Budapest born in 1913
Maria von Ilosvay had an important international
career that’s well reflected in this
Preiser salute, itself made up of the
contents of two Philips ten inch LPs.
Ilosvay studied first in Budapest and
then in Vienna where she won a prestigious
singing competition in 1937. She began
as a Mozart specialist though she also
sang in Krenek’s version of L’incoronazione
di Poppea, and in contemporary works
by Milhaud (Le Pauvre Matelot) and Ibert’s
Angelique. She toured America in 1937
and 1938 but was signed to the Hamburg
company in 1940 and remained there for
the rest of her professional career.
With Hamburg as her permanent base she
sang in Vienna, at La Scala and Covent
Garden, as well as more local houses
in Stuttgart and Munich. From 1953-58
Bayreuth claimed her. Perhaps her greatest
discographic fame rests with the 1953
Ring under Clemens Krauss, though she
sang Mother in the Karajan 'Hänsel
und Gretel', amongst other things.
So this makes the reappearance
of these 1952-55 recordings all the
more valuable in expanding our perception
and appreciation of her singing. For
the Mozart arias she’s accompanied by
the Vienna Symphony under Bernhard Paumgartner.
There sounds to have been quite a lot
of reverberation in these sides - Che
scompiglio especially. It’s noticeable
and slightly annoying though it doesn’t
sabotage the performances generally
as it tends to come and go. There are
a few LP clicks that could have been
eradicated. Nevertheless this is fine
Mozart singing, excellent in the divisions
in Del pari infeconda. Maybe
in the companion piece from La
Betulia liberta, Parto, inerme,
she’s a little over-emphatic in the
middle section – but she makes up for
it through well judged vocal weight
elsewhere. The sole example from La
clemenza di Tito is again afflicted
by heavy reverberation but here her
finely focused tone emerges relatively
unscathed.
Of her Verdi I think
it’s fair to say that her Trovatore
is rather polite whilst her Don Carlo
tends to lack clout. It’s finely etched
and coloured but lacks theatrical projection
at the end – and once again one needs
to draw attention to the cavernous boomy
acoustic. There’s pre-echo on the Mignon
and the sound rather breaks up, which
is a pity, because her French comprehensively
out trumps her Italian singing if these
examples are representative, and there’s
no real reason to doubt they are. Her
tone is full and there’s real charm
here.
There are two examples
at the Bayreuth Festival in 1953 with
Hotter – firstly Das Rheingold (Weiche,
Wotan, weiche) and then Siegfried
(Stark ruft das Lied) – the Krauss
performances in other words; but they’re
only adequately restored at best. The
final track is given over to an example
of her Verdi Requiem – she recorded
the whole work with van Kempen, of which
this is an extract, and it is impressively
done, making amends for her earlier
operatic diffidence in the Italian repertoire.
A most worthwhile and
valuable slant on Ilosvay then but in
all honesty some of the transfers could
have been a notch or two better.
Jonathan Woolf
Maria von Ilosvay (contralto) 
