Elisabeth Schwarzkopf & Irmgard Seefried

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf & Irmgard Seefried: Duos pour soprano
It's at least a month since I bought this and tonight was its first time in the CD player. Why? I don't exactly know. And now that I've heard it... I really don't know. When it finished I just pushed play again. This is just sinfully beautiful singing.

I'll be honest: the tracklist didn't really grab me when I saw this in the shop- I bought it because of the gorgeous cover picture. After all, a pair of German sopranos singing Monteverdi and Carissimi in 1947, with piano accompaniment? That's what the first eight tracks are and yes, it's a little odd. I mean, I wouldn't have recognised it as Monteverdi if it hadn't said so on the CD case- everything about this is different from the way this kind of music is sung now. And it just proves how silly the obsession with authenticity to the exclusion of all else is, because if you insisted on period instruments, period singing, etc. then you'd miss out on something very special here. Then things get even better: Dvorak's Moravian Duets. 'Suse liebe Suse...Brüderchen, komm tanz mit mir' from Hänsel und Gretel. And as if all this wasn't banquet enough: 'Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren'. How exactly am I supposed to cope with all of this?

This truly is unlike anything I've ever heard before. The best I expected from it was the wonderful feeling that comes from hearing two sopranos sing together- the sort of thrill I get from 'Sull'aria' or 'Via resta servita'. But this is something else. You can hear that these women aren't just singing at the same time, for an audience: they're singing with and to each other. Add the piano accompaniment and you've got something so intimate you almost feel you shouldn't be listening. But, thank god, we do get to listen. And this is where I'll stop, because for once it's neither laziness nor hyperbole when I say I am at a loss for words.

To return to planet Earth now, though, I have a little bit of spleen which wants venting. Namely, the introduction of Angela Gheorghiu's official website. You might know this already, but if you don't: if you go to www.gheorghiu.com, do you know what the first words you see are? 'The world's greatest living soprano.' I beg your pardon? The world's greatest living soprano? What in the world are they talking about? 'Greatest currently singing soprano' would be a difficult enough claim to make. But, just off the top of my head, the list of sopranos who to my knowledge are still alive and kicking includes Kiri Te Kanawa, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Anna Moffo, Mirella Freni, Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, Montserrat Caballé and until very recently it also included RENATA TEBALDI. And we're supposed to ignore all them and agree that Angela Gheorghiu is the world's greatest living soprano. I realise it's just marketing but really.

Comments

[Ernest Thompson]

Thanks for the Elisabeth Schwarzkopf & Irmgard Seefried: Duos pour soprano review.
I was brought up with Callas and Schwarzkopf, but I 'discovered' Irmgard Seefried when I played a Maria Callas DVD which included excepts of Seefied, Tebaldi, Fischer etc.
I'll search for this CD to see if it's still available.
I like your comments about Anglela Gheorghiu being the world's greatest living soprano. I'm a fan of hers, but that
statement is a bit inflamatory!
I saw Angela this year at the Festival Hall in London, and she was good, but a little tense and uneven.