Singer's Choice: Jon Vickers: 9/14/89

From the series "Singer's Choice" this episode delves into the career of tenor Jon Vickers and it aired on September 14, 1989.
From a kind and generous collector across the pond.

[@francobonnisolli4370]

Thank you for this. ❤

[@ransomcoates546]

Having heard him many times in the theater I can assure people that while he was accused of crooning, when he decided to let loose the voice was HUGE.

[@diplomamilldoc8562]

I had no idea he could sing such florid passages. An amazing Messiah.

[@Lechatnoir3]

I just discovered this great artist, boy do I wish I knew of him sooner. I’m tempted to rank him as my favourite tenor but he just transcends opera. His singing is so soulful, this is the type of singing that would make the biggest opera skeptic fall in love with this genre. RIP Jon Vickers ❤️

[@Sebastian740]

Vickers for a while was OTELLO at the Met!

[@joanfordham1305]

Love Jon Vickerˋs voice and superb diction

[@RuthRidriguez]

Lo Amo ,,,, pudieran poner subtítulos en Español ,,,, hay tan poco material de él que es una pena no entender todo ❤

[@Operafiend22]

Great program and commentary about this extraordinary artist

[@hildegerdhaugen7864]

I hated Jon Vickers voice when I was younger, now I am obsessed with his voice! RIP Maestro.

[@ezequielstepanenko3229]

Never hear him before so young as in Handel's messiah here, he is always a discovery, always unique

[@petergraham8681]

Beecham, Vickers, & Tozzi make this MESSIAH recording a great ALTERNATIVE to some of the anemic performances one has to suffer through these days.

[@sgnmath1234]

This is not the Beecham 1959 recording. This is the RCA 1952 Ernest MacMillan Toronto Symphomy Orchestra version. Vickers is 25 or 26 years old here.

[@ingemayodon5128]

Then you should listen to the Messias( I have the CD) of 1959 with Fritz Wunderlich, Tilla Briem, Margarete Bence, Otto von Rohr, under Heinz Mende Stuttgart, 20. 3.1959 It is great. Fritz Wunderlich is , for me, the wonderfulest tenor that ever existed. Greetings from Montreal

[@CharlotteinWeimar]

​@@ingemayodon5128 Surely they are very different types of tenor? Sadly I never heard Fritz Wunderlich live, only on recordings, where his sounds to have been a beautiful, radiant and quite powerful lyric voice, which might well have developed a more dramatic capability. By contrast, Jon Vickers, whom I heard many times at Covent Garden, was from the very beginning a monumentally heroic tenor. His huge voice was capable of producing the loudest sounds I ever heard from an un-amplified human voice yet, because he used it with such refinement and was a fine, sensitive actor, he often sang softly with exquisite tenderness. These were two wonderful singers and seem to be unequalled today. I found the poor sound quality of the recordings.played in this article did Jon Vickers no favours and there are far better examples to listen to elsewhere on KZbin, especially this version of the Siegmund - Sieglinde aria and duet kzbin.info/www/bejne/gofKgauKhpqNn9E

[@ingemayodon5128]

@@CharlotteinWeimar Thank you very much for this info. Fritz Wunderlich felt that singing Wagner would hurt his voice ( he only sang 2 small roles,Walter von der Vogelweide, Tannhäuser and der Steuermann, in der fliegende Holländer), he knew exactly what he could and could not do with his voice. At age 25( just out of "Shool"!) Wieland Wagner who had heard him sing offered him Lohengrin in Bayreuth. Wunderlich refused flat. Unfortunately, he died so young( not yet 36 years old), that he never came to sing Wagner seriously. Greetings from Montreal, Qc, Canada

[@BrianJosephMorgan]

Bravo!

[@petergraham8681]

I have no doubt that Wunderlich is superlative in the tenor solos & I will say I was unfamiliar with him in this music. As different as their voices are, I can really imagine both he & Vickers as having few, if any, equals in Handel‘s MESSIAH & I hope I can find this with Wunderlich somewhere on You Tube. Thanks for the posting.

[@MrMikebristol]

Who is the commentator in this broadcast?

[@donaldcollup]

sorry, I don't know his name.

[@grahamhurley7934]

I think it is Nigel Douglas, the first "Lechmere" in Britten's "Owen Wingrave".