Kerstin Meyer (mezzo-soprano)
Memorial Edition 1956-1980
rec. 1957-1980, various venues
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
STERLING CDA1862/1863-2 [2 CDs: 148]
Swedish mezzo-soprano Kerstin Meyer had a long and distinguished career, initially at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, but for many years also on the international circuit, where she appeared on all the big stages. She was also an important recitalist, and this side of her artistry is well-represented on the present memorial
release. After her singing career she was director of the Stockholm Opera College for ten years, and she made a spectacular comeback when she was 85 at the Malmö Opera as Madame Armfeldt in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. She passed away in April 2020, aged 92. In spite of her importance, she made few recordings, but fortunately her voice has been preserved in live performances and studio recordings in various radio archives, sources that Sterling have been able to take advantage of. The recording quality naturally varies, the oldest ones are the least satisfactory and in particular it is the reproduction of the orchestras that suffers, while Kerstin Meyer’s voice carries out better.
“Memorial Edition 1956 – 1980” says the header, but actually the earliest items are from 1957. On the first track on CD 1 we meet her warm and contralto like voice in the Urlicht movement from Mahler’s second symphony. This is one of the most moving songs in Mahler’s total oeuvre, and Meyer, ably accompanied by the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under the young Lorin Maazel, sings it with great inwardness, fully comparable to her great contemporary mezzo colleague Christa Ludwig.
Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, the second part only, fares better sound-wise, accompanied by a small combo conducted by Siegfried Naumann. Meyer’s reading is marvellous, moving effortlessly between the various singing styles prescribed by the composer: Sprechgesang, glissandi etc. She was early an excellent interpreter of contemporary music and sang in premieres of new works.
Back to Mahler and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen – still from 1957 – she catches the various moods of the cycle with expertise, and demonstrates her dramatic power – she was an excellent actor – in a truly intense Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer, but she is just as convincing in the more lyrical moments. Her deep alto tones pianissimo are touching at the end of Die zwei blauen Augen.
In a studio recording from Sveriges Radio (Swedish Radio) in 1958 of Mussorgsky’s Sunless cycle, she is accompanied by Erik Werba. The sound is superior to the live recordings and the singing excellent. The cycle is most often sung by baritones or basses – Boris Christoff and Sergei Leiferkus are my two favourites – but Kerstin Meyer shows that a female voice is also perfectly valid.
A handful of opera arias follow next, and really good they are. Caught in her early thirties, her voice is still at its freshest. O don fatale from Don Carlos can hardly be bettered and, somewhat surprising perhaps, she has the lightness and coloratura for a charming version of Rosina’s Una voce poco fa. Both were recorded at concerts in Stockholm Concert Hall.
From the Stockholm Royal Opera House comes a short excerpt from the second act of Lohengrin. Kerstin Meyer was an important Wagner singer – she sang several seasons at Bayreuth in the 1960s – and Ortrud a role that suited her.
Carmen was one of her earliest roles in Stockholm. In October 1954 she starred in a new production, directed by Göran Gentele and conducted by Sixten Ehrling. That season alone she sang the role 41 times, and until December 1956 she subscribed to the role. The excerpt here, recorded in 1966, is the short encounter between Carmen and Escamillo in act IV, when Escamillo is on his way to the bullfight arena. It’s only a snippet, but it is a valuable document of sensual reading of the gypsy sorceress. And Ingvar Wixell is a glorious toreador. Those wanting more of Kerstin Meyer’s Carmen should not despair. On Bluebell ABCD100, there are three excerpts from October 1954 (review), and also on Bluebell ABCD109, the complete opera.
The fifth opera excerpt is Mamsell Arfvidson’s aria from Un ballo in Maschera, recorded at the Royal Opera’s tour to World Exhibition in Montreal in 1967. Here is glorious singing indeed.
The concluding item on CD 1 is Debussy’s little cycle Le promenoir des deux amants – three songs, taking together six minutes, but they are six truly concentrated minutes, and she is masterly accompanied by “The Swedish Gerald Moore” Jan Eyron.
There are more songs to follow on CD 2. Recorded in New Zealand in 1963 with pianist Maurice Till, she delivers a deeply felt Frauenliebe und -Leben. The eight songs, spanning from the first infatuation to the deep sorrow and despair when she realises she has been let down, is one of the great cycles, and it has been recorded innumerable times by the greatest singers. Kerstin Meyer can stand up against most of her competitors.
Two excerpts from the German opera repertoire come next. First the magical scene in act II of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, when Octavian hands over the silver rose to Sophie and fancy arises. Meyer’s Octavian and Margareta Hallin’s Sophie seem meant for each other, and when their voices unite and Hallin sails up to the stars, at least this listener is in Heaven.
The starry cast in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg from the Osterfestspiele in Salzburg in 1974 under Herbert von Karajan is of course a luxury item. With Gundula Janowitz (Eva), Peter Schreier (David), René Kollo (Walther), Karl Ridderbusch (Hans Sachs) and Kerstin Meyer (Magdalene) together in the quintet one expects world-class – and one gets it – but truth to tell, this is Gundula Janowitz’s trump card and the others are not really featured, least of all Kerstin Meyer. But it is telling proof that she appeared in company with the greatest of her contemporaries.
On the other hand, she is really featured in the studio recording of the greatest Nordic song cycle, Grieg’s Haugtussa. Like Schumann’s Frauenliebe, this cycle goes from light infatuation to dark resignation, and Kerstin Meyer is again masterly in her depiction of the shifting feelings. Jan Eyron is again a superb accompanist,
More Wagner. Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried were early roles for her in Stockholm 1952. Here we hear her in the former role almost 23 years later, from a guest performance with the Royal Opera at Bolshoi. Her vibrato is a little wider, but the nobility and the power is indisputable. This also goes for her Kundry in Parsifal recorded in 1980.
After all this heavy stuff, it is nice to unbutton a little with the joyous Cat duet, once attributed to Rossini. Together with Meyer’s longstanding colleague and friend Elisabeth Söderström, they miaow their way through this relaxing little piece – to the audible pleasure of the audience in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland in 1973.
I heard Kerstin Meyer in the flesh many times. She was my first Carmen in 1971 and her Kostelnička in Jenůfa opposite Elisabeth Söderström the following year was one of the most memorable performances ever at the Royal Opera. An excerpt from Jenůfa is included in the Bluebell disc mentioned above. Nils-Göran Olve’s comprehensive liner notes to the present issue is a valuable biography on Kerstin Meyer’s career. All in all, this box should be attractive to readers with an interest in great singers of the second half of the previous century.
Göran Forsling
Contents
CD 1
Mahler – Urlicht from Symphony No. 2
Schönberg – Pierrot Lunaire, Part II
Mahler – Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Mussorgsky – Sunless
Verdi – O don fatale from Don Carlos
Rossini – Una voce poco fa from Il barbiere di Siviglia
Wagner – Entweiche Götter from Lohengrin
Bizet – Si tu m’aimes from Carmen
Verdi – Re dell’abisso from Un ballo in Maschera
Debussy – Le promenoire des deux amants
CD 2
Schumann – Frauen-Liebe und Leben
R. Strauss – Mir ist die Ehre Wiederfahren from Der Rosenkavalier
Wagner – Selig, wie die Sonne from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Grieg – Haugtussa
Wagner – Weiche, Wotan, weiche from Das Rheingold
Wagner – Ich sah das Kind from Parsifal
Rossini – Duetto buffo di due gatti
Other performers
Soloists incl. Margareta Hallin, Gundula Janowitz, Elisabeth Söderström (soprano), Sven-Olof Eliasson, René Kollo, Peter Schreier (tenor), Leif Roar, Ingvar Wixell (baritone), Karl Ridderbusch (bass);
Orchestras: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Royal Swedish
Conductors: Kurt Bendix, Sixten Ehrling, Herbert von Karajan, Paul Kletzki, Berislav Klobučar, Lorin Maazel, Herbert Sandberg and Stig Westerberg;
Pianists: Jan Eyron, Maurice Till and Erik Werba
