I first heard Jessye Norman sing in Amsterdam in 1971, while on my honeymoon. She was then little known. When she walked onto the stage with John Shirley Quirk, the audience gasped. She started to sing: the audience fell instantly under the spell of her vocal beauty, and at the end of the concert the audience went wild. I was fortunate to hear her live two more times, once in San Francisco and then again in Washington, DC. By then she was famous, and the audiences continued to go wild. Incomparable, exquisite, and, above all, intelligent with a perfect understanding of the texts she sang. Thank God for recordings so that listeners in the future can revel in this beauty!
I don't know who invented the internet, but for this moment of pure grace accessible to all, he deserves a statue... More seriously, the score is perfect, the orchestra wonderful, the conductor incredible and Jessye Norman delivers here one of the most beautiful voices that can be heard.
Jessy Norman looks gorgeous en sings absolutely perfect and very moving! Just imagine this is a LIVE performance NOT a recording. Her choice of intonations, colours, timing combined with great vocal technique en beautiful voice. What a woman!
I had the enormous luck to hear she in Madrid singing these songs, and it was one of my lifetime great moments. I adore Strauss and also Miss Norman. Simply the best
OH MY GWAD, she has been my vocal lighthouse since I first heard her in 1975 on a live radio broadcast. I was struck dumb, I knew nothing about her previously, had never seen her photo. English does not have enough words to describe her voice. She could sing the phone book and one would think it was wonderful. And her stage presence was impeccable, her size not withstanding...... DANG. Her Isolde was sadly never recorded complete. the Strauss Four Last Songs are to DIE FOR. She even makes Schoenberg's Ewartung sound melodious. Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle is unforgettable. And her FASHION sense was outstanding. GAWD !!!! She looks like the Empress of the WORLD !!! NOTHING LIKE HER WILL EVER APPEAR AGAIN !!!! NOTHING !!!!!! You're right about Dido's Lament, I just want to crawl in a hole and DIE !!!! Perhaps she wasn't human, but a siren escaped from Greek mythology.....
With all respect for the use of superlatives: Jessye Norman is the unrivaled soprano for Strauss Four Last Songs. It´s the plenty of this beautiful voice, the ability to colorize the demanding vocal lines in an unique interpretation with endless breath. The recording is a monument and this performance also. Thank you very much for the upload, it´s a treasure! :-)
In dusky vaults I have long dreamt Of your trees and blue skies, Of your scents and the songs of birds. Now you lie revealed In glistening splendour, Flushed with light, Like a wonder before me. You know me again, You beckon tenderly to me; All of my limbs quiver From your blissful presence! 3:21 September Hermann Hesse The garden is mourning, The rain sinks coolly into the flowers. Summer shudders As it meets its end. Leaf upon leaf drops golden Down from the lofty acacia. Summer smiles, astonished and weak, In the dying garden dream. For a while still by the roses It remains standing, yearning for peace. Slowly it closes its eyes grown weary. 8:00 While Going to Sleep Hermann Hesse Now that the day has made me so tired, My dearest longings shall Be accepted kindly by the starry night Like a weary child. Hands, cease your activity, Head, forget all of your thoughts; All my senses now Will sink into slumber. And my soul, unobserved, Will float about on untrammeled wings In the enchanted circle of the night, Living a thousandfold more deeply. 13:11 In Twilight Joseph von Eichendorff We've gone through joy and crisis Together, hand in hand, And now we rest from wandering Above the silent land. The valleys slope around us, The air is growing dark, And dreamily, into the haze, There still ascend two larks. Come here, and let them flutter, The time for sleep is soon. We would not want to lose our way In this great solitude. O vast and silent peace! So deep in twilight ruddiness, We are so wander-weary - Could this perchance be death?
The greatest concert I ever saw was in Ann Arbor Michigan in 1989. Jessye Norman sang the 4 Last Songs with Kurt Masur conducting the Leipzig Gewandus. I loved the recording but this was better. Those who saw it those years ago and are still alive talk about it to this day. It was true ex stasis in the original meaning of the word. Norman, Masur, and Strauss are all to be given the highest praise. This was great too.
Une interprétation d'anthologie ! Mme Jessye Norman au sommet de son art, déploie tout son talent et son expressivité dans un Allemand parfait... *Admirable* !
This is quite simply magnificent. I first heard Ms. Norman in 1976 at the Harrogate Festival where she sang Nuits D'ete. It was extraordinary. This performance is from relatively early in her career then, when she was living in Europe and performing there mostly. I have had the pleasure of hearing her many times in New York, including a simply sensational all Strauss recital at the Met with Jimmy Levine accompanying on piano. The most communicative singer of this music that I know. Sawallisch shows his usual unfussy mastery and is much quicker in the last song than Masur who ruins that Philips recording by being too slow (for me) in the last song - the opening has no shape, no line. Such a pity. Of course Wolfgang was going to get the tempi right. Jessye Norman had a lava-flow of sonority that was perfect for Strauss - a huge voice, with a fabulous lower register. Strauss I think would have loved this.
Unforgetable J. Norman!🌹A outstanding personalaty and a god given voice🙂This is without any doubt one of her great performances of the R. Strauss music🌹👋👋♥️
One of her best performances of these great songs,Richard Strauss final expression of his love for the soprano voice, and an orchestra and conductor who are up to her musicianship; she’s not the only recorded soprano who has done a great job on these magnificent songs but , for me, undisputed the best and the one I return to. Again and again. And since her death there’s a special pathos to hearing her.
Jessy Norman...she was the best interpret of the four last songs...ever!!!!! i know there is a Lucia Popp...there is a Janowitz and a Lisa della Casa and many more beautiful sopranos but Jessye hits me all the time....specially with Kurt Masur and Richard Strauss the greatest composer of the 20th century.. and yes i know there is also Gustav Mahler whom i adore as much but sadly Mahler never composed an Opera ..and i looove Opera thats why Richard Strauss sits a tiny bit higher on the Olymp. i hope you readers understand me..no bad feelings ❤Music ..thats all about and thats why we are here and listen to it.......thx for posting this treasure
@@retohofmann5878 and for you : Let me write you, what the great Glenn Gould once said about Richard Strauss : he said in an interview : For me, (Glenn Gould), Richard Strauss was the greatest Composer of all time. That would probably for me a bit to much, but if you look to the huge work of Richard Strauss, he left to the World , starting to compose at the age of 6 , like Mozart, ....almost every Masterpiece he composed became world famous ) Death and Transfiguration ...Zarathustra...Don Juan...Till Eulenspiegel...Heldenleben....Don Qiuxote....Alpine Symphony.. ..4 letzte Lieder...Metamorphosen....2. Piano-concertos... 2 Horn concertos ...Oboen-Concerto ...Chambermusic ...a famous Ballet ( Josephslegende )..almost 200 Lieder for Male and female voices......and in between 13 Opera´s . Sorry, name me one composer of the 20 th. Century who had such a creative period all thru to his long life? Just one ? oh and i don´t want to forget , that Richard Strauss was long before Schönberg , or Berg start composing 12 tone music .the one, who experimented with 12 tone Music in his Masterpiece ( Also sprach Zarathustra ) and last but not least , he was also one of the greatest Conductors ever faced the earth....With kind regards
@@alger3041 i agree with you, about Gustav Mahler.They are both my favorite Composers. But I am also counting the Opera´s of Richard Strauss, not only his symphonic works 13 all together and of course, sadly Gustav Mahler died so early.
@@MrMichaelvier Thank you, but Glenn Gould is no reference for me. Also the quantity of the output a composer delivered. To me too Mahler is one of the greatest. I hope you can live with that. Making such a statement about R. Strauss is provoking some answers.
Le son fabuleux de la OSR de cette époque !!! Et Jessye encore jeune, 5 ans avant l'enregistrement mythique avec Masur ! Merci beaucoup pour cette vidéo précieuse 🙏
It's the way she embodies the music and line so intimately. The colour of the pianissimos... Such delicacy, such loving caresses of the words!! Without doubt unsurpassed x
Wow.....Die hier noch junge Jessye Normann....und doch schon eine so reife Musikalität....gerade dieses vermisse ich bei vielen heutige jungen SängerInnen...
This music is very personal to me. In fact, I have chosen it to be played for my memorial service after my passing. Of the 5 recordings I own, it is Ms. Norman's recording with Mazur that I have chosen. In this video we have Ms. Norman in very early career and a more secure upper range than in the Mazur. I am absolutely thrilled to have found this video and see her performing this music. Thanks so much!
"Und die seele unbewacht" in Beim Schlafengehen - I never tire of hearing that line, especially from an artist of the stature of Ms Norman. What an incredible performance. Thanks very much for the upload. (Some lovely conducting too).
Yes, the other great interpretation of this songs is by the Schwarzkopf...and she mentioned in an interview that Sawallisch is among the greatest conductors she worked with.
Genau...und das bei der limitierten dynamischen Uebertragung durch youtube. Habe gerade vorhin Ihre CD mit Masur gehört...einfach unglaublich, eine Naturgewalt!
La meilleure interprétation des derniers lieder à mes yeux. Pour la voix de Jessye Norman (quel souffle, au moins autant que Montserrat Caballe si ce n'est plus), mais pour la précision hautement exigeante du chef Wolgang Sawallisch également.
The New York Times music critic Edward Rothstein described her voice as a "grand mansion of sound", and wrote that "it has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous halls."[1] 12:26 HOLY crap,hard to believe how she masterfully builds the violin solo & seems to craft a divine fluid motion of sound. wagner,strauss & the like who were more or less racists in their time would forget all their ideologies to thank this godgiven lady.
Sublime, aunque la parte inicial del cuarto lieder requiere mas fuerza sonora. Esa introducción tiene que ser como un torrente de musica. Una de las obras mas bellas de la historia de la musica.
I love this performance, but I once got a hold of a pirate recording of Flagstad doing the premier. It sounded like it was recorded further back in the house and the waves of sound that rolled into the auditorium from Flagstad was one of the most amazing things I've ever heard. It was a cassette and somewhere between the switch from CDs to MP3 I lost it. :-(
there is a new version out with Lise Davidsen. everyone is making a fuss since she is 32 and has just come to her career and this piece as part of her repertoire. no one, however, not even Rene Fleming, can make these songs as fulsome and delicate at the same time as Ms, Norman did. No one.....
I could try to describe it- but it would perhaps be inadequate..besides the marvelous voice and singing there is in terms of aesthetics something utterly beautiful in her facial expression - captivating.
She was at the peak of her powers here.after she lost weight she would never sing all four of the four last songs again. The first song is my favorite thing that she sang.
oh wow, it's recorded live :D :D what a find on youtube - but what's with the sound-engineering :/ This is death and transfiguration at its best, but not The overture.
There's VERY few sopranos who can conquer these songs. They either are way too harsh or way too thin sounding. One needs a beautiful sound that isn't small yet isn't harsh and pushed sounding. It's a very very difficult balance. The lines in some of these songs rival that of Sophie in Rosenkavalier or Marschallin. Truly. Some of the most difficult lines.
Janowitz sings this beautifully. But Jessey is incomparable. Now this record is of so low volume that we loose almost a half of the proper sounding. Too bad nobody remastered the record to upgrade the level of volume. Another record, under Kurt Masur, is but a little bit louder anyway too low level. Sad.
Unfinished technique, his deep voice register is non-existent, without chest register. It's a shame, she plays the style well, but her singing technique is precarious.
This is a better conductor for these songs. Celibidache and Masur are so slow that I find them boring. As always, taste and preference are subjective. But she is not well served by those conductors. Sawallisch was Schwarzkopf’s favorite conductor because he closely followed the composer’s instructions. For sheer ecstasy, Flagstad with Furtwangler. Norman doesn’t have much nuance here but she has the requisite vocal power. Not much poetry.