Availability Email: jacquelinedelman@gmail.com

Jacqueline Delman (soprano)
From My Archives
Rec. 1957-1980
OAK GROVE CD2039 [78:37 + 79:25]

Born in London into a musical family, Jacqueline Delman started dancing school at the age of four and later trained as pianist and took a teaching diploma at 17, but then she had already started taking singing lessons and soon realized that singing was her true forte. At 19 she was in Italy to complete her vocal training and made her operatic debut as Mimì in La bohème in Rome when she was 21. Through a TV appearance in London she catapulted to stardom, got a recording contract by Decca and appeared as free-lance artist for several years in Britain and on the continent. In 1960 she was engaged by the Royal Opera in Stockholm and settled permanently in Sweden. Now in her late 80s she has started investigating recordings from radio and TV broadcasts from when she was in her prime and after many hours of critical listening to hundreds of tracks she has sorted out material from her opera, oratorio and song repertoire to fill the present twofer with close to 160 minutes of singing, organized in categories. I was already familiar with her voice, primarily from a Bluebell LP recorded in the late 1970s. Apart from the two Swedish songs on CD 2, which are roughly contemporaneous with the LP, the contents on the present album are from the earlier part of her career, but she had the good fortune to retain her voice in good shape and it is a pleasure to note how little it had changed during the more than 20 years the discs cover.

A general observation throughout is her care over nuances. There is an artistic conscientiousness at work in her interpretations of art songs that also is apparent in her operatic repertoire. There we can also savour her youthful tone, her elegant and precise coloratura technique and her ability to identify the predicament of the character and convey it to the listener. Adele’s aria from Die Fledermaus radiates light-hearted joy and a happy-go-lucky atmosphere, while Louise in Charpentier’s opera, in spite of her joy to begin a new life with the man she loves still is contemplative and brooding. She still lives in a dreamscape and Ms Delman depicts this with sincerity and she also has the required intensity for the climactic phrases near the end. And don’t miss her lovely pianissimo! This is the only standard aria sung in the original language, the rest is sung in English. But this is no drawback, since she is just as expressive in her native tongue and overcomes the pitfalls with wrong vocal sounds at crucial moments. English is a more grateful language for the Italian repertoire than German, with its profusion of consonants chopping up the line. The two Verdi arias are sung with great feeling and technical brilliance (Traviata) and beautiful and well-judged nuances (Trovatore). Tatiana’s Letter Scene from Eugene Onegin is touching and possibly the most impressive personification here – one can actually see the young woman with blushing cheeks pouring out her innermost thoughts. But the arias from La bohème and Gianni Schicchi – both dead cert to bring down the house at any performance or recital – go to the heart. The surprise is the wonderful aria from Goyescas, certainly not hackneyed, either on records or in the recital hall. It is also sung with fuller, more Iberian, voice than the rest. It is fully worthy to set beside Victoria de los Angeles’s recordings. For the encore to this opera/operetta section we move over to the world of cinema and the title song from Columbia Pictures romantic musical film One Night of Love from 1934. It won three Academy Awards and had four nominations, including Best Actress in a Leading Role, which was the American opera soprano Grace Moore, who naturally sang the title tune. Jacqueline Delman’s voice is certainly well suited to this song too.

For the rest of CD 1 we encounter her in the more intimate world of French melodies and German Lieder. She was an esteemed recitalist and had the great fortune to cooperate with several of the foremost accompanists of the day, most frequently with the natural heir to Gerald Moore, Geoffrey Parsons, who was her regular pianist for most of her career.

The five French songs happen to belong to my personal favourites. Least known is probably Bizet’s Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe, but this Victor Hugo setting is one of his finest, and the oriental milieu is well depicted in the accompaniment. Claude Debussy’s two contributions are settings of possibly the most beloved French poets of the late 19^th century – together with Hugo – Paul Verlaine: En sourdine and Mandoline. I believe Debussy’s songs have been overshadowed by his instrumental and orchestral music, which is a pity. For readers who would like to explore his songs these two specimens are a good starting point. Henri Duparc, on the other hand, is almost exclusively known for his songs and there aren’t many of them either since he stopped composing at an early age. But those there are must be regarded as among the best in the French repertoire, and L’Invitation au voyage and Chanson triste are top notch. Jacqueline Delman, who is fluent in French, as she is in several other tongues, is ideal in this repertoire. Since her German is just as idiomatic we can with confidence lean back in our armchairs and with closed eyes savour her Schubert, Schumann, Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf. If I would take the plums it would be the deeply felt and so beautifully nuances Morgen (tr. 18) and the final song from Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch, the mercurial and fresh Ich hab' in Penna einen Liebsten wohnen.

CD 2 opens with four numbers from baroque operas and oratorios and a lot of water has flown under London Bridge since these recordings were made. Historically informed performances (HIP) is the order of the day today and the nerds debate: what is HIP? There is little consensus. Fortunately Jacqueline Delman worked together with specialists in the Baroque style, singers like Alfred Deller, conductors like Charles Farncombe and, as here, Anthony Bernard. The excerpts from Rameau’s Dardanus and Handel’s Joseph and his Brethren are fresh and still up-to-date. It is also a pleasure to get a glimpse of the eminent contralto Helen Watts in the Handel. To perform Chant de Vénus by Lully, accompanied on a concert grand is of course a bit old-fashioned, but the music is beautiful and the singing likewise, so why complain? Doubts arise when we come to the wonderful aria I know that my redeemer liveth from The Messiah. But this was the way it had been done for ages in Britain, and Sir Malcolm Sargent was of the old school in that respect. And why deny oneself the pleasure to hear it in a ‘period performance’ of the late 1950s, in particular when it is sung with such beauty of tone and such conviction?

One wouldn’t think that Russian repertoire would be a priority for a non-Russian singer in the 1960s. But Jacqueline Delman happened to meet the legendary Russian soprano and teacher Madame Skilondz in Stockholm and became friends with her. Madame also became her mentor and that triggered her to want to sing Russian songs and she also studied Russian. Having studied with the great Oda Slobodskaya in London she also learnt a large repertoire of Russian songs, including some by Nikolai Medtner, whose widow lived in London and once contacted her after a broadcast. From her singing here it is obvious that she has real feeling for the Russian mentality. Four of the six songs here are settings of Pushkin, who inspired so many composers. Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Mussorgsky, Glinka and Medtner in top form give a good picture of the riches to be found in this repertoire.

Four British songs are a welcome inclusion and interestingly one is a composition by her first singing teacher Mark Raphael, The Lamb to a Blake text. Also her adopted home country Sweden is represented with two songs by Ture Rangström and Emil Sjögren. Both are highlights of the romance tradition in Scandinavia – another field well worth investigating.

The final section is a round-up of some items that don’t belong to any of the earlier categories. Hear ye, Israel from Mendelssohn’s Elijah, an aria written for ‘The Swedish Nightingale’, the Suicide movement from Shostakovich’s Symphony No 14, a work Jacqueline Delman was instrumental in launching in Sweden, together with conductor Carl Rune Larsson. It is intense, touching and beautiful. Another touching piece is I Pastori by Ildebrando Pizzetti, a song new to me, but it is certainly one to return to. With the BBC SO under Sir Malcolm Sargent she then sings O salutaris hostia from Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, a work that is neither ‘petite’ nor very ‘solennelle’, rather the composer in his sunniest mood. And the terminal point is another bonbon: Allelujah from Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate, with glittering coloratura – a delicious end to a delicious journey through Jacqueline Delman’s comprehensive and many-faceted repertoire. The quality of the sound, naturally a bit variable considering the various sources, is eminently listenable. Christer Eklund has, as usual, made the utmost of what was available on the 50 to 60-year old original tapes, and the result is a highly desirable tribute to ‘The Art of Jacqueline Delman’! You won’t find it in the record shops – well, there aren’t many of those around anymore anyway – but Jacqueline is well-stocked and will be happy to serve you by request.

Göran Forsling


Contents
CD 1 [78:37]
Opera/Operetta:
Johann STRAUSS II (1825 – 1899)
Die Fledermaus:
1. Adele’s Laughing Song [2:18]
Georges CHARPENTIER (1846 – 1905)
Louise:
2. Depuis le jour [5:17]
Giuseppe VERDI (1813 -1901)
La Traviata:
3. Ah, fors’è lui [4:17]
Il Trovatore:
4. D’amor sull’ali rosee [3:43]
Pjotr TCHAIKOVSKY (1840 – 1893)
Eugene Onegin:
5. Tatiana’s Letter Scene [13:23]
Giacomo PUCCINI (1858 – 1924)
La Bohème:
6. Mi chiamano Mimì [4:35]
Gianni Schicchi:
7. O mio babbino caro [2:33]
Enrique GRANADOS (1867 – 1916)
Goyescas:
8. La maja y el ruisenor [6:26]
Victor SCHERTZINGER (1890 – 1941)
9. One Night of Love from the film of the same name [4:15]

French Songs
Georges BIZET (1838 – 1875)
10. Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe [4:41
Claude DEBUSSY (1862 – 1918)
11. En sourdine [3:22]
12. Mandoline [1:37]
Henri DUPARC (1848 – 1933)
13. Chanson triste [3:07]
14. L’invitation au voyage [4:19]

German Songs
Franz SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828)
15. Gretchen am Spinnrade [3:42]
16. Der Jüngling an der Quelle [1:49]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810 – 1856)
17. Er ist’s [1:27]
Richard STRAUSS (1864 – 1949)
18. Morgen [3:33]
Hugo WOLF (1860 – 1903)
19. Bedeckt mich mit Blumen from Spanisches Liederbuch [3:03]
20. Ich hab‘ in Penna from Italienisches Liederbuch [0:51]

CD 2 [79:25]
Baroque Repertoire
Jean-Baptiste LULLY (1632 – 1687)
Thésée:
1. Chant de Vénus [4:00]
Jean-Philippe RAMEAU (1683 – 1764)
Dardanus:
2. Quand l’aquilon fougueux [2:45]
George Frideric HANDEL (1685 – 1759)
Joseph and his Brethren:
3. Celestial virgin, godlike youth [2:55]
Messiah:
4. I know that my redeemer liveth [8:03]

Russian Songs
Pjotr TCHAIKOVSKY
5. Was I not a blade of grass [5:37]
Sergei RACHMANINOV (1873 – 1943)
6. Do not sing your songs of Georgia [4:39]
Modest MUSSORGSKY (1839 – 1881)
7. The Magpie [2:13]
Michail GLINKA (1804 – 1857)
8. Traveller’s Song [1:42]
Nikolai MEDTNER (1880 – 1951)
9. The Sign [2:01]
10. Spanish Song [2:42]

British Songs
Michael HEAD (1900 – 1976)
11. The Singer [2:55]
Mark RAPHAEL (1900 – 1974)
12. The Lamb [2:23]
Roger QUILTER (1877 – 1953)
13. In Spring from 4 serious Songs [2:36]
Irish folk song
14. I will walk with my love [1:40]

Swedish Songs
Ture RANGSTRÖM (1884 – 1947)
15. Den enda stunden [2:28]
Emil SJÖGREN (1853 – 1918)
16. Jeg giver mit digt til våren [1:32]

Miscellaneous Repertoire
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809 – 1975)
Elijah:
17. Hear ye, Israel [5:55]
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906 – 1975)
18. The Suicide from Symphony No 14, Op 135 [6:57]
Ildebrando PIZZETTI (1880 – 1968)
19. I pastori [5:37]
Gioacchino ROSSINI (1792 – 1868)
Petite Messe Solennelle:
20. O salutaris hostia [6:20]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756 – 1791)
Exsultate, jubilate:
21. Allelujah [2:42]

Other performers
Helen Watts (contralto) (CD 2 tr. 3)
Various orchestras conducted by Annunzio Mantovani, Paul Fenoulhet, Vilem Tausky, Bryden Thomson, Anthony Bernard, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Carl Rune Larsson and Meredith Davies
Accompanied by pianists Paul Hamburger, Geoffrey Parsons, Viola Tunnard, Martin Isepp, Jan Eyron, José Ribera, Edward Rubach and Richard Nunn.