to texts by Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Éluard and Louise de Vilmorin, as well as songs by Chabrier, Debussy, Chausson, and Samuel Barber. We also hear Bernac performing Bach and Schumann in collaboration with Robert Casadesus, Charles Munch, and Roger Désormière; and Poulenc accompanying singers Denise Duval, Hugues Cuénod, Geneviève Touraine, and Bernard Kruysen in both live and studio recordings. The episode features extensive discussion, mostly from Bernac’s book on Poulenc and his songs, of Poulenc’s devotion to poetry and his very particular compositional method of getting to the heart of a poem.

Episode 139. Swiss Misses and Misters

April 8, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Canadian Singers, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers of Color, Voiceless WondersAbbé Prevost, Albert Wolff, Alessandro Striggio, Arthur Honegger, Charles Gounod, Charles Munch, Charles Panzéra, Claudio Monteverdi, Edith Mathis, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Eric Tappy, Erika Burkhart, Ernest Ansermet, Ernest Bloch, Ernst Haefliger, Fernando Corena, Francis Poulenc, Frank Martin, Gabriel Faure, Giorgio Favaretto, Gloria Davy, Guillaume Apollinaire, Hans Münch, Heinz Rehfuss, Henri Meilhac, Hermann Hesse, Hermann Lingg, Hermann Suter, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Hugues Cuenod, Jakob Stämpfli, James Walker, Janine Micheau, Jean Binet, Jean Cuttat, Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, Jean Fournet, Jean Lemaire, Johannes Brahms, Jörg Wyttenbach, Jules Barbier, Jules Massenet, Karl Böhm, Kurt Widmer, Libero de Luca, Lisa Della Casa, Louis Quilico, Ludwig Hölty, Magdeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Manon (Massenet), Marko Rothmüller, Michel Carré, Michel Corboz, Michio Kobayashi, Norma Procter, Paul Claudel, Philippe Gille, Pierre Aegerter, Pierre Mollet, Richard Strauss, Rudolf Kelterborn, Theo Altmeyer, Ursula Buckel, Wolfgang Schneiderhancountermelody

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A few months ago, David and I paid a visit to Zurich. The weather was glorious, we ate well, saw interesting theater, and I found a great used record store that was probably the one inexpensive place in the entire city. I had been thinking of doing an episode on Swiss singers ever since I started the podcast nearly three years ago and this experience provided the needed impetus to put this together. It helps that, to paraphrase the bigot, “Some of my favorite singers are Swiss.” Because of the unique polyglot nature of the country, there are many different stylistic trends to be found in Swiss music and Swiss singers. As with my recent episode on Ukraine, I decided to foreground not just the singers, but also the composers, of the featured country. So not only do we get to experience the singing of such favorites as Lisa Della Casa, Charles Panzéra, Ernst Haefliger, Heinz Rehfuss, Hugues Cuénod, and Eric Tappy (with a special nod to Gloria Davy, Ira Malaniuk, and Maria Stader, all naturalized Swiss citizens), but we hear the music of Ernest Bloch, Othmar Schoeck, Arthur Honegger, Frank Martin, Hermann Suter, and others. This is just a dip of the toe into the pure waters of Swiss music and singers: episodes on individual favorites will no doubt follow in due time!

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. Bonus episodes available exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available and further bonus content including interviews and livestreams is planned for the upcoming season.