0028948258925

From Melba To Sutherland - Australian Singers On Record

Various Artists

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Format: 4CD

Cat No: ELQ4825892

Release Date:  30 September 2016

Label:  Australian Eloquence

Packaging Type:  Fat Double (a 2.5cm thick jewel case, fits several CDs)

No of Units:  4

Barcode:  0028948258925

Genres:  Classical  Opera  

  • Description

    'Remarkable CD set … I never realised that so many great singers were Australian.'........'The transfers are superb.'.......'A plethora of rarities.'
    'An absolute must-have for anyone even remotely interested in the history of opera on record.' says Rob Cowan from Gramophone Magazine.

    From Melba to Sutherland: Australian Singers on Record is the first-ever comprehensive survey of the recordings of Australia's greatest singers – in a unique new four-CD set from Decca, complete with biographies of each of the 80 artists, rare photographs, all contained within a 68-page booklet.

    Why has there been such an extraordinary procession of world-class Australian singers over such an extended period of time? The question is often asked, but there are no easy answers. For Australia to have produced Dame Nellie Melba and Dame Joan Sutherland, two of the most famous singers of the twentieth century, is in itself something like a miracle. But there are so many more – some 80 wonderful singers in total.

    The compilation has been meticulously researched by music historian Roger Neill and recording industry expert Tony Locantro. It covers a wide range of musical genres, from opera to music hall and from art song to variety. Co-producer Roger Neill has said: 'Thirteen years in the making, From Melba to Sutherland is truly a once-in-a-lifetime project – the first-ever comprehensive survey of recordings by Australia's greatest singers.'

    Included with the issue is a detailed booklet covering all of the recordings with brief biographies and rare photographs of the singers, and an overview of their teachers. Each of the recordings has been expertly remastered from best-available original sources.

    Aside from Melba and Sutherland, other world-famous Australians included are: Peter Dawson, a baritone who concentrated his career on the newly-emerged recording medium, selling some thirteen million records in the fifty years from 1904. Florence Austral, an outstanding Wagnerian soprano. June Bronhill, who followed Joan Sutherland as Lucia di Lammermoor at Covent Garden, but who chose to make her career in operetta and musical comedy with spectacular success. Malcolm McEachern, the bass half of the best-selling Flotsam and Jetsam duo who was equally accomplished in classical repertoire. Dame Joan Hammond, whose 'Oh my beloved father' from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi was one of the best-selling classical discs of all time. Florrie Forde, one of the greatest music hall artists, whose hit songs included 'Down at the Old Bull and Bush', 'Tipperary' and 'Pack up your Troubles', and Richard Watson, the Adelaide-born bass who was a long-time principal with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, singing the comic bass-baritone roles of the Savoy Operas.

    Alongside these greats, several outstanding Australian singers have been re-discovered, their lives and recordings researched afresh. Many of them had become just names, nothing more. They include: Syria Lamonte, the first woman singer to be recorded professionally in Britain in 1898. Frances Saville, a leading soprano in Mahler's famous company in Vienna, who re-introduced several of the great Mozartian roles to the repertoire. Andrew Black, the only top-flight singer of Melba's generation who moved from Britain to Australia. Violet Mount, who, unable to break into the opera houses of Europe, made an outstanding career on the music halls singing operatic arias as the masked 'L'Incognita'. Lorna Sydney, who went to further her career in Vienna, but was interned as an alien during World War II. She became a leading member of the Vienna State Opera at the cessation of hostilities.

    Also there are many extremely rare recordings included in the anthology, some of them existing in just a single instance. For example, there is a private recording of the great Australian baritone, Harold Williams, singing a rousing Cobb and Co song, 'John Bax'. Another great rarity is an unpublished test pressing by Florence Austral singing Brünnhilde's 'Battlecry' from Wagner's Die Walküre.

    This high prestige project has been actively supported throughout by Richard Bonynge and the late Dame Joan Sutherland, who have written: 'It is wonderful to be able to hear these exceptional voices, singers of real quality. It is a mammoth collection and Australia can be proud to share her artists with the world.'

  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. MELBA & THE MARCHESI SCHOOL: Gounod: Ah! Je ris (Jewel Song) (Faust) / NELLIE MELBA
      • 2. Bemberg: Nymphs et sylvains
      • 3. Puccini: Addio, dolce svegliare (Quartet) (La bohème) / BROWNING MUMMERY / JOHN BROWNLEE
      • 4. Massenet: Obéissons, quand leur voix appelle (Gavotte) (Manon)/ FRANCES SEVILLE
      • 5. Mallinson: New Year Song / ADA CROSSLEY
      • 6. Verdi: Miserere (Il trovatore) / FRANCES ALDA
      • 7. Puccini: In quelle trine morbide (Manon Lescaut)
      • 8. Verdi: Caro nome (Rigoletto) / AMY CASTLES
      • 9. Metcalf: Absent / IRENE AINSLEY
      • 10. Auber: C’est l’histoire amoureuse (Manon Lescaut) / EVELYN SCOTNEY
      • 11. Donizetti: Regnava nel silenzio (Lucia di Lammermoor) / STELLA POWER
      • 12. OTHER EARLY SOPRANOS: Balfe: Killarney / MARIE NARELLE
      • 13. Verdi: Follie! Follie! … Sempre libera (La traviata) (sung in French)/ LALLA MIRANDA
      • 14. Puccini: One fine day (Un bel dì vedremo) (Madama Butterfly)/ ROSINA BUCKMAN
      • 15. Scott: Lullaby / GERTRUDE JOHNSON
      • 16. OTHER EARLY MEZZOS AND CONTRALTOS - Molloy: Darby and Joan / ELLA CASPERS
      • 17. Schumann: Thou art so like a flower (Du bist wie eine Blume) (Myrthen)/ DOROTHY HELMRICH
      • 18. Brahe: I passed by your window /EILEEN BOYD
      • 19. Saint-Saëns: Tonight … O love, from thy power (Samson … Amour, viens aider)/ CLARA SERENA
      • 20. Brahe: Bless this house/ ESSIE ACKLAND
      • 21. EARLY TENORS- Hill: Waiata Poi/ ALFRED HILL
      • 22. Kneass: Ben Bolt (Trilby’s Song) / WALTER KIRBY
      • 23. Leoncavallo: No! Punchinello, no more (No! Pagliaccio non son) (Pagliacci) / BROWNING MUMMERY
      • 24. MacMorrough: Macushla/ ALFRED O'SHEA
      • 25. Puccini: Amore o grillo (Madama Butterfly) / LIONELLO CECIL
      • 26. EARLY BARITONES & BASSES - Elgar: Jesu! by that shuddering dread (The Dream of Gerontius)/ HORACE STEVENS

      Disc 2

      • 1. Sullivan: Time was when love and I (Curate’s Song) (The Sorcerer)/ ANDREW BLACK
      • 2. Handel: Honour and Arms (Samson)/ PETER DAWSON
      • 3. James: Six Australian Bush Songs /PETER DAWSON - No. 1
      • 4. No. 2
      • 5. No. 4
      • 6. No. 5
      • 7. No. 6
      • 8. Trad. Cornish arr. Moss: The Floral Dance/ PETER DAWSON
      • 9. Handel: O ruddier than the cherry (Acis and Galatea)/ MALCOLM McEACHERN
      • 10. Cowan: Onaway, awake beloved/ HAROLD WILLIAMS
      • 11. Villaume: Old John Bax/ HAROLD WILLIAMS
      • 12. Mozart: Deh vieni alla finestra (Serenade) (Don Giovanni)/ JOHN BROWNLEE
      • 13. Sullivan: When a felon’s not engaged in his employment (Policeman’s Song) (The Pirates of Penzance)/RICHARD WATSON
      • 14. WAGNERIANS AND OTHER DRAMATICS: Wagner: The King’s Prayer (Lohengrin) (sung in English) / LEMPRIÈRE PRINGLE
      • 15. Wagner: Elisabeth’s Greeting (Tannhäuser) (sung in English)/ ELSA STRALIA
      • 16. Wagner: Ho-jo-to-ho (Brünnhilde’s Battlecry) (Die Walküre)/ FLORENCE AUSTRAL
      • 17. Wagner: Welches Unholds List (Götterdämmerung)/ FLORENCE AUSTRAL/FREDERICK COLLIER
      • 18. Verdi: La luce langue (Macbeth) / MARHERITA GRANDI
      • 19. Wagner: Starke Scheite (Brünnhilde’s Immolation) (Götterdämmerung) opening (sung in French)/MARJORIE LAWRENCE
      • 20. Trad. Aboriginal arr: Loam: Maranoa Lullaby / HAROLD BLAIR
      • 21. Britten: Is this all you can bring? (Albert Herring) ./ SYLVIA FISHER
      • 22. Trad: Comin' thro' the rye / SYRIA LAMONTE
      • 23. Hill: The Boys’ Brigade / HAMILTON HILL
      • 24. Bishop: Lo! Here the gentle lark / VIOLET MOUNT (L’INCOGNITA)
      • 25. Thurban: The Whistling Bowery Boy/ ALBERT WHELAN
      • 26. Murphy & Lipton: Oh! Oh! Antonio/ FLORRIE FORD

      Disc 3

      • 1. MUSICAL THEATRE, RADIO & COMEDY: Fraser-Simson: Love will find a way (The Maid of the Mountains) / GLADYS MONCRIEFF
      • 2. Tate: A Paradise for Two (The Maid of the Mountains) /ROBERT CHISHOLM/GLADYS MONCREIFF
      • 3. Friml: Some Day (The Vagabond King)/ STRELLA WILSON
      • 4. O’Hagan: Let’s take a trip to Melbourne/ CLEMENT Q. WILLIAMS
      • 5. Hilliam & McEachern: Is ’e an Aussie, Lizzie, is ’e? / MALCOLM McEACHERN
      • 6. Rodgers: Climb Every Mountain (The Sound of Music) / ROSINA RAISBECK
      • 7. Rodgers: The Sound of Music (The Sound of Music) / JUNE BRONHILL
      • 8. SOPRANOS AFTER WORLD WAR II: Puccini: O my beloved father (O mio babbino caro) (Gianni Schicchi) / JOAN HAMMOND
      • 9. Charpentier: Depuis le jour (Louise) /JOAN HAMMOND
      • 10. Thomas: I am Titania (Je suis Titania) (Mignon)/ GLENDA RAYMOND
      • 11. Berlioz: O mon cher fils (L’Enfance du Christ)/ ELSIE MORISON / JOHN CAMERON
      • 12. Verdi: Saper vorreste (Un ballo in maschera) / ANGELINA ARENA
      • 13. Richard Strauss: Ich kann nicht sitzen (Elektra) / MARIE COLLIER
      • 14. Wagner: Du bist der Lenz (Die Walküre) / NANCE GRANT
      • 15. Ponchielli: Suicidio! (La Gioconda) / RITA HUNTER
      • 16. MEZZOS AFTER WORLD WAR II: Mahler: Urlicht (Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’) / LORNA SYDNEY
      • 17. Mahler: Rheinlegendchen (Des Knaben Wunderhorn) / YVONNE MINTON
      • 18. Purcell: All our days and our nights (The Masque in Dioclesian) / MAX WORTHLEY
      • 19. Verdi: O figli miei! … Ah, la paterna mano (Macbeth, Act IV) / DONALD SMITH
      • 21. German: The Yeomen of England (Merrie England) / JOHN CAMERON
      • 27. Weston & Barnes: When father papered the parlour / BILLY WILLIAMS

      Disc 4

      • 1. Berlioz: Sanctus (Grand Messe des Morts, Op. 5)/ RONALD DOWD
      • 2. Puccini: Nessun dorma (Turandot) / KENNETH NEATE
      • 3. Britten: People! … No! I will speak! (Peter Grimes) / RAYMOND NILSSON / JOHN LANIGAN
      • 4. Puccini: Lovely maid in the moonlight (O soave fanciulla) (La Bohème)/ JOHN LANIGAN / GLENDA RAYMOND
      • 5. Bizet: La fleur que tu m’avais jetée (Carmen) / ALBERT LANCE
      • 6. SUTHERLAND AND HER CIRCLE: Donizetti: Cruda, funesta smania … La pietada in suo favore (Lucia di Lammermoor)/ JOHN SHAW
      • 7. Verdi: Una fatale del mio destino (La forza del destino)/ ROBERT ALLMAN
      • 8. Massenet: De l’autel vénéré … O divine Esclarmonde! (Esclarmonde) / CLIFFORD GRANT
      • 9. Meale: I am behind you, Voss … Nothing could be safer or more solid (Voss) / CLIFFORD GRANT/GEOFFREY CHARD/HEATHER BEGG
      • 10. Meale: I am looking at the map of my hand (Voss) / ROBERT GARD
      • 11. Verdi: Vieni o levita … Tu sul labbro (Nabucco)/ NEIL WARREN-SMITH
      • 12. Graun: Se il dovere in quest’addio (Montezuma)/ LAURIS ELMS
      • 13. Elgar: In Haven (Capri) (Sea Pictures, Op. 37) / MARGRETA ELKINS
      • 14. Rossini: La fioraia fiorentina / JOAN SUTHERLAND
      • 15. Donizetti: Ah! tardai troppo … O luce di quest’anima (Linda di Chamounix)/ JOAN SUTHERLAND
      • 16. Gounod: Oh Dieu! Que de bijoux … Ah! Je ris (Jewel Song) (Faust)/ JOAN SUTHERLAND
      • 17. Catalani: Ebben? … Ne andrò lontana (La Wally)/ JOAN CARDEN
      • 18. Novello: We’ll gather lilacs (Perchance to Dream)/ YVONNE KENNY
      • 19. Kálmán: Mary kam vom gold’nen Strande (Die Herzogin von Chicago)/ DEBORAH RIEDEL
      • 20. Gounod: Dieu ! quel frisson … Amour, ranime mon courage (Roméo et Juliette)/ EMMA MATTHEWS