Victoria de los Angeles

Like Montserrat Caballe, Victoria de Los Angleles was born in Barcelona. Her’s was a humble but musical family and before beginning formal study she was already singing to her own guitar accompaniment. She was accepted by the city’s Conservatory and she progressed so rapidly that she completed the six-year course in three.

Her professional debut when she was only 22, was at Barcelona’s leading opera house, the Liceo, where she sang the Countess in Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’. Two years later she won the Geneva International Voice Competition and her international career had began. Her singing, pure, beautiful and true, won her many admirers and great public affection. She sang in all the major opera houses of the world, having a special connection with The Metropolitan, New York, and made many recordings – EMI with whom she had a contract for thirty years, claims that she made over 80 recordings for them. I have one of them – the famous Beecham performance of Puccini’s La Boheme where she was partnered by Jussi Bjoerling. Against this disc all other recordings of the opera tend to be judged.

There was a fragility about her voice and her high notes became more effortful in time, so she left the operatic stage in the 1970’s, concentrating on her work as a recitalist and employing her immense repertoire of German, French, Italian and Spanish songs. Her encores became famous, especially when she returned to the platform with her guitar and sang Catalan songs. Often she was accompanied by the English pianist, Gerald Moore who, when he retired, gave a concert with Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and de Los Angeles. It was recorded in 1962 and is still available (EMI Classics 7243 5 67000 2 8).

De Los Angeles who died this year was one of the most loved artists of her age. Her voice was as beautiful as her presence and there was a vulnerability about both that endeared her to audiences throughout the world. Surely no one will ever sing Mimi again as she did!

B.R.

Spanish opera singers: Jose Carreras

Described as having one of the most beautiful voices of the century, Carreras was born in Barcelona (that cultural mecca) - his name in Catalan is Josep. He speaks of a ‘carefree’ childhood, though for his parents with their three children it can’t have been easy to bring them up in the years after the Civil War. His father lost his job – he was a teacher but had fought on the side of the Republicans. Briefly the family emigrated to Argentina to find a new life, but without success and returned home, his father getting work as a traffic policemen and his mother opening a small hair-dressing shop.

Jose was always singing. Perhaps in desperation, his mother arranged for him to have piano lessons and then at the age of eight he began to attend singing classes at the local conservatory, going there after school each day. Soon he was singing professionally, including the role of the naughty child in the second act of La Boheme. When his voice broke he had lessons again and was heard by Montserrat Caballe who asked him to sing with her in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia, becoming his friend and mentor, singing in many performances with him. By the age of 28 he had already sung in 24 different operas, his open romantic voice and good looks distinguishing him from his rivals.

In 1987 tragedy struck. He was diagnosed with acute leukaemia and was given a one in ten chance of survival. But after extensive and painful therapy, he recovered and returned to his career, singing less operas but giving more recitals and concert performances. He set up a Foundation for leukaemia sufferers in which he has remained closely involved. The first Three Tenors concert was given to raise money for the Foundation.

And what of that famous trinity and their rolling road-show? I heard them in 2003 in what was then claimed to be the last of their extravaganzas (but there is already talk of another!). It was a great evening. Carreras is often described as ‘the other one’, but not for me. Compared to the heroic voice of Domingo and the thrilling if rather shallow sound of Pavarotti, his pure and passionate lyric tenor is unique and should be allowed to remain so …it’s time I found the disc and listened again to Caballe’s Flora and Carreras’ Cavaradossi!

B.R.

Spanish opera singers: Placido Domingo

With good reason, Placido Domingo has been called ‘the greatest operatic artist of modern times’ (The Guardian), and we can’t possibly encompass his long and continuing career in one posting. There is an extensive official website on the internet which includes brief extracts from some of his performances, and I refer you to that. ‘Greatest’ in the context of his art includes the sheer number of roles he has sung – at the last count 122! His extensive repertoire is still being added to. This summer for the first time he sang in Wagner’s Walkure in Covent Garden, a production repeated on the opening night of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts in London.

He was born in Madrid in 1941, his parents performers of Zarzuela music (more about this later) and when he was eight years old the family moved to Mexico City where he studied at the Conservatory - initially piano and conducting, changing to singing lessons when the potential of his voice became plain. You will have heard him on some of his many recordings. There is a strength and flexibility in his voice which has become deeper with the years so that now he feels able – even at the age of 64 – to learn and sing roles which at one time he might have felt uncomfortable with. He is also of course to be seen regularly as a conductor in the pit of opera houses or on the concert platform. Amongst the orchestras he has conducted is the London Philharmonic and he toured his native Spain with them a few years ago.

His honours are almost countless and the money he has raised for charity has raised millions of dollars for many worthy causes. Most of all, however, he has a wonderful voice – for me he is the equal of Caruso and Gigli, and excels them both in the dedication he has given to his art and to the public.

B.R.

Spanish opera singers: Montserrat Caballe

The Catalan soprano Montserrat Caballe was born in Barcelona in 1933 and became one of the most famous sopranos of her age, rivalled in her native land only by Victoria de los Angelos whom we will meet later. Regarded as primarily a bel canto singer (the term used to describe an emphasis on beauty and lyrical style typical of the great eighteenth and early nineteenth century operas, of which she became a notable exponent), she in fact had a much wider repertoire than that, singing many Puccini and Verdi roles as well as performing in three of Richard Strauss’s operas as well as Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. Eventually she sang over eighty operatic roles and in her later years after retirement from the operatic stage, she became a notable recitalist. Caballe has established a foundation for needy children in Barcelona and is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. Her fame extended far beyond the classical field when she sang with the rock singer Freddie Mercury the song ‘Barcelona’, which became the anthem of the 1992 Olympics.

She was, says NGMD, ‘an actress of refinement and dignity, but no great dramatic intensity’, which sounds a bit harsh. Regarded as a successor to Maria Callas anyone would pale in the wake of that supreme artist of the soul and the stage. I have been comparing recordings of Puccini’s La Tosca – the famous EMI recording with Callas, Gobbi and di Stefano (now available on a Naxos Historical disc) and the Philips 1976 version of the opera conducted by Colin Davies, Caballe’s Flora partnered by the young Jose Carreras’s Cavaradossi. There is commitment in both diva’s performances and whilst there is nothing of the earthy passion of Callas, Caballe’s more controlled performance (I have been comparing the recordings and especially the two versions of Vissi d’arte) is very beautiful and has an integrity and purity of its own. She once said that when the feeling of the music was there for her, then the words would automatically ring true. These qualities are no doubt evident in her many recordings, and she is one of Spain’s musical gifts to the world.

B.R.

Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos

Probably there are not many internationally known Spanish conductors, but if that is so, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos is a notable exception. I have been aware of him for many years and he was a frequent visitor to the London scene from the sixties onwards. He is now in his seventieth third year and I see was conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra a few years ago during their interregnum between conductors. The programme consisted of Beethoven’s 6th. Symphony and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and a reviewer in Boston’s web newspaper ‘The Tech’ writes of ‘his grandiose gestures’ and notices that he conducted without a score and inspired an orchestra which apparently was not at its best.

Burgos was born in the city of that name and his early studies were at the Bilbao conservatory, and later he became the conductor of that city’s orchestra. He also studied in Madrid and in Munich and has held a wide variety of posts. He is presently the Conductor Emeritus of the Spanish National Orchestra and the Chief Conductor and Arts Director of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra whose prospectus for the 2005-6 Season I have been looking at. It shows the breadth of Burgos’ musical appreciation and expertise.

So no specialist, this reputable and reliable conductor of many years, a fact emphasised by the 100 recordings he has made throughout his career and with many different orchestras. I have one of them –Carl Orff’s uproarious cantata ‘Carmina Burana played on an HMV disc with bravura and finesse.

Burgos was granted Spain’s most important musical award, the Jacinto Guerrero award, which was handed to him in 1997 by Queen Sophia of Spain.

B.R.

Alicia de Larrocha

Alicia de Larrocha is another artist with strong connections with Barcelona. She was born there in 1923 and in 1959 was appointed as Director of the Marshall Academy. Her career sent her around the world and many of her outstanding recordings are still available. She was contracted to the Decca company who describes her as ‘the Spanish dynamo of the keyboard’ who ‘ won the hearts of the world for nearly fifty years’. She recorded the complete Mozart sonatas and some of the concertos with maestro Colin Davies, as well as all the standard Spanish works some of which we have referred to.

I heard her play once at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, performing I think an early Beethoven concerto. She is very petite, standing at only 4’ 9’’ and I remember she had considerable trouble with the height of her piano stool. The conductor was ready and the orchestra waiting, but she continued to fiddle with the mechanism of the stool to try and find a satisfactory position but without success. In the end the stool was removed and another found which, again after some fiddling, was then considered to be appropriate. The polite Amsterdam audience quietly waited for the performance to begin, which of course once it did so, was excellent and warmly – perhaps also sympathetically – received.

It is interesting that such a small person could play with such muscular strength, one of the qualities evident in the Albeniz disc that I mentioned earlier.

B.R.

Pablo Casals II

The distinguished English cellist, Christopher Bunting has just died. His obituary in The Guardian today includes the following…

‘In 1952,just before leaving for Prades, near Perpignan, to take up a scholarship with Pablo Casals, Bunting gave an acclaimed recital at the Wigmore Hall, London with the pianist Gerald Moore. Casals had an approach to music-making that required microscopic analysis of the text, and it took Bunting time to adjust to the sheer level of detail his new teacher demanded; this combination of analysis and musical intuition subsequently formed the backbone of Bunting’s own teaching.

His pupils, who came from many parts of the world, were taught the bowing and fingering of Casals as a matter of routine and he used to quote Casals’ remark that ‘the difficulty of cello playing is to know how to get from one note to the next’’. Also referring in The Guardian’s piece to Bunting’s death, an ex student writes, ‘ I made the fortnightly journey down Hampstead high street to Christopher’s garden flat. His home was a shrine to earlier great cellists, notably Casals.’

Thus the prime exponent of his art is remembered through the work of his many pupils and the tradition and disciplines that inspired his own playing, lives on.

B.R
05.08.05

Andres Segovia

As with Pau Casals, so Andres Segovia was a master of his instrument. If Casals established the cello’s proper place in the orchestra and as a solo instrument, Segovia raised the guitar to an entirely new status on the concert platform. Born in 1893 in Linares, Jaen – where there is now a statue erected to his honour – he died in Madrid in 1987. He was self-taught and was playing in public by the time he was sixteen and after performing throughout Spain, in 1919 toured Uruguay and Argentina for the first time. Quickly he became known internationally, giving recitals in France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria and later in Russia, Denmark and Britain. His first visit to the U.S.A. was in 1928 and in the 1950’s his recitals there became an annual event.

Like so many others, he left Spain in 1936, settling in Montevideo for some years, giving many recitals throughout South America. He was responsible for the publication of classical transcriptions for the guitar and Turina, Ponce and Castlenuovo-Tedesco were amongst the many composers who wrote original music for him to play. He recorded over 50 albums of L.P.’s, his final album ‘Reveries’ being published in 1977. The problem that the guitar with its modest sound couldn’t easily fill a concert hall, was partly resolved as luthiers (the manufacturers of string instruments) experimented with new woods and designs and with the advent of nylon strings, the guitar became a bolder instrument with a more consistent tone. And today of course the positioning of a microphone helps the guitar to match the sound of a chamber orchestra in a concerto.

He was the supreme teacher of the guitar and his master classes influenced generations of performers, including John Williams whom we have referred to in the postings about Rodrigo. He gave his last recital in Florida when he was 94. He had set himself the goal of bringing guitar studies to every university in the world, to have the guitar played on every major platform just as the piano and violin, and to pass on his love for the instrument for generations to follow. And in this quest he was profoundly successful. It is hardly surprising that he should be known as the father of the classical guitar.

B.R.