Jessye Norman - Three Classic Albums [3 CD]

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One of the outstanding voices of our time, Jessye Norman s spacious soprano soars here in music by Richard Strauss a composer whose exemplary writing for high female voice proves finely suited to her generous vocalism and interpretative artistry. Norman s instrument is notable for its breadth, depth and wide colouristic range all attributes that gave her special conviction when performing orchestral songs of the late-Romantic period, such as those recorded here. Strauss was also a composer for whom she clearly felt a special sympathy, both in operatic mode in the dual roles of the Prima Donna and Ariadne herself in Ariadne auf Naxos, or (on disc) in the title role of Salome and in his songs, many of them written for his wife, the soprano Pauline de Ahna. Norman s 1982 of Richard Strauss s Four Last Songs and other Lieder with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under the baton of Kurt Masur has deservedly earned a classic status as a distinguished example of her singing and an invaluable token of both her grand vocal presence and keen interpretative in; the result would go on to win a prestigious Gramophone award. Over the course of her long and distinguished career, Jessye Norman s grand soprano a voice admired by a wide public in addition to vocal connoisseurs graced the operatic stage as well as the concert and recital platforms with equal accomplishment. Its surface sheen, richness of colour and sheer visceral impact brought her considerable accl in the music of many of the great composers of the Romantic period, none more so than Richard Wagner, a number of whose leading roles found in her a superb interpreter: Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Elsa in Lohengrin, Sieglinde in Die Walküre and Kundry in Parsifal. The climactic Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, too, is a piece whose musical needs are closely aligned with Norman s particular vocal means. Together with the related Wesendonk Songs another ideal coupling of work and interpreter this of the beginning and end of Wagner s opera is a fine memento, too, of Norman s collaboration with Sir Colin Davis. Throughout, her large, silky-smooth and luscious soprano, with particular richness in the lower and middle registers and an ability to soar through the longest phrases with expansive ease, make her a Wagnerian to remember. Throughout a career in which she succeeded in a wide variety of operatic roles, as well as in an equally diverse range of music from the concert hall and recital repertoires, Jessye Norman showed a particular sympathy for the music of the two composers represented here; as well as Shéhérazade, she was a notable exponent of other songs by Ravel, while in addition to Les Nuits d été, she was a memorable interpreter not only of Berlioz s cantata La Mort de Cléopâtre and the role of Marguerite in his dramatic legend La Damnation de Faust, but also of both Cassandre and Didon in his epic opera Les Troyens on one occasion singing both characters in the same performance. Blessed with an instrument exceptional for its enveloping warmth and superb range of colour facets that gave her an inestimable advantage in much of the 19th- and 20th-century repertoires Norman brings a grand vocal presence and keen in to these tokens of her long and fruitful collaboration with Sir Colin Davis in Shéhérazade and in the cycle by a composer whose leading champion and interpreter he was.