Review: The Kathleen Battle Edition, If You Care

[@guilliamechiagre2914]

Thank you for reviewing this even if you didn't care. I didn't know about this release and had it ordered before you were even finished. I'll go ahead and care for you.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thank you. That's very sweet.

[@matthewbbenton]

My favorite Battle legend: after bringing the Met’s costume mistress to tears, the woman’s husband - a lighting engineer at the Met - cut Battle’s spotlight during a performance and left her in the dark for revenge. Gosh I hope it’s true.

[@baritoneblazzin1965]

It was true. Also, it's rumored that her behavior all started in thr 1983 production of Arabella with Kiri Te Kanawa-Arabella and Battle as Zdenka. They had it out with trying to outsing each other. Battle was mad cause there was objection to having cut parts of Zdenka restored and it caused friction between the singers. There is a recording on youtube of them singing called Battle vs kiri te kanawa lol

[@baritoneblazzin1965]

You should give it a listen..they were trying to outsing one another lol

[@RowanGolightly]

Yep, never piss off (on?) the tech people; they never forget it.

[@Richard-s9s]

In her last appearance at the SFO the crew wore tee-shirts emblazoned with the logo “I survived the Battle”.

[@loganfruchtman953]

LOL 😂😂

[@geraldmartin7703]

Maybe she took her surname too seriously.

[@tarakb7606]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@mr_retro62]

The first time I heard Battle was on her Christmas album. I had goosebumps. Her voice was like that of an angel. Then I got most of her recitals and opera recordings and her voice never disappointed. I probably put her recordings to the side, as I do with many of my collections and in the past few years I started listening to her again and I must say I absolutely love her singing. I don't know what it is but it makes me happy. I heard vague rumors about her over the years but I never delved into them. I usually don't listen to rumors of people I like such as Domingo and Levine. I won't let these sidebars ruin my pleasure when I listen to their recordings. I can't wait to get the new box set of Kathleen Battle. Thanks for all your wonderful videos.

[@JackBurttrumpetstuff]

A catty remark by Karajan: ‘She’s such a bitch! but, what a voice!” Pretty much says it all…

[@renaissanceinblack]

Really? To Karajan? I can't imagine that going over so well. (I wonder whatever happened with Bonisolli).

[@neiltheblaze]

If Kathleen Battle married Emmanuel Ax she'd be Kathleen Battle-Ax.

[@Fortunfortvej]

Thank you Dave for many many inspiring videos! However I need to say this: once in the nineties Miss Battle came to us in Tivoli Copenhagen to do a recital with us. The backstage people told us-the Orchestra -how wicked Miss Battle was so we were of course rather nervous. From the first minut and through all rehearsals Miss Battle was acting like a colleague working with us as if we were playing chambermusic. She even helped the young inexperimented and scared polish conductor NN. In short all were happy and the concert with a full audience was a tremendous succes!!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I never said she was a jerk all of the time, merely that she had a reputation. She doesn't need to be defended. She was what she was.

[@henrygingercat]

She accused me of sitting too close to her on the Glyndebourne coach in 1979. A very unpopular lady there and she was never invited back.

[@jdistler2]

In my very early days as a reviewer, when I thought I had to please at least TWO publicists who sent me unsolicited copies of Honey and Rue, I pitched it (not wholeheartedly) to an editor, who quickly replied, "Come on, Jed, do you REALLY want to review a disc that no one cares about?." Needless to say I didn't review it! Then when I brought those two copies to my local second-hand CD shop, the clerks laughed at me. Live and learn.

[@albertcombrink3717]

A Toni Morrison Song Cycle by Andre Previn is only a gigantic contribution to the US Song book, surely?

[@petterw5318]

Joseph Volpe, then the Met's manager, fired her during the rehearsals for La fille du régiment, after she had poor Rosalind Elias (a Met stalwart, and the first Erika in Barber's Vanessa) have a nervous breakdown. Battle told him "you'll be like Rudolf Bing, remembered for being the guy that fired Callas". Volpe replied: "You are not Maria Callas". And she was not.

[@niko_____3820]

Well, Volpe, indeed, is remembered for firing her. That is easy for bad behaviour, but I`m not sure, if the Met today survives without the big names at the box office. Fans didn`t care about the reputation of Callas/Battle.

[@petterw5318]

@@niko_____3820 Callas was a revolutionary artist that change the history of opera, Battle an OK soprano.

[@ER1CwC]

@@niko_____3820 The firing of Callas made headline news, not just in the opera world but in the tabloids too. It was a huge deal. There are in fact some Callas fans or rather cultists who are still incensed about it. Does anyone care or even think about Battle? That being said, the fact that Peter Gelb issued a retroactive apology a few years ago was so silly. Speaks to how big a deal the firing was though.

[@gonzostick]

Her singing in the 4th movement of the Maazel-Vienna Mahler 4th is absolutely sublime!

[@ChinweDJohn]

I do care, thank you for highlighting her work! I have an album she did with the great Wynton Marsalis called Baroque Duets, and their version of Handel's Eternal Source of Light Divine, is the most exquisite I have heard. I also adore her rendition of Martini's Plaisir d'amour. I recently discovered she was the first American to win a Laurence Olivier Award, for Best Performance in a New Opera Production, for Zerbinetta in Ariadne Auf Naxos.

[@geoffharris9396]

She sang Mahler's 4th with Maazel on Sony. He got the best out of her on that recording !

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Indeed.

[@jaykauffman4775]

Her singing of Semele live at Carnegie Hall in 1985 is one of the greatest examples of singing of anything I have ever heard

[@thomasdeansfineart149]

I would say the same about Ruth Ann Swenson’s debut as Semele at the Royal Opera in 2003. Superb.

[@NN-df7hl]

Her Semele recording is my go-to for that opera. Phenomenal! Her Mozart Coronation with Karajan ain't too shabby either. I don't know her output as a whole. I'm sure she had some misses. But she had her wins too. Too bad she went off the rails as a person. Nowadays they try to make it a race thing. Pulling the race card after you've acted heinously is a low blow.

[@jaykauffman4775]

@@thomasdeansfineart149 have you heard the 85 live performance?!!

[@MrYonexguy63]

I love that bootleg...she IS wonderful. But in house its a VERY small, carefully managed sound. The only smaller famous voice in my experience was Bartoli.

[@joshgrumiaux6820]

These days it's easy to dismiss Battle after she was cancelled, but we forget that she really was a superstar diva, and isn't the point of recordings to remind us why? In my opinion this review is overly dismissive of Battle's exceptional voice. So she was a terrible person (the subject of a recent DH video) and there are other great singers, so what? The Bach album is lovely, the Bel Canto album is absolutely gorgeous, the Mozart arias are very good if a bit under-characterized. I doubt there is a better recording of the Barber masterpiece. Let's not forget her ideal voice for Mahler 4 which she recorded with Maazel, obviously not included here.

[@niko_____3820]

There are other beautiful voices and singing, certainly, but how many Händel recordings like the one by Battle/Marriner, not included in the box?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

The fact that she was a terrible person is irrelevant. She wasn't an important person.

[@judsonmusick3177]

What is a "DH" video?

[@MrYonexguy63]

The week after the 87? Met Rosenkavalier broadcast i delivered a broiled chicken entree to Miss Battle in her hotel room in Boston( there to record Mahler 4 ). Even in her nightie she was charm personified, kind and affable. I later saw her w the BSO as a guest and did find the voice small but ravishing. I also like the record w Parkening btw...

[@doperasinger]

@@DavesClassicalGuide she was INDEED AN important person…especially to those in The African American community who saw ourselves in her and dared ti believe we could become classical singers…she wasn’t an important person to “you”

[@johnpickford4222]

Her relationships with other major singers, like Kiri Te Kanawa, shortchanged her recording careers because Te Kanawa refused, allegedly, to have her on recordings of ARABELLA (Decca) and DER ROSENKAVALIER (EMI) which lowered the overall quality of the recordings. It’s regrettable that she didn’t get her s**t together and realize the world wasn’t against her. The world deserved better from her and so did those she directly interacted with when working.

[@murraylow4523]

How do you know that this “lowered the overall quality of the recordings?”

[@ER1CwC]

Barbara Hendricks was better on every level.

[@bigg2988]

@@ER1CwC Barbara Hendricks was different, that also means a different voice. I would rather not pick but one of the two.

[@dion1949]

I used to own the Kathleen Battle/Christopher Parkening recording. A positive thing about it was Dowland's "Come Again," which I still like (by other singers).

[@JS-ln4ns]

The Battle and Christopher Parkening CD was a favorite of mine growing up. I had to buy another copy of it because I wore the first one out. I’d urge you to give it a chance!

[@ER1CwC]

I just learned that she made her Met debut in 1977. I had no clue that she was of that vintage and that she was already 45 when Volpe fired her. Anyone knows what Dave is referring to regarding Battle and Levine?

[@bbailey7818]

I don't know about Battle/Levine rumors, but Battle famously and invariably behaved herself impeccably when Levine was on the podium.

[@delflorida2480]

Levine discovered her and promoted her............@@bbailey7818

[@stephendick3611]

First, I love the Battle recordings I have. I know nothing of the personalities involved in the recordings, nor care to. Second, I'm surprised at the number of first rate musicians who were willing to work with her, unless they found something to like in her music as well.

[@Stephenjamesbutler]

A box you may like better Dave is the Sony Chavez box. I know you wanted to talk about his symphonies, perhaps I missed that one.

[@josecarmona9168]

I don't know why, but when I started listening to classical music, which was the time when Battle was at the top, in the distributions of the recordings I used to confuse her with Barbara Hendricks. Then I learned to differentiate them. To me, Hendricks is a far superior singer, and from the looks of it, a much better person. I think Hendricks would deserve a compilation at Warner

[@zdl1965]

Barbara Hendricks is a wonderful person. Absolutely no airs about her. Now never mix up the two again!

[@josecarmona9168]

@@zdl1965 , not at all! 😊

[@robkeeleycomposer]

Absoluteiy. There a lovely (all too short) short clip just out on YT of her rehearsing a Schubert's An die Fruhling with the much missed Radu Lupu, in case you're interested.

[@bbailey7818]

Her Aithra in Dorati's recording of Strauss's Egyptian Helen almost reconciles one to the nutty plot. And her collaboration with Solti and the CSO in del Tredici's Final Alice is worth a rosette in anyone's list. I'm not sure Battle did anything worth that, perhaps aside from the DG Semele.

[@markdefrancisis480]

Will you be reviewing the new Honeck/PSO Tchaikovsky 5 soon?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

When I get it.

[@Sulsfort]

1:25 "... voice so little that at the Met rumor has it she was discreetly miked ..." - Mildred or Finster quite softly: "Meow"

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

I saw her on stage in the 1980s. It seems to me that someone at the classical record store at that time told me she was a bit squirrelly, let let us say.

[@loganfruchtman953]

Kathleen has a wonderful voice. Her recording of the aria “L’amore saro costante” from Mozart’s Il re Pastore attests to that. It’s one of my favorite arias of all time so beautiful and emotional. If you haven’t heard it Dave it’s a very beautiful aria. It made me tear up a little bit.

[@FREDGARRISON]

HI DAVE, If Emmanuel Ax wedded Kathleen Battle would his new wife be considered THE BATTLE-AX ? Another nice video.....THANKS !!!!!

[@davidaltschuler9687]

Jim Svejda, in his book of CD reviews, expressed his fantasy of bringing together Emmanuel Ax, Yo-yo Ma, and AS Mutter together to form the Lizzie Borden, or Ax Ma Mutter Trio.

[@FREDGARRISON]

@@davidaltschuler9687 YUK YUK !!! I like it....

[@judsonmusick3177]

In a performance of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro (at the Met I believe), she sang the role of Susanna and Carol Vaness sang the role of Countess Almaviva. Ms. Vaness supposedly got dibs on a dressing room that was bigger and nicer than the one assigned to Ms. Battle. There was supposedly a heated argument between the two ladies. Several hours before the curtain came up, Battle sneaked into Vaness's dressing room when Vaness was not in there and locked herself in, refusing to come out until the actual performance began.

[@dennischiapello3879]

I was hugely enthusiastic about her early on, but I agree she was more of a songbird than an interesting artist. The sweetness of her voice in coloratura and roles like Sophie turned cloying in other repertoire. That is what disappointed me most in Barber's Knoxville; I know Dave finds that work inherently cloying, and Battle wouldn't disabuse him of that! An interesting observation by Joseph Volpe is that she faced a crisis as she aged out of the ingenue roles specific to her voice. That sounds pretty convincing to me.

[@larrymatheson8414]

The recital with Christopher Parkening guitar you didn’t bother to listen to is delightful.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I'm sure it is.

[@bigg2988]

Kathleen Battle's voice has some quality that makes it recognizable among the lot, and as you say so lovely (is it timbre? I am not an expert...). Anyway, in the recordings I heard the voice sounded fresh and clear as a bell, and (yes, found it!) YOUNG. A special trait in a genre dominated by powerhouse pipes. I love singers "with a difference", beginning with Callas herself, and while Battle the person was evidently not a crumbling cookie, it is music that matters. So I would be strongly considering this set if someone is like me. ;) Btw, just recently I read that Kathleen Battle IS returning to the Met after nigh 30 years, for an exclusive recital of spirituals and songs... I wonder how the vocals have held up (will it be a version of "Rosa Ponselle Sings Today"?..), but still heart-warming to know people can sort out some things.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

That already happened. Is she doing it again?

[@bigg2988]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Maybe I read an article late. Still thought it bore mentioning.

[@tarakb7606]

I can think of quite a few "artists" the Universe hasn't needed or doesn't need.

[@stevouk]

Isn't she still the only vocal soloist to have appeared at a Vienna New Year's Day concert? And with Karajan no less. Who was the fixer on that one, I wonder?

[@Mooseman327]

Karajan loved her. All his idea. But the Vienna musicians DID dub her "the singing mosquito" because of her small voice.

[@geraldmartin7703]

@@Mooseman327 I really like that moniker.

[@davidmblumenstein]

Battle, Rattle, Buttle, Tuttle it's like Terry Gilliam's film Brazil all over again. Clearly, the "Central Office" has not received the memo.

[@annakimborahpa]

Did Kathleen ever record an adaptation of Beethoven's Wellington Victory, also known as The Battle Symphony, where she vocalized on the instrumental lines for the English side of "Rule Britannia" and "Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre" ("Marlborough has left for the war," which is the tune of "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow")? That would be a tour-de-force.

[@loganfruchtman953]

Wellingtons Victory doesn’t have any vocal parts.

[@annakimborahpa]

@@loganfruchtman953 Yes, I was curious if she recorded an adaptation of it as her Battle Symphony.

[@ewmbr1164]

I keep Battle's recording of Handel's Semele: "Myself I shall adore."

[@robkeeleycomposer]

Handel might have written it for her...

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Indeed, that's a great performance, and you get Marilyn Horne too. Wow!

[@jamess1465]

you have hit the nail on the head - she is NUTS - that's all.

[@bigg2988]

Well are we discussing psychological portrait of a performer, or the performances. I was baffled by some reactions.

[@bobbegley5633]

I think that "small voice" was perfect for Mahler's 4th as it suppose to be a child.

[@adamfrye246]

I was impressed with her vocal technique because she could get as much as she did out of what she had. It could inspire someone like me to do more.

[@leestamm3187]

She's one of only a handful among the multitude I've heard who captured the childlike quality Mahler 4 requires.

[@jgesselberty]

"How do I describe it?" There is a word beginning with the letter "B" that sums it up.

[@richardfrankel6102]

Are texts/translations included in the booklet? This being an Eloquence production, I'm assuming not; but I wish you'd included this information. Honestly, I wish you'd always include this information in your videos.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I include it if there ARE texts and translations, usually. The rule these days, especially for reissues, is to assume they will not be there.

[@asheko]

I wished, you would have told us some more rumors ...

[@RowanGolightly]

Her voice was (is?) glorious but the lack of civility was a career-killer. Being plain and ordinary NICE is the minimum degree of behavior that is expected. She couldn't overcome her ego in order to do it.

[@erikdaumann8589]

It doesn't hurt to stay objective and less hostile. All you artists out there: the world NEEDS you!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I am always objective, and never hostile. Just truthful.

[@brutusalwaysminded]

Well, thanks for your review anyway! The Sony box set seems like the better buy.

[@greggoryrice7046]

The Battle Perlman collaborations are ethereal and inspired. I never followed the "diva" aspects of her career.

[@johngreen1176]

Are you going to review the Fricsay edition?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yes, but I've already done the two previous cubes here and at ClassicsToday.com. So don't wait.

[@johngreen1176]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Thank you

[@basilmanolakos4926]

This is a classic case of mentors & backers who feed too much ego into these burgeoning artist. Some take it too far as they make the singer feel that they're indispensable and can make the singer unbearable. I give the blame on the late, Jimmy Levine as he highly touted Miss Battle with overkill. She was assigned plum roles in new productions, favoring her over another singers. As we've seen Levine lacking in judgement. She must have had PR agencies in her big career. She was treated to a deluxe life. Then it all imploded and exploded.

[@marlenemeldrum7382]

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HONESTY!!! She was not a nice person...she vanished...HOISANNA

[@vdtv]

Nice to get a preview of the title for Tinitus Classics' release of a Kathleen Battle highlights CD: ""Bits of Other Things Taken from Other Stuff.. I like it. But I won't buy it.

[@67Parsifal]

Small voice, big issues.

[@Warp75]

Can you review Karabits Faust/ Mephisto Liszt Cd on Audite please.

[@tommarshall-113th]

This man is a global treasure.

[@GLBinNP]

Racism is an influence that should be considered in connection with the Kathleen Battle stories. Hurt people sometimes lash out. Her artistry is more significant than the superficial, smug, ill-considered, unperceptive, negative stories people tell about her. She's had a bad rap that she doesn't deserve.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Sure she does, and it's fun to gossip now and then. She can take it, even if you can't.