ORFEO International
News
January 2012
† Rita Gorr
The great Belgian mezzo-soprano Rita Gorr, who died only a few weeks before her eighty-sixth birthday, was one of those singers who force us to question traditional hierarchies on the operatic stage. 
Rita Gorr
Foto: Archive of the Bayreuther FestspieleWith her full-toned, penetrating timbre, coupled with a superior command of the technical and dramatic demands of the roles in her repertory, Rita Gorr intimidated many a soprano colleague and even tenor and baritone heroes – but never, of course, with the aim of simply making an impression for the sake of it. She did so mostly in Romantic works – whether in the German, French or Italian repertory was a matter of no great consequence. No Samson could get the better of her Delilah, and as Amneris she knew that her rival Aida could never be certain of Radames’ favour. On the Orfeo label she may be heard as a ferocious Ortrud at the 1959 Bayreuth Festival alongside Ernest Blanc’s Telramund, Sándor Kónya as her nemesis Lohengrin and Elisabeth Grümmer’s no less ideal Elsa – perhaps the most homogenous Lohengrin cast in the history of the gramophone. Rita Gorr continued to pursue her career until after her eightieth birthday, not least as a sinister Countess in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, a powerful vocal and histrionic assumption of the part that was seen at the Vienna State Opera in 1999 as well as elsewhere.
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December 2011
Grace Bumbry 75th Anniversary
If Grace Bumbry, who celebrates her seventy-fifth birthday on 4 January 2012, is a legend in her own lifetime, this is due not least to her Bayreuth début in 1961, when she appeared as a “black Venus” in Wieland Wagner’s production of Tannhäuser. 
Grace BumbryAnd yet her appearances in this part were hardly typical of her later career and repertory, for it is principally in Italian and French roles that the singer from St Louis, Missouri, has set standards that others have sought in vain to equal, not just in mezzo roles but in soprano roles, too. (She has sung Wagner’s Venus, for example, not only in the original “Dresden” version but also in the lower version that Wagner rewrote for Paris and Vienna.) Within three years of her sensational Bayreuth début she was already singing Verdi’s Lady Macbeth in Salzburg – as in Bayreuth, she appeared alongside Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau under the direction of Wolfgang Sawallisch. The live recording of the first night that has been released on Orfeo’s Festspieldokumente label indicates why Bumbry was hailed once again as the sensation of the evening. Her ability to strike the right balance between searing brilliance (but without any sense of acidulous sharpness) and expressive characterization comes close to that of a benchmark interpretation. During the years that followed, Grace Bumbry often had the opportunity to appear in Salzburg not only as a recitalist but also as Bizet’s Carmen under the direction of Herbert von Karajan. A CD of arias that she recorded with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra under Stefan Soltesz and that is available on the Orfeo label shows how flexible and stylistically varied was her choice of roles in the 1970s and 1980s: Verdi’s two Leonoras from La forza del destino and Il trovatore both feature here, as do roles from Classical and Romantic reform operas by Gluck and Cherubini, while the late Romantic and verismo periods are represented by arias from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, Massenet’s Le Cid and Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, all of them indicating why Grace Bumbry deserves the accolade of primadonna assoluta in the most literal sense of the term: here is an outstanding singer for whom no limitation in terms of role or period is an obstacle that cannot be effortlessly surmounted.
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November 2011
† Sena Jurinac
When a singer gives up one or more of her successful roles in order to take on a new part in the same work, albeit perhaps a role written for a different type of voice, there are not infrequently arguments over the extent to which voice and singer can cope with such a challenge. But there are some singers for whom this move seems so natural that few would question its meaningfulness. And while there have undoubtedly been a few risky and critical moments in the career of the soprano Sena Jurinac, who died on 22 November 2011 and had celebrated her ninetieth birthday only a few weeks ago, it is arguable whether there has ever been a singer who has switched so convincingly from a carefree Cherubino – the role in which she made her Viennese début in 1945 – to a wistful Countess, from a naïve Marzelline to a militant Leonore, from a forbearing Jenùfa to a strict Kostelnièka, and from a tempestuous Octavian to a detached and mellow Marschallin, the role in which Sena Jurinac bade farewell to the stage of the Vienna State Opera in 1982. She was a member of the Vienna ensemble for almost four decades, making it almost otiose to stress that all the usual clichés about prima donnas are wholly misplaced in her case. Even so, she triumphed as that quintessential prima donna Tosca, while being no less acclaimed as Madama Butterfly, reducing her audiences to tears not only in Vienna but also at London’s Royal Opera. Her multifaceted portrayal of this role may be heard in Orfeo’s series of live recordings from Vienna, as may excerpts from most of the other works mentioned here. It seems almost futile to add that she may also be heard on the Orfeo label as Beethoven’s Marzelline under Herbert von Karajan from the 1957 Salzburg Festival and as Eleonore in a concert performance of Krenek’s Karl V. under Gerd Albrecht from the 1980 Festival. But these recordings deserve to be mentioned here in order to reinforce yet again the impression of Sena Jurinac’s varied repertory and of the constancy of her career.
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October 2011
Emil Gilels 95th Anniversary
We 
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C 523 991 Bwould be doing Emil Gilels an injustice by describing him as a late starter, and yet that is the impression that one occasionally forms because it was at a relatively late date that Gilels, having already made a name for himself in the Soviet Union, conquered the concert halls of the rest of the world. Born in Odessa on 19 October 1916, he was still an adolescent when he gave his first public concerts. He studied in Moscow with the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus and in 1938 won first prize at the Eugène Ysaÿe Competition in Brussels. 
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C 712 062 IBut at that point the outbreak of the Second World War prevented him, at least for the present, from embarking on a promising international career. Instead he used the time to perfect his technique and work on his repertory both as a soloist and as a chamber recitalist. Among the musicians with whom he appeared as a recitalist were Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovich and David Oistrakh, who, like him, was one of the first Soviet artists to be allowed to visit the West. By 1955 the time was finally ripe for Gilels’ United States début, but it was to be another fourteen years before he started to appear regularly at the Salzburg Festival. His five recordings on the Orfeo label were all made at the Salzburg Festival. Even on its own term, his début with the Vienna Philharmonic under George Szell is a remarkable document, the all-Beethoven programme centred around the composer’s Third Piano Concerto. Gilels’ solo recital from 1970 finds him effortlessly encompassing a repertory from early Romanticism to the heyday of that movement, starting with Schubert’s Moments musicaux and A minor Sonata D 784 and ending with Liszt’s B minor Sonata. An even greater span in the history of music is covered by Gilels’ 1972 Salzburg programme, in which he displayed a dazzling array of pianistic colours in a repertory ranging from Mozart’s F major Sonata K 533/494 to Brahms’s Fantasies op. 116, the first part of Debussy’s Images and Three Movements from Stravinsky’s Petrushka. In a delightful compilation of Mozart recordings by various pianists in Salzburg, Gilels is represented by Mozart’s Paisiello Variations K 398 and the A minor Sonata K 310. And he is to be heard, finally, in a live recording from the 1971 Salzburg Festival with the Czech Philharmonic under Karl Böhm. (It was also under Böhm that Gilels performed double concertos with his daughter Elena.) On this occasion he is heard performing the Fifth Piano Concerto of Ludwig van Beethoven, a composer with whose works Gilels likewise set standards by which all other pianists were judged.
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September 2011
Julia Varady 70th Anniversary
Exactly what it takes to make a prima donna has always divided opinion. But to rise to the ranks of a prima donna assoluta surely requires all manner of qualities in the eyes of operatic experts: supreme musicality, a beautiful tone, technical authority, stylistic flexibility, a charismatic stage presence, the art of characterization and perhaps other qualities, too. 
Julia Varady
Foto: Sabine ToepfferIn the case of Julia Varady it is hard to say which of these qualities she did not possess. Both in the opera house and in the concert hall she was in total command of roles and styles from every period, invariably succeeding in casting a spell on her audiences and holding them in thrall. Perhaps her greatest triumphs were in her Verdi roles, which are represented in the Orfeo catalogue by excerpts recorded in the studio as well as by live recordings from the Bavarian and Vienna State Operas. Opera lovers wanting to hear a fully rounded portrait of one of her Verdi roles could do far worse than turn to her Leonora Trovatore from the Bavarian State Opera, the company that she made her home. Her recording of the role of Lisa in the Munich production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades has finally been released and has just been awarded a Diapason d’or in France. She has also released an intelligently chosen selection of songs by the same composer. Other recordings that deserve to be mentioned are a recital of songs by Mozart and Strauss and another of lieder by Louis Spohr in which she appears alongside her husband, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Under his baton she also appeared in many recitals and rose to such disparate challenges as Isolde’s Transfiguration, Lady Macbeth’s entrance aria and Ariadne’s great monologue. She was due to perform these last two roles onstage in the late 1990s but unfortunately she retired from operatic life shortly beforehand while still in full possession of her vocal resources, a point well illustrated by her continuing appearances in the concert hall over the next few years. But our memories of Julia Varady’s performances are still very much alive, and she remains active in masterclasses and the like. We extend to her our warmest good wishes on the occasion of her seventieth birthday.
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July 2011
Andris Nelsons ECHO Klassik 2011 Awarded
Andris Nelsons is this year’s recipient of ECHO Klassik’s ‘Conductor of the Year’ Award, a honour bestowed on him for his Stravinsky recording with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. [more...]
July 2011
Hans Werner Henze 85th Anniversary
Not just for Orfeo but for others, too, Hans Werner Henze’s eighty-fifth birthday on 1 July 2011 was more than merely a cause for celebration. [more...]
May 2011
Aribert Reimann erhält den Ernst-von-Siemens-Musikpreis
Aribert Reimann ist am 24. Mai 2011 in München für sein Lebenswerk mit dem Ernst-von-Siemens-Musikpreis geehrt worden. [more...]
May 2011
Inge Borkh 90th Anniversary
During the 1950s and 1960s, international opera houses looking for a hochdramatisch soprano capable of doing justice to the roles of Salome or Electra in Strauss's operas of the same name or to the part of the Dyer's Wife in the same composer's Die Frau ohne Schatten needed to look no further than Inge Borkh. [more...]
May 2011
† Dieter Klöcker
Die Nachricht vom Tod Dieter Klöckers bedeutet einen herben Verlust für alle, die klassische Musik und speziell die Musikliteratur für Klarinette lieben. [more...]
April 2011
Dieter Klöcker 75th Anniversary
In an age when many internationally acclaimed performers limit themselves to a relatively restricted repertory, Dieter Klöcker – to whom we offer our warmest good wishes on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday – stands alone. [more...]
April 2011
† Robert Tear
With the death of the Welsh tenor Robert Tear on 29 March, the world has lost a great artist. In the German-speaking world he was known above all as an outstanding singing actor. [more...]
March 2011
† Yakov Kreizberg
In many ways the death of Yakov Kreizberg at the age of fifty-one marks the end of an era in the world of classical music. Only a few weeks ago he was praised for his excellent, far-reaching work with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo [more...]
February 2011
Dame Margaret Price † 28 January 2011
The news that Dame Margaret Price has died of heart failure in Cardigan is as unexpected as it is a shock. 2011 was to have been a year in which to honour this grandiose singer, who would have celebrated her 70th birthday on 13 April. [more...]
January 2011
Plácido Domingo 70th Anniversary
There have already been many words of congratulation from others, but nor do we wish to miss the opportunity to celebrate Plácido Domingo’s 70th birthday too. [more...]
October 2010
Dmitri Mitropoulos, † 2 November 1960
Although the USA became his home, Dimitri Mitropoulos is in people’s minds today associated above all with a music-dramatic work that would have been unthinkable without the High Classical culture of Athens, the city of his birth. [more...]
October 2010
Fritz Wunderlich, *26 September 1930
The name of Fritz Wunderlich has long since been the stuff of legend, and yet it is impossible not to recall that he might have still been alive today and that we would now be celebrating his eightieth birthday if he had not been snatched away by his tragically early death. [more...]
August 2010
Andriss Nelsons Signing Session
Signing session with Andriss Nelsons. [more...]
July 2010
Cesare Siepi † 5 July 2010
If there is a post-war singer who fully deserves the description “basso cantante” then it can only be Cesare Siepi. [more...]
July 2010
Carlos Kleiber 80th Anniversary
It was exactly eighty years ago, on 3 July 1930, that Carlos Kleiber first saw the light of the world in Berlin. Six years after his sudden death in 2004 his special standing among his fellow conductors continues to resonate. [more...]
May 2010
† Anneliese Rothenberger
The price for great popularity in the arts can sometimes be high. Even the greatest successes in “serious” art can be diminished in the eyes of the public by supposedly “low-brow” appearances in the popular media. [more...]
May 2010
Giulietta Simionato
Giulietta Simionato died on 5 May 2010, exactly one week before her 100th birthday. She was perhaps the most versatile mezzo-soprano of her generation anywhere in the world. [more...]
August 2009
Hildegard Behrens Obituary
She was at the very top of the wish-list of intendants, conductors, directors and the public at all the big opera houses when it came to high dramatic soprano roles in the 1980s and ’90s. [more...]
July 2009
Hermann Prey's Eightieth Birthday
It has been claimed that in the age of film and television popularity and seriousness in classical music, especially in opera, are mutually exclusive. The German baritone Hermann Prey was living refutation of this claim. [more...]
July 2009
Brigitte Fassbaender's Seventieth Birthday
That a pronounced allegiance to a particular region does not have to stand in the way of an international career is well illustrated by the career of Brigitte Fassbaender. [more...]
November 2008
In Memory of Christel Goltz
She was one of the truly great hochdramatisch sopranos of the early post-war period, even though her recordings unfortunately provide only an inadequate reflection of her Wagnerian repertory. As a result, Christel Goltz is remembered above all as an exceptionally vivid exponent of early 20th-century works. [more...]
August 2008
Wolfgang Sawallisch's Eighty-Fifth Birthday
It has been some fifteen years since his last operatic performances on the rostrum of the Bavarian State Orchestra, but his hometown of Munich is not the only place to have fond memories of him. The person of whom we speak is the conductor, Wolfgang Sawallisch... [more...]
April 2008
On the Centenary of Joseph Keilberth
It is almost inevitable that our picture of Joseph Keilberth is bound up with the sense of shock triggered by his sudden death following a heart attack during a performance of Tristan und Isolde at the Munich Nationaltheater on 20 July 1968. [more...]
April 2008
Herbert von Karajan's 100th Birthday
Whole conferences are being held to mark the centenary of Herbert von Karajan’s birth, while existing biographies and discographies, with their critical and uncritical approaches, are compared and relativized, allowing new standpoints to emerge. [more...]
March 2008
Franz Crass's Eightieth Birthday
Franz Crass, to whom we extend our very best wishes on the occasion of his eightieth birthday on 9 March 2008, was an exception among German basses of the post-war period. [more...]
February 2008
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Midem Classical Award 2008 for Král a uhlír
A co-production with West German Radio, Orfeo’s recording of Antonín Dvorák’s Král a uhlír (King and Charcoal Burner) has received an award for the best operatic recording at this year’s Midem Classical Music Awards. [more...]
January 2008
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Songs of praise
Although Max Bruch first saw the light of day in Cologne on the Feast of the Epiphany 170 years ago, he remains less familiar to today’s audiences as a “religious” composer than for his Violin Concerto in G minor, a piece that is in the repertory of all the great violinists. [more...]
August 2007
ORFEO 2 CD C 438 982 H
Dove sono i bei momenti: Gundula Janowitz at seventy
In Mozart in particular she was admired above all for the clarity of her timbre and her consistently lean-toned intonation that was free of all impurities. But it would be wrong to forget that Gundula Janowitz’s needle-sharp accuracy never impeded her emotional and dramatic involvement in a role. [more...]
June 2007
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Award
Arabella Steinbacher has been awarded the ECHO Classical Music Award as Young Artist of the Year in the 2007 instrumental category for her CD Violino Latino (C 686 061 A). [more...]
March 2007
ORFEO 1 CD C 138 851 A
Dmitry Sitkovetsky: Bach, Goldberg-Variations
It says much for our sense of continuity in the history of recorded sound that – notwithstanding all attempts to achieve authenticity and return to an elusive Urtext – it is not only the pioneering feats of the proponents of period performing practice that are reissued. [more...]
January 2007
ORFEO 1 CD C 138 851 A
On Grace Bumbry’s 70th Birthday on 4 January 2007
Grace Bumbry was still in her mid-twenties when she caused a sensation at the 1961 and 1962 Bayreuth Festivals as a “black Venus” in a performance notable above all for its dazzling vocalism and brilliant acting. [more...]
January 2007
ORFEO 1 CD C 138 851 A
Werner Hollweg † 1.1.2007
Writing to his father during preparations for the first performance of Idomeneo in Munich in the winter of 1780/81, Mozart described the difficulties that he had encountered in trying to create a proper sense of balance between his protagonist’s coloratura agility and an expressivity that would be effective onstage. [more...]
October 2006
Sena Jurinac
Although it is now twenty-four years since Sena Jurinac – an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera – bade farewell to the stage, memories of her great performances remain as fresh as ever. [more...]
September 2006
Astrid Varnay † 5 September 2006
The life and career of Astrid Varnay are the subject of both legend and anecdote. She was Bayreuth’s first post-war Brünnhilde, continuing to appear in the part, alongside various colleagues, for well over a decade. [more...]
August 2006
Léopold Simoneau † 24 August 2006
Some operatic roles can be approached in very different ways, even though the vocal difficulties associated with them remain the same. [more...]
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