Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall

Release Date: 08/11/1992
Label: Deutsche Grammophon Catalog #: 435440 Spars Code: DDD
Composer: George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss, Sergei Rachmaninov,
George Gershwin, Traditional, Gustave Charpentier, Johann Strauss Jr.,
Ralph Ricardo Simpson
Performer: Margo Garrett, Kathleen Battle

There is some exquisite singing here and a high degree of accomplishment in a varied repertoire. The occasion was clearly a delightful one, principally on account of the singer's art and that of her accompanist, but also because of the presence, among the audience, of the 90-year-old Marian Anderson. For a listener to the record, there is every inducement simply to take what is offered and be thankful. Yet put it another way: ask yourself whether this is what you really want from a song recital. Then I think the answer has to come
GRAMOPHONE in some qualified form, such as "Well, up to a point".
The Handel arias are sung with grace, a lovely purity of tone, a skilful control of volume, so effectively graduated that the sheer power of a larger voice is scarcely missed. Cleopatra's "Piangerb" gains some poignancy through the wellmoderated downward portamentos and the fluency of passagework in the allegro 'B' section appeases those critics who might have wished for a fast Handel aria to come after the so-called Largo. The Mozart songs which follow are pretty in tone, and Liszt brings a little more apparent relish for words. Strauss's Amor, with its trills and triplets, scales and wafted essence of Zerbinetta, is pure enchantment. The Rachmaninov songs, sung in Russian, take a delicious flight, borne aloft by the high, pure voice and its serenity.
Yet 'serenity' hardly takes us to the heart of Rachmaninov. Kathleen Battle's lovely singing of these songs is not utterly bland, merely somewhat. Her encores include "Depuis le jour", a lovely, intimate dream of a performance; innocent of that sense of an almost painfully complete happiness as conveyed in Louise Edvina's old record, or of the passion in Melba's (yes, Melba). Finally, there are spirituals, pretty things and very prettily sung (but Marian Anderson's presence must have stirred in many a memory of something beyond prettiness). The limitations of the recital are probably of that kind that made Benjamin Britten remark that he did not enjoy a merely beautiful voice. Beauty, we have to rejoin, is much even so. And listen to that Vocalise of Rachmaninov's, a song without words where surely, by letting a beautiful melody tell its tale by means of a beautiful voice, it discourses most eloquent music. Sung here quite simply and without self-conscious nudging, it is quite the loveliest thing in the recital and, curiously enough, unapplauded by the frequently vociferous audience. J.B.S.


1 Frondi tenere / Ombra mai fu (04' 11'')
2 E pur cosi / Piangero la sorte mia (06' 40'')
3 Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuen Liebhabers verbrannte (01' 31'')
4 Ridente la calma (03' 50'')
5 S'il est un charmant gazon (02' 18'')
6 Comment, disaient-ils (02' 15'')
7 Enfant, si j'etais roi (02' 47'')
8 Oh! Quand je dors (04' 54'')
9 Amor (02' 56'')
10 An die Nacht (03' 40'')
11 Vocalise (04' 02'')
12 Zdes' Choroso (02' 55'')
13 V molcan'i noci tajnoj (02' 59'')
14 Ne poj, krasavica (05' 40'')
15 Summertime (03' 11'')
16 Spiritual: Good News (02' 04'')
17 Depuis le jour (04' 49'')
18 Mein Herr marquis (04' 09'')
19 Spirituals: Over My Head I Hear Music (03' 10'')
20 Spirituals: He's Got the Whole World in His Hand (03' 12'')
21 Spirituals: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (04' 00'')