CD
1
Wolfgang Amadeus
MOZART (1756 – 1791)
Don Giovanni:
1. Batti, batti, o bel Masetto
[3:43]
2. Vedrai carino [3:46]
Die Zauberflöte:
3. Ach, ich fühl’s [4:53]
Le nozze di Figaro:
4. Venite, inginocchiatevi
[3:18]
5. Giunse alfin il momento …
Deh vieni, non tardar [4:25]
Idomeneo:
6. Se il padre perdei [5:01]
Il re pastore:
7. L’amerò, sarò
costante [5:15]
8. Exsultate, jubilate, motel K
165 [14:25]
Giuseppe VERDI
(1813 – 1901)
La traviata:
9. Ah! Fors’è lui … Sempre
libera [6:48]
Rigoletto:
10. Caro nome [6:17]
11. Tutte le feste … Si vendetta
[10:31]
Falstaff:
12. Sul fil d’un soffio etesio
[3:33]
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858 – 1924)
La bohème:
13. Quando me’n vo’ …finale,
act 2 [6:53]
CD 2
Giacomo PUCCINI
Turandot:
1. Signore, ascolta [2:17]
2. Tu che di gel sei cinta
[2:46]
Richard STRAUSS
(1864 – 1949)
Der Rosenkavalier:
3. Act 3 final trio and duet [11:36]
Lieder:
4. Einerlei, Op. 69 No. 3
[2:31]
5. Säusle, liebe Myrte,
Op. 68 No. 3 [3:53]
6. Der Stern, Op. 69 No.
1 [1:40]
7. Schlechtes Wetter, Op.
69 No. 5 [2:05]
8. Ich wollt’ ein Sträusslein
binden, Op. 68 No. 2 [2:40]
9. Als mir dein Lied erklang,
Op. 68 No. 4 [3:03]
10. Freundliche Vision, Op.
48 No. 1 [2:40]
11. Schlagende Herzen, Op.
29 No. 2 [2:07]
12. Heimkehr, Op. 15 No.
5 [1:57]
13. Befreit, Op. 39 No. 4
[3:57]
14. Die Nacht, Op. 10 No.
3 [2:18]
15. Wie sollten wir geheim sie
halten, Op. 19 No. 4 [1:40]
16. Meinem Kinde, Op. 37
No. 3 [2:13]
Noel COWARD
(1899 – 1973)
Bitter Sweet:
17. Ill see you again [3:00]
18. Zigeuner [3:06]
Private Lives:
19. Someday I’ll find you [2:45]
Conversation Piece:
20. I’ll follow my secret heart
[2:20]
Ivor NOVELLO
(1893 – 1951)
Glamorous Night:
21. Glamorous night [3:16]
Careless Rapture:
22. Music in May [3:17]
The Dancing Years:
23. The waltz of my heart [3:07]
24. I can give you the starlight
[2:26]
King’s Rhapsody:
25. Someday my heart will awake
[2:31]
26. The violin began to play [3:47]
Hilde Güden (soprano)
Aldo Protti (baritone)(CD 1, tr.
11); Giacinto Prandelli (tenor),
Giovanni Inghilleri (baritone),
Fernando Corena (bass), Raffaele
Arie (bass), Melchiorre Luise (bass),
Renata Tebaldi (soprano)(CD 1, tr.
13); Maria Reining (soprano), Sena
Jurinac (soprano), Alfred Poell
(baritone)(CD 2 tr. 3); The Vienna
Philharmonic Orchestra/Josef Krips
(CD 1, tr. 1, 2), Karl Böhm
(CD 1, tr. 3), Erich Kleiber (CD
1, tr. 4, 5; CD 2 tr. 3), Clemens
Krauss (CD 1, tr. 6), Alberto Erede
(CD 1, tr. 7, 8); Orchestra of the
Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome/Alberto
Erede (CD 1, tr. 9-13, CD 2, tr.
1, 2); Friedrich Gulda (piano) (CD
2, tr. 4-16); Stanley Black and
his Chorus and Orchestra (CD 2,
tr. 17-26)
rec. September 1952 (CD 1, tr. 1-3,
6), June 1955 (CD 1, tr. 4, 5),
May 1952 (CD 1, tr. 7, 8), July
1954 (CD 1, tr. 9-12; CD 2, tr.
1, 2), July 1951 (CD 1, tr. 13),
June 1954 (CD 2, tr. 3), September
1956 (CD 2, tr. 4-16), November
1957 (CD 2, tr. 17-26). ADD |
The Viennese soprano Hilde Güden
(1917–1988) was one of the loveliest
lyric singers during the post-war
years, even before that, since
she made her debut in an operetta
at the Volksoper in 1938 and sang
her first operatic role, Cherubino
in Le nozze di Figaro in
Zürich, the following year.
It was however after she became
a member of the Vienna State Opera
that she rose to fame. She made
recordings as early as 1942 and
on Preiser recordings made between
1942 and 1951 have been available
(I couldn’t find the disc in the
present catalogue), so this 2
CD set hooks on where the Preiser
stopped.
Hilde Güden was a versatile
singer within her Fach,
singing Lieder, operetta and other
light music but it was in opera
that she first and foremost made
her mark, especially as a Mozart
and Richard Strauss singer. They
are also the dominating composers
on this set. In connection with
the Mozart year 1956 she took
part in complete recordings for
Decca of Le nozze di Figaro
(Erich Kleiber), Don Giovanni
(Josef Krips) and Die Zauberflöte
(Karl Böhm). Two arias from
the Kleiber Figaro are
included here but the Don Giovanni
arias (with Krips) and Pamina’s
aria from Zauberflöte
(with Böhm) don’t seem to
be from the complete sets, since
they were recorded several years
earlier, if the information in
the booklet is correct. A highlights
LP from Figaro and an EP
from Zauberflöte
were early favourites in my record
collection and it’s nice to have
them here, though I miss the stereo
sound in Figaro.
I used the word ‘lovely’ in the
first sentence of the review and
I can’t think of a better word
to characterize Hilde Güden’s
singing. Her Zerlina is pure-toned
and she sings the arias simply
and unaffectedly to depict the
innocent peasant girl. Pamina’s
aria is restrained with wonderful
pianissimo singing but very slow,
and Susanna is glittering. Later
in her career she sang the Countess
and I remember a TV broadcast
of Le nozze di Figaro from
Salzburg in the mid-1960s where
she was partnered by Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau’s overbearing
Count Almaviva. The rest of the
Mozart arias are just as lovely
and Exsultate, jubilate
is technically assured.
But Hilde Güden was also
splendid in the Italian repertoire,
which is demonstrated here in
the fluent rendering of Violetta’s
act I aria and a superb Caro
nome from Rigoletto, preceded
by the recitative Gualtier
Maldé though the header
doesn’t say so. This is from the
complete Decca recording, from
which we also get the Gilda-Rigoletto
scene that concludes act 2. Here
we meet Aldo Protti, big-voiced
but particularly subtle. He was
a reliable and honest singer,
however, not indulging in excessive
histrionics and Si vendetta
is powerful and dramatic.
This scene also starts a bit earlier
than the track-list says, at Parla,
siam soli. Güden is a
vulnerable Gilda and in the aria
from Falstaff an ethereal
Nanetta. She also sings a lovely
Musetta, warmer than most and
in the final ensemble of the act
she is joined by some of the leading
Italian singers of the day.
Her Liù is enchanting
and as Sophie in the final scene
from Der Rosenkavalier
she is again among the loveliest
on any recording. This Kleiber
conducted set is by the way one
of the truly great recordings
of the opera, though it has tended
to be overshadowed by the Karajan
set that arrived two years later
and it was later also issued in
stereo, which more or less ruled
out the Kleiber recording. Maria
Reining is a superb Marschallin
and Sena Jurinac’s Octavian has
few competitors. A decade after
this complete set Güden was
Sophie once again on a highlights
disc conducted by Silvio Varviso
with Regine Crespin as Marschallin
and Elisabeth Söderström
as Octavian. It’s a pity they
didn’t record it complete since
those three sopranos are truly
great in their roles.
There is more Strauss in a baker’s
dozen of songs, not all the obvious
ones but several songs from Opus
68 and 69 composed in 1918. Hilde
Güden was deeply admired
by the composer and hearing these
recordings it is easy to understand
why. Her light unforced singing
is a pleasure from beginning to
end within her lyrical scope she
is suitably expressive with exquisite
shadings and she changes vocal
colours when needed, notably in
Schlechtes Wetter. Her
inward and beautiful version of
Freundliche Vision is arguably
the best thing here but there
is so much to admire all through
the programme and there is a special
bonus to have the self-willed
but brilliant Friedrich Gulda
at the piano. In this case he
subordinates himself to the singer
and avoids all eccentricities.
In a lighter vein Hilde Güden
offers delectable readings of
songs by Noel Coward and Ivor
Novello. She has a light touch
and doesn’t sound unduly operatic
but adds some delicious decorations.
The accompaniments by Stanley
Black’s unabashedly sweet toned
strings is a pleasure to listen
to and the arrangements are mostly
less soupy than Mantovani’s used
to be. In this 1957 recital there
are however some signs of aging
in her voice. It is still pure
but there is some widening of
the vibrato, though not so much
as to mar the enjoyment of the
songs.
With a total playing time of
more than 2½ hours this is an
excellent tribute to one of the
loveliest sopranos of the post-war
era.
Göran Forsling
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