RARE! Beverly Sills sings FOUR SONGS BY RICHARD STRAUSS ~ BOSTON RECITAL 1969

[@maestrojimbo]

@Palmerito Don't tell anyone, but I am one of those guys who attended her performances (when I was a student in NY) and sat close with a tape recorder on my lap! I recently remembered that I had many pirated recordings stored on cassettes and finally got around to convert them to digital cds. I also have her opening night Lucia at NYCO on reel-to-reel - but I'm not sure if that will ever get transferred - not an easy job. I do have more coming - tell your friends!

[@betsytaylor7362]

My favorite coloratura of all time. thank you.

[@maestrojimbo]

Same here!

[@petelovesbevsills]

Beverly is my favouriteTOOO! I will never stop loving Beverly.😊

[@maestrojimbo]

@Palmerito Yes - lucky to be right there as her fame began to grow worldwide. She was the first singer to completely awaken my emotional potential as a musician/human being/young adult. She remains to this day my number one favorite and now I am hopefully passing her recordings on to a new generation, including my own students. Please keep in touch, Palmerito.

[@marcor6385]

00:00 Zuegzueignung 02:14 Breit uber mein haupt 04:53 Ich schwebe 06:42 Amor

[@lukasmiller486]

Amor is like a miniature version of Zerbinetta’s aria and Beverly Sills makes it sound so light and playful.

[@coloraturaElise]

And much harder, in my opinion....whew! Even the pianist here has left out half of the music. ;-)

[@hankaustin7091]

the voice as only an ANGEL can sing!!! INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@elisecurran9497]

Wow! "Amor" is even faster here than it is on the album....fabulous!

[@DavidAsset78]

BEautiful. Thank you so much for uploading this. I never heard it before.

[@Palmerito]

How lucky you are to have been able to live right there and be able to see those performances. I was only ever able to see her for one event - her farewell performance at the NYCO in 1980 - an event I will never forget. However, I would have loved to see her and hear a performance live from her early days at the NYCO.

[@MrAndredekock]

She was at the pinnacle of her career here and oh WHAT a voice! Thank you so much for these 4 songs that are very difficult to find, but I believe I have them on a Strauss LP of hers, but I have not been able to find the same collection on CD, and believe me, I have an extensive collection of her CDs and the old LPs. I wish I could have experienced her live, but it was never to have been. And as you already said Maestrojimbo, she remains my all time favorite coloratura as well and my inspiration

[@fourniturev]

thank you I've never heard this before! superb..... ♫♫

[@albertpeckham8708]

I am most proud to have met and heard this fabulous woman sing over several years. She was most gracious and as "common as an old shoe".

[@petelovesbevsills]

Beverly Sills was 'as common as an old shoe'? I was sure she had much more class, style and culture in her pinkie nail than most celebrities. Did she swear, spit and pass wind when you met her?

[@MrAndredekock]

@@petelovesbevsills Dear Pete I'm sure Albert meant that our Beverly was down to earth without any airs and diva flairs!

[@petelovesbevsills]

@@MrAndredekock Here's the meaning from the internet, hence my reply. COMMON AS AN OLD SHOE (Also (as) common as dirt) low class; unrefined; ill-mannered; uncouth. Example: That girl is common as an old shoe.

[@maestrojimbo]

Only Breit uber mein haupt and Amor have been released commercially, and with orchestra accompaniment.You can get those on CD on Deutche Grammaphone. Thanks for stopping by.

[@maestrojimbo]

You are correct about the Mozart pieces. The Strauss side had Breit uber mein haupt, Amor and the final scene from Daphne. I can't think of anything she sang on LPs that haven't been transferred to CD though - way back to the original recording of The Ballad of Baby Doe.

[@christopherpuckett83]

What MONSTER disliked this? This is SINGING.

[@brolobear]

@maestrojimbo I have a few recordings like that myself! LOL Garrick Ohlsson playing Rach/Paganini, Ilana Vered playing Rach 3, Rinaldo from a Met tour (with Edda Moser), Debbie Voigt in Tampa a couple of years ago, Kathleen Battle same place, Renee Fleming 4 Last Songs in Milwaukee...it was fun to do, but I don't have that kind of nerve anymore. LOL

[@MrAndredekock]

You may be right Jimbo, but I don't recall what is on that LP as I haven't played my LPs in years. The one side was Mozart arias including, "Ruhe sanft mein holdes leben", "Marten aller arten" and "Vorrei spiegarvi o Dio". The other side was Strauss arias and songs, including Zerbinetta's aria from Ariadne, but I don't remember what the other Strauss items are on that LP. I really must do something about getting some of my old LPs that are not available on CD transferred to CD.Take care Jimbo.

[@Palmerito]

Bless you, Maestrojimbo for all these Sills videos you are posting! Where do you get all these fantastic little gems?

[@maestrojimbo]

@brolobear Well, electronics are so much smaller and better quality, don't be such a chicken. I really don't have the inspiration from that many artists to commit crimes anymore. Sills made me do it - I didn't care if I was caught. It would have been worth it. And I would do it again!

[@petelovesbevsills]

@maestrojimbo Good grief, James, we certainly do run a parallel here! You used to "commit crimes" with tape recorders, because of your love of Beverly. I can identify with that one perfectly. I used to steal from our music library every single Opera News that mentioned Beverly in it and the Jackpot was a Beverly cover! I was quite sure that no one could love Beverly as much as I did and became an accomplished magazine thief ! I too didn't care if I got caught! Beverly was much more important!

[@jessemartin2764]

So you are the one that took them. They would always be missing...lol

[@fourniturev]

she used to do one of the Four Last Songs didn't she? Perhaps from her Strauss and Mozart LP?

[@maestrojimbo]

+fourniturev No, she never sang or performed any of the Four Last Sings, unfortunately. I'm sure it would be politically incorrect to perform only one of them - they are a set.

[@allennixon379]

@@maestrojimbo Not sure about incorrectness, politically or otherwise. And there were actually 5 last songs, with the fifth not published during Strauss' lifetime, he gave the manuscript to Maria Jeritza, and it only came to light after her death. I have never heard of all five being performed together by anyone, but the fifth one does show up in recitals occasionally. At any rate, the songs were not conceived as a set, but the first four were performed together the first time (by Kirsten Flagstad) which established a precedent, for better or worse, and they have generally been performed as a set ever since.

[@liedersanger1]

Who is the superb pianist pleeeeeeeze? Not fair not to mention him or her.

[@brolobear]

+David Perkins I'm pretty sure the pianist would have been Roland Gagnon at that point in time. Charles Wadsworth took over that role in the 70s.

[@ef7952]

The pianist is Roland Gagnon.

[@liedersanger1]

@@ef7952 Thanks.