A novelty was the Andante movement from Glière’s Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra (1943), a piece I did not even know about. Ms. Dessay brought such lovely nuances and intensity to her singing that actual words would have seemed superfluous.Joan Sutherland recorded the work in the 1960s; I heard it on LP in the 1970s, paired with the composer's Concerto for Harp, thanks to my friend David Urrows, who also introduced me to Isaak Dinesen. Sutherland's recording is still available through ArkivMusic; MDT has two subsequent recordings by less illustrious sopranos (you'll have to search; use the terms Gliere coloratura).
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
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7 comments:
If I ever get the chance to name a racehorse, "Gliere coloratura" will be coming soon to a tote board near you.
Hahaha!
I've never heard the piece, but I'm aware of its existence because my favorite casual reading in the early 1970s was the Schwann catalog.
By the way, Morton Gould wrote a concerto for tapdancer and orchestra, which I've actually seen performed.
Cool! For whom did Gould write the piece?
This sounds hugely familiar and I feel I should know who the dancer was, but I keep coming up with the harmonica player Larry Adler, for whom someone wrote a concerto.
I don't know who Gould's dedicatee was; a quick glance at Google results isn't helping. I'd have to dig out my program - this was ten years ago from some community orchestra in Chicago.
Lots of people wrote concertos for Larry Adler. He was a determined commissioner of music. Vaughan Williams, Milhaud, Malcolm Arnold, Arthur Benjamin. I have an LP of him playing all four.
I have him doing the RVW, in the giant RVW box I bought a while back.
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