I heard Julia Varady
sing live only once: in London as Tove in Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder
some ten years ago. The BBC Symphony Orchestra under Andrew
Davis gave a committed performance. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
took the role of the Speaker – the second I experienced, between
Hans Hotter and Ernst Haefliger. As for Varady herself, my concert
diary notes that she “lacked nothing in ardour of expression,
creating more impact with her careful use of words than the
size of her voice, but still able to cope well with the demands
of Schoenberg’s late-Romantic beast. Should hear more of her
…” Alas, I never did.
This DVD gives one
the opportunity to get a full picture of Varady’s background,
her art and distinguished career, and her prime motivations
for singing. Indeed, Bruno Monsaingeon, director of the three
films included here, “hopes that the viewer could enter Varady’s
intense world … it might also provide a belated revelation of
one of the most fascinating vocal and musical personalities
of our time.” About that I have no complaint, but until reading
the full text of Monsaingeon’s essay on Varady included on the
DVD, I did slightly doubt his assessment of her Varady as “a
mystery” and the embodiment of an unlikely fusion of vocal art:
Maria Callas and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. To be frank, such a
statement made me want to watch the DVD even more.
What emerges in
the first of the films, “Song of Passion”, is an in-depth biographical
portrait of Varady. From her childhood in Oradea, Romanian Transylvania,
the daughter of ethnic Hungarians, she moved to Cluj to pursue
what sounds like a monastic musical education. Then came her
first operatic appearances as a contralto, closely followed
by an assumption of soprano roles. Filmed in Portugal, she gives
a lucid account of the claustrophobic atmosphere in Ceauçescu’s
Romania, which led her to flee to the West in the early 1970s
in search of a wider career. That she succeeded was the result
of hard work, effort and sacrifice for her art. Speaking in
German and French, she recalls the main opportunities that came
her way and the high points of a career which spanned more than
thirty years. Key moments are illustrated with archive film
footage, recordings and photographs. If Varady is not the household
name that the quality of her singing should have made her, she
remains very much a musician’s musician. She talks at length
about finding the right tone, timbre and quality for each composer
and sees herself as a servant of music. Rightly, the score and
the composer come first for her.
Even though illustrations
of her in performance take in segments of Verdi, Richard Strauss,
Mozart and Wagner amongst others, it is the opportunity to see
her at work with other artists that can give the most insight.
The film includes a rehearsal sequence with Viktoria Postnikova
for the Wesendonck-lieder recital included later on the
DVD.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,
Varady’s husband, features prominently as pianist and conductor.
His wise counsel on the choice of repertoire throughout her
career is acknowledged, and they often memorably shared the
stage together. The ‘bonus’ film of Varady rehearsing Schubert’s
Der Tod und das Mädchen to his accompaniment shows the
exacting results that she is willingly pushed towards. It’s
quite an interpretive masterclass, given by one who knows the
music better than most, but Varady meets most challenges of
linguistic inflection, dramatic timing and distinctive tone
with individuality of insight along the way. The richness of
her lower register is impressive, as is the fluidity of her
middle, whilst in the upper reaches it gains a slight vulnerability.
When heard with orchestra, as on several releases from the Orfeo
label conducted by Fischer-Dieskau, what impresses most is the
integrity of her tone. Although it can be projected with strength,
it hardly ever loses focus or wavers from the note. If there
is any possible weakness, it is a slight indistinctness of diction
in favour of an emotional involvement that carries you along
with the conviction of her performance.
So to Wagner’s Wesendonck-lieder.
The recital, given before an invited audience, was the first
professional collaboration between Varady and Postnikova. Monsaingeon’s
decision to deliberately bring together these two formidable,
yet under-acknowledged performers was surely a gamble. But it
paid off. Postnikova’s sense of balance within the piano part
underlines the point that the two must be treated as equals
– Wagner’s cultured accompaniment to Wesendonck’s amateurish,
yet endearingly clumsy verses. In combination, he raises her
to a higher plane of sophistication. For her part, Varady gives
the words nobility and for moments an ethereal quality. Given
that this piece continues to elude a ‘definitive’ performance
in my opinion, Julia Varady’s has much to say that seems to
identify with that elusiveness. She is no less searching in
the Tchaikovsky encore, finding, to my ear at least, nuances
of sound and emphasis with assurance.
Monsaingeon’s films
leave me in no doubt that Julia Varady was an artist who never
received the level of recognition she truly deserved. This DVD
should help to rectify that to a large extent, and then leave
you wanting belatedly to hunt out her recordings.
Evan Dickerson
More on Julia Varady:
YouTube:
Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Wagner and a superb
extract from Verdi’s Nabucco
Julia Varady
(soprano) 
[93.49] 
