If there is anything disappointingabout this release, it is the rather
underwhelming attention given toLudwig's operatic career, which
spanned nearly fifty years and encom-passed all of the major companies of
the world and most of the century'smost important conductors and
singers. Unfortunately, the video legacy
of Ludwig on the opera stage is ridicu-
lously limited for such a spectacularcareer, and there is not nearly as much
to choose from as one might assume
or wish. We are treated here to a de-lightful excerpt from Falstaff featuring
Ludwig's hearty Mistress Quickly op-posite the charismatic Giuseppe Taddei.
The picture may be a bit dim, but thesetwo veterans make the screen sizzle.The other operatic excerpt comes not
from a live performance, but ratherfrom a film of Cosifan tutte, and as amomento of Ludwig's Dorabella it is
rather irrelevant. If only we were ableto view complete onstage perform-
ances of Ludwig in her greatest roles:Octavian, the Marschallin, the Dyer's
Wife, Dorabella, Kundry, Brangdne,and more.
Fortunately, ample video survives
of Ludwig's recital work, and the per-formances recorded for this release
further enhance our appreciation for
her mastery of the art song. She is seenhere in a complete performance ofSchubert's Die Winterreise, as well as
in assorted songs by Mahler, Wolf,
Strauss, and Bernstein, beautifully ac-companied at the piano by frequent
collaborator Charles Spencer. One mi-nor regret is that these lieder recitalswere not recorded before an audience,
and it contributes to a slightly "canned"
quality to the proceedings. The cam-
era work is fairly undistinguished and
frustratingly distant too much of the
time in Die Winterreise, and one also
119
I1 Gregory Berg
wonders whose decision it was to bringup crimson lighting in the backgroundas Ludwig sings Schubert's "Im Abend-rot." Those concerns aside, this is asuperb document of Ludwig at thevery end of her singing career. Thevoice is rich and still remarkably in-tegrated, and unlike other singers intheir twilight, Ludwig resists the urgeto slather her performances with in-terpretive extremes. She was alwaysa singer who trusted the greatness ofthese songs and who approached herperforming with a touching and all-too-rare sense of humility. "We singersmust never forget:' she wrote in hermemoirs, "that we are only the ser-vants of the great minds who createdall of the wonderful pieces of musicwhich we enjoy today:'
To recount the high points is ulti-mately an exercise in happy frustra-tion, for so much of this singing is su-perb and in so many ways. More thanone critic has remarked that if there isany way in which Ludwig grew as asinger from the start of her career toits conclusion, it was in her capacityto give herself over more completelyin the happy songs she sang. Certainly,she is fully persuasive in the exuber-ance of Wolf's "Der Gartner" and inthe joyous rising lines of Mahler's "Ichging mit Lust" There is a smile not onlyon her face and in her sound, but alsoencompassing her whole being. It isdifficult to understand, let alone artic-ulate, what Ludwig manages to achievehere but it is truly remarkable. She is es-pecially beguiling in Wolf's "In demSchatten meiner Locken" by captur-
ing the shifting moods of the womanwith a playful mix of potency and un-derstatement. Equally impressive iswhat Ludwig always has been able to dowith darker, more restrained songs like"Die Nacht" or "Morgen" by Strauss.The latter receives a performance thatmay be ever so slightly encumberedby the encroachment of age, but what-ever she has lost in breath and even-ness of tone (which is not much), shehas more than gained back in the kindof depth of understanding that comesonly when one has lived a long, some-times challenging, and ultimately sat-isfying life, artistically and otherwise.The way in which she sings the word"stumm" over that striking ninth chordin the accompaniment seems to trans-port her-and us-to another time andplace.
As impressive as the aforemen-tioned lieder recital is, many may findher performance of Die Winterreiseto be even more impressive. Certainly,it is extremely rare to have a womanperform this song cycle, and the linernotes of the disk suggest that Ludwigmay be only the third major femalesinger-after Lotte Lehmann andElena Gerhardt-to do so. Some mightargue that these texts are meant to beexpressed by a male, but Ludwig statesin the liner notes that these poemsspeak of the winter journey of a hu-man soul, and not necessarily that of aman-or of a woman, for that matter.Ludwig goes on to say that a womanis able to bring a certain perspectiveto matters of life, love, and death thatare different from that of a man, andthat is why she believes so ferventlythat this song cycle needs to be em-braced and performed by both menand women. Certainly, those of us whowere privileged to see and hear Ludwigperform this song cycle at the Ravinia
JOURNAL OF SINGING120
The Listener's Gallery [I
Festival many years ago could not pos-sibly believe that Ludwig was strayinginto emotional territory beyond herabilities. The performance was one ofastonishing emotional impact and thetwo minutes of silence that followed"Der Leiermann" was the equivalentof a thousand standing ovations.
The performance captured on thisdisk is powerful and expressive, al-though one dearly wishes that an au-dience had been present to somehowgive the proceedings more of a sense
of a journey experienced together.Some also may be troubled by the fre-quent transpositions that Ludwig em-ploys to keep all of these songs in what
she refers to as her most natural reg-ister where she would be able to de-liver the text most expressively. "Iwanted to make it as simple as possi-ble,' she states in the liner notes, andwhatever one might think of that choiceand its appropriateness, it seems tohave yielded rich artistic results. Inter-estingly, the changes go in both direc-tions, with seven of the songs trans-posed down and two of them actuallytransposed up; the transpositions arelimited to a half or whole step.
As for the performance itself, it isvintage Ludwig. Her sound suggeststhe richness of the cello, especially inthose songs that probe the depths ofsorrow as well as in those momentswhen biting bitterness is needed. Thereis also something haunting when avoice as colorful as Ludwig's is scaledback to a near whisper. The openingto "Der Wegweiser" or the closingphrases of "Der Leiermann" are ut-tered with a profound, painful senseof bleakness and loss. By and large, thisis a performance that is free of artifice
and of expressive surprises, save for anunexpectedly slow, soft approach to"Die Post." Otherwise, Ludwig deliv-
ers this cycle with the same sort ofstraightforward, assured confidence
and skill that has informed her careerevery step of the way.
What is perhaps most treasurableof all on these disks is the opportunitythey afford us to see Ludwig in actionas a clinician in master classes filmed
in Vienna in 1999. She works throughoperatic repertoire with three youngsingers who were virtually unknown
at the time: mezzo soprano StellaGrigorian, tenor Valerij Serkin, and
baritone Marcus Pelz, and they seemto be excited by this opportunity, en-tirely open to her guidance, but notunduly intimidated by the prospect ofsharing the stage with one of the trulylegendary singers of the twentieth cen-tury. Ludwig has a way of setting ex-actly the right sort of tone for the pro-
ceedings by asserting herself firmly asthe person in charge, yet with an invit-ing sort of warmth and charm. She is
not shy about bestowing glowing com-
pliments when they are warranted, par-ticularly when the tenor delivers twoperformances that require only the
most subtle sort of tweaking and pol-ishing. She is an exacting teacher, and
not reluctant to cut off a singer aftertwo or three notes to reassert direc-tion that seems to be followed. This
happens especially when she is aftermore legato singing from Ms. Grigorian
as she renders one of Dorabella's ariasfrom Cosifan tutte. Her singing seemsat first to be perfectly legato, but as
Ludwig works with the young mezzowe realize that there are all sorts of mo-
ments when in fact the melodic line isnot legato at all or at least not as legatoas it can and should be. Ludwig is alsonot shy when she asked for a certaindynamic which a singer might deliveronly to a point. Again with Ms. Grigor-ian, Ludwig demands very soft, silkensinging in the opening of Carmen's"Seguidilla," and every time the mezzo
strays back into louder singing she isstopped in her tracks. What is refresh-
ing is Ludwig's good-natured approachto insisting on only the best that theseyoung singers can deliver.
Much of what Ludwig does is verybasic, such as insisting that repeated
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1 Gregory Berg
text be sung with some sort of varia-tion. She also asks the singers to per-form their arias more mindful of theother characters who would be withthem, were it a fully staged perform-ance. This yields handsome rewardswith Ms. Grigorian's "Seguidilla" asLudwig reminds the young mezzo ofwhere Don Jose is at that moment andof the vital importance of luring him in.Ludwig suggests to all three singersthat certain moments are best ap-proached as being sung to themselvesrather than out to the audience. Aboveall, the cardinal sin for Ludwig issinging for the sake of lovely sounds.She cares that the singing be beauti-ful, but not at the expense of expres-siveness. "Otherwise" she says at onepoint, "this just becomes an aria.'
Some master class clinicians makea point of keeping everything in themoment and refuse to engage in anyreminiscences from their own careers,while others seem to spend an embar-rassing amount of time perched onwhat so easily can become distractingtangents. Ludwig achieves a perfect
sense of balance here by mentioningcertain names from her extraordinarycareer, but only briefly. At the outsetof coaching the Dorabella aria, shementions in passing that she studiedthis aria with Herbert von Karajan.Ludwig already had the credentials ofbeing one of the finest Dorabellas ofall time, but the brief mention of thename Karajan reinforces the fact thatshe is speaking from a position of ex-traordinary experience. As she workswith Mr. Serkin on an aria fromWerther, she mentions having sungthis opera opposite Franco Corelli, whoshe says had a voice that was far tooheavy to be ideal for the role, but whocompensated with a thrilling emotionalintensity. One has to appreciateLudwig's capacity not only to admirethose colleagues who were cut fromthe same sort of artistic fabric as shewas, but also her ability to admire thosewho brought other gifts to the table.
The viewer likely will appreciate thebrief spoken comments that adjoineach aria. On one disk these commentsfrom Ludwig summarize both the pres-
ent skills and the likely potential ofeach of the three young singers. Onthe other disk, the singers themselvesspeak with wonderment at the privi-lege of working with Ludwig and ofhow difficult it is to sing to your high-est abilities under such circumstances.That they sing as well as they do is atribute to them; that they leave thesemaster classes as even better singers isa tribute to their master teacher, ChristaLudwig.
Chester Biscardi-At the Still Point.Judith Bettina, soprano; JamesGoldsworthy, piano. (CRI CD 686;54:00)
The Gift of Life. Traverso. CompanionPiece. Incitation to Desire. Mestiere.Tenzone. At the Still Point.
Readers of this column may recall anenthusiastic recent review of a com-pact disk titled Songs and Encores:Recital of American Song, featuringJudith Bettina and James Goldsworthy.A colorful array of American songcomposers was represented in whatamounted to tantalizing glimpses oftheir very best work in highly persua-sive performances. One of the high-lights of that disk was a haunting songcalled "Guru" by Chester Biscardi,which surely left listeners hungry tohear more, assuming that this was theirinitial introduction to this composerand his music.
In fact, Chester Biscardi has beenan intriguing and gifted voice in con-temporary music for the last severalseveral decades, and the compact diskat hand commemorates his career ashe reaches the age of sixty. Born andraised in Kenosha, Wisconsin (a citywhich most Americans probably as-
JOURNAL OF SINGING
The Institute for Music Research &The Music Department, UT-San Antonio
presentThe 4th Physiology and Acoustics of Singing Conference
January 7-10, 2009San Antonio, Texas USA
Featured presenters to include Ingo Titze, Lisa Popeil, StenTernstr6m, James Daug herty, Harald Jers
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sociate with auto plants and bratwurstrather than the nuanced world of theart song), Biscardi has enjoyed a ca-reer that has taken him across the globe,yielded him awards such as the Prixde Rome, and eventually brought himto the chairmanship of the music de-partment of Sarah Lawrence College.He is probably best known not onlyfor his art songs, but also for his su-perbly crafted instrumental chambermusic and for piano works that seemto make the piano sing in wonderfulnew ways.
Biscardi has selected works for thisdisk that span nearly two decades andseveral genres. Fans of his vocal mu-sic will undoubtedly be disappointedthat only one of the seven works gath-ered here is for voice, but that par-
ticular piece is a true masterwork.Moreoever, the rest of this disk offersa fascinating view of how Biscardi'sartistic vision has shifted and grownover the years, and the opportunity tohear his musical voice in these various
genres should not be missed. Some ofthe music here is easily accessible (suchas a tango titled "Incitation to Desire")while other pieces like the Tenzone forTwo Flutes is more daringly modern.Liner notes give helpful and interest-ing background information on eachand every work.
The vocal work is called The Gift ofLife, and in fact is a song cycle com-pleted fifteen years ago. [See also the"Music Review" column, pp. 111- 112.]The composer explains in the linernotes that he wrote this in the wake ofa most satisfying collaboration withHenry Butler for a chamber opera ti-tled Tight-Rope. The pleasure of work-ing with characters and plot foreveraltered the way Biscardi would ap-proach the task of crafting art songsand powerfully shaped the creation of
the song cycle. (Biscardi related in somecorrespondence that after writing hisopera, he found it very difficult to re-turn to the arena of instrumental mu-sic, although he eventually did so andhas gone on to craft powerful and orig-inal instumental works.)
The song cycle was composed forBettina and Goldsworthy, who per-form it here as they did for the work'spremiere in 1993. It begins with anexquisite setting of one of EmilyDickinson's most tender poems, whichopens this way:
Mama never forgets her birds,Though in another tree-She looks down just as oftenAnd just as tenderly.
Dickinson wrote this in memory ofan aunt who had died and likened herdeparture from this world to a bird fly-ing from one tree to another, yet stilllooking down on her baby birds withconcern and affection. Biscardi's sen-sitive treatment of this text is breath-takingly beautiful, and it draws us in-exorably into the rest of this work andexploration of, in Biscardi's words,"birth, life, memory, loss, death, andfinally, love." The middle portion of thework is based on a text from Denise
Levertov's Life in the Forest, a woman'sthoughtful reflection on her ownmother who seems about to slip awayfrom her. This text is less poetic, at leastin the conventional sense of the word,which makes it all the more challeng-ing to set to music, but Biscardi re-sponds beautifully with music that gen-tly breathes life into the text withoutobscuring it. The third and final portionof the text is from Thornton Wilder'sThe Bridge of San Luis Rey and speakspowerfully and persuasively of the final-
ity of death and of our own eventualoblivion, but also of the importance of
love as the last and, in fact, only bridgebetween life and death. Here, asthroughout the piece, Biscardi writeswith a striking mix of sparseness andwarmth, and the text is treated withsuch loving care. Judith Bettina singsbeautifully and Jeff Goldsworthy offerssensitive accompaniment at every turn.
So yet again, we are left tantalizedby the songs of Chester Biscardi andhungry to hear more. May our wait bebrief.
Russell Oberlin Sings Handel Arias.Russell Oberlin, countertenor. BaroqueChamber Orchestra; Thomas Dunn,conductor. (Deutsche Grammophon 4776541; 47:43)
"But who may abide," "How beautiful arethe feet" (Messiah); "Their land brought
forth frogs," "Thou shalt bring them in"(Israel in Egypo; Ah dolce nome!" (Muzio
Both of the aforementioned record-ings commemorate landmark birth-days. So does Deutsche Grammophon'srelease on compact disk of this land-mark recording of Handel arias sungby countertenor Russell Oberlin. It isthe singer's eightieth birthday whichprompts this particular release, and itis long overdue.
To some extent, Oberlin's reputa-tion as one of the twentieth century'smost important singers has been ill-served by the emergence of DavidDaniels, a countertenor who took theworld by storm with a voice and stylethat were much more powerful andmuscular. Many of the laudatory re-views of Daniels's singing drew a sharpcontrast between his singing (so of-
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 123
Gregory Berg
ten deemed much more "masculine")and that of his two most famous mod-ern-day predecessors, Alfred Dellerand Russell Oberlin. According tothe more aggressively and carelesslywritten reviews, Deller and Oberlinwere but pale, pastel precursors tothe "real thing:' which came with theirgifted successor's dramatic emergencein the 1990s. In fact, such accountsdo a disservice to both generations.David Daniels is a countertenor witha truly uncommon instrument, buthe is also a superlative musician ca-pable of quite sensitive singing.Although Daniels's predecessors maynot have possessed his sheer vocalheft, Oberlin especially was capableof shooting off very exciting vocalfireworks of his own.
This wonderful collection of Handelarias showcases Oberlin's manystrengths, but especially his exceptionalgift for sculpting lyric lines with graceand nuance. "Dove sei, amato bene"from Rodelinda is probably the highpoint of this release. The oboe-like tim-bre of Oberlin's voice gives this aria amelting beauty that one scarcely canimagine being bettered, and these wide-ranging melodic phrases sound almostsimple, which is a truly astounding feat.At the other end of the expressive spec-trum is "Their land brought forth frogs"from Israel in Egypt, which is exactlythe sort of energetic aria where onemight assume that the heftier sound ofDaniels would be very much missed.Actually, Oberlin brings his own kindof intensity to this aria and demon-
Resonance In SingingVoice Building through Acoustic Feedback Discountby Donald Gray Miller pncing available
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strates how excitement is never borneof sheer amplitude as much as it is bymusical and authentic expressivity.
Ultimately, this release reminds allof us of something that Oberlin andDaniels have known all along, andwhich they stated unequivocally in amemorable dual interview for OperaNews several years ago. The truth isthat countertenors should no morecome in one size than any other type ofsinger, and that both of these finesingers have enriched the world of mu-sic immeasurably. How gratifying tohave this release available to the pub-lic again as a testament to a truly su-perb singer.
Gregory Berg is an Assistant Professor of Musicat Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisonsin, wherehe teaches private voice. He is Fine Arts Direc-tor for local public radio station WGTD FM 91.1,for which he hosts a daily classical music pro-gram, "The Music Potpourri," and a daily inter-view program called "The Morning Show." Achurch organist since the age of eight, he servesHoly Communion Lutheran Church as Ministerof Music. He graduated from Luther College(Decorah, Iowa) in 1982 and earned his mas-ter's degree in vocal performance from theUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln. During his un-dergraduate and graduate years, he earned fourfirst-place finishes in state and regional NATScompetitions; he also won first place in the Dis-trict Metropolitan Opera Auditions and was anapprentice with the prestigious Lyric Opera Cen-ter forAmerican Artists in Chicago. Since mov-ing to southeastern Wisconsin, Berg has been anactive soloist with area orchestras and windensembles. He is also a composer of churchmusic with two contemporary liturgies and threecommissioned hymns to his credit.
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TITLE: The Listener’s GallerySOURCE: J Singing 65 no1 S/O 2008
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