KEM-DISC Classics CDX 5126 JENNIE TOUREL "Live at Alice Tully Hall"

KEM-DISC Classics

CDX  5126

JENNIE TOUREL

"Live in Concert"

Recorded Live at Alice Tully Hall, April 19, 1970

featuring James Levine, piano

Gary Karr, bass

2 CD set

1    STRADELLA: Per Pieta.-2:59

2   MONSIGNY: La Sagesse et un tresor -3:01

3   BEETHOVEN: An die Hoffnung - 6:19

4   BEETHOVEN: Ich liebe Dich -2:05

     DEBUSSY: Trois Chansons de Bilitis (8:09) 

5   La Flute de Pan -2:15 

6   La Chevelure - 3:07

7   Le Tom beau des Naiades -2:46

8   LISZT: Mignon's Lied - 8:05

9   LISZT: Vergiftet sind meine Lieder-1:54

11   LISZT: Uber alien Gipfeln is Ruh' -3:45

12  LISZT: "Comment" disaient-ils -2:32

13  GLINKA: Doubt -2:45

CD 2

1   GLINKA: Doubt -2:45

2  GLINKAVain Temptation -5:37

3  TCHAIKOVSKY: None But The Lonely Heart -4:00

4  DARGOMIJSKY: Romance -3:44

5  MASSENET: Elegy-3:53

6  BERLIOZ: Absence -4:38

7  OFFENBACH: Laughing Song -1:47

8  RENALDO HAHN: Si mes vers -2:25

9  LISZT: Quand je dors-4:44

10 OFFENBACH: Le Barbe Bleu-3:12

NOTE FROM THE PRODUCER This recital was recorded during performance, and, by the almost complete absence of audience or hall noises, is another tribute to Jennie Tourel’s artistry. The audience was spellbound. The applause is as it occurred. Everything has been maintained so as to keep the illusion, for the listener, of being present at this most memorable recital.

Those of us who heard Jennie Tourel’s recital at Alice Tully Hall on the night of April 19, 1970, had the privilege of listening to a great artist function at the peak of her powers. Here was an artistry that blended the ripeness of maturity with complete projection of the singer’s vision and perfect control of the singer’s technique. The reviews of the concert, making reference to the decades spanned by Tourel’s career, used such terms as “Miracle” and “Wizardry”; one writer called her a witch. And all bore witness to the magic distilled by this incomparable artist—a magic that won her a unique place in the musical firmament and banded her admirers into something of a cult. To those who did not hear the concert this recording brings all the excitement of that memorable event, presenting a program that runs the gamut of Tourel’s art and exhibits the various facets of her musical personality.

The first four numbers, by Stradella, Monsigny, and Beethoven, illustrate an approach to the classical repertory marked by a noble simplicity. In these songs Tourel uses the voice as if she were playing an instrument. The phrases are molded with an almost sculptural clarity; the musical line is sustained with a breadth that reveals both inner structure and meaning.

With Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Bilitis we are reminded anew that the French literature has always been a Tourel specialty. In these enchanting pieces she captures all the subtle allure of “this great painter of dreams,” as Romain Rolland called Debussy. Liszt has been unjustly neglected by singers. The inclusion on this program of four of his finest songs is a welcome step toward a revival of interest in his vocal works. Tourel sings them with an elegance—and understatement—that does full justice to their romantic quality.

The Russian repertory occupies a central place in her art. The songs of Glinka, Tchaikovsky, and Dargomijsky show her in a domain in which she has no peer. The final number on the program, Massenet’s popular “Elegy,” is followed by five of her favorite encores. Especially noteworthy is the way in which she suits her style to the demands of the particular song she is interpreting. Whether she essays the melancholy romanticism of Berlioz’s “Absence” or the effervescence of the “Laughing Song” from Offenbach’s La Perichole, she enters completely into the spirit of the song, dramatizing it, projecting its essence with an intensity that never fails to capture the listener. Her years on the operatic stage stand her in good stead; her singing unites the lyric and the dramatic in an ideal synthesis. The result fully justifies Virgil Thomson’s statement that “Miss Tourel is unequalled among living singers for the high concentration in one artist of vocal skill, sound musicianship, and stylistic flexibility.”

—Joseph Machlis

THE MUSIC CD 1

STRADELLA  "Per Pieta”

Oh, have pity, return to me. My beloved, where art thou wending? Sharpest woe my soul is rending, live 1 cannot without thee. Oh, have pity, return to me.

MONSIGNY “La Sagesse et un tresor” (from Rose et Colas)

Wisdom is a great treasure. All the money in the world isn't equal to wisdom. Just because I'm  ninety-four, don't think I babble. The children are so bad, they pull on my petticoats and they jump all around me. The first one I catch is really going to get it.

BEETHOVEN  “An die Hoffnung” (To Hope)

If there is God? If He one day fulfills what longing promises, weeping? If this mysterious being unveils itself before a Judgment Seat? Man must hope! He must not question. Oh hope! Thou which celebrates in holy night and softly hides the grief that tortures a tender soul. Oh hope, let the sufferer upliftedfeel that somewhere above an angel counts his tears. When long-beloved faded voices now are silent, when beneath dead branches the memory is deserted, then come near to me where your deserted is mourning and leaning on a buried urn surrounded by the shivers of midnight. And when he raises his eyes to accuse fate, when over his days pass the last descending rays, then let him see around the border of his earthly dreams the gleaming edge ofa nearing sun! Oh hope!

BEETHOVEN “Ich liebe Dich” (I Love You)

I love but Thee, my true and tenderhearted May heaven grant that we may ne ’er be parted.

DEBUSSY Trois Chansons de Bilitis 

“La Flute de Pan” (The Flute)

For the day of the Hyacinths, he gave my a syrinx made of beautiful carved reeds. He taught me to play...he plays after me...my mother will never believe that I stayed so long looking for my lost belt.

“La Chevelure” (The Hair)

He told me: “This night, I dreamt that I had your hair bound round my neck. I have you all and your soul was mine.” When he finished, he put his hands upon my shoulders softly and looked at me so tenderly that my eyes veiled themselves in a shiver ofdelight.

“Le Tombeau des Naiades” (The Tomb of the Naiads)

In the frosted wood I walked....He said to me: “What seekest thou?” “I follow the trail of the satyr.” He replied: “The satyrs and the water- nymphs are dead...it is a goat's trail you see...but let us stay here, near to their tomb in this ice-bound spring.”

LISZT “Mignon’s Lied” (Mignon’s Song)

Do you know the land where the lemon trees blossom, where the golden oranges glow in the dark foliage, a soft wind blows from the blue sky, and the myrtle stands silent and the bay-tree is tall? Do you know it perhaps? It is there, there that I would like to go with you, my beloved. 0 “Vergiftet sind meine Lieder” (My Songs Are Poisoned) My songs are poisoned. How could it be otherwise? You have poured poison into my young life. My heart is full of snakes and carries the image of you. 

LISZT “Uber alien Gipfeln ist Ruh” (On The Hilltops It Is Still)

Over all the hilltops it is still; in all the treetops you can hardly feel a branch stirring. The little birds are silent in the forest. Wait! Soon you too will be still. 

LISZT “Comment’ disaient-ils” (O How’ They Said)

O how shall we now escape with ourfrail crafts? And the coast-guard watching us.” “Row on,” said the fair ones. “And how shall weforget the quarrels, the suffering and the perils ?” “In sleep,” said the fair ones. “And how shall we now ever charm the fair ones without subtle spell?” “With love, with love,” said the fair ones.

CD 2

GLINKA “Doubt”

Be silent, my turbulent passion; keep still, my poor heart, in your sorrow. I languish; I suffer. My dreams are torn by visions. You betrayed me; you left me. Your promises were broken. Our love has ended with our parting. 

GLINKA “Vain Temptation”

Stop tempting me with your tenderness. I will not be touched by magic whose strength has gone. Oaths which were holy to me, love in which I believed, I don't believe them anymore. I long to sleep, but upon my awakening new sorrow awaits me. 

TCHAIKOVSKY “None But The Lonely Heart”

None but the lonely heart in love can truly feel my grief. My thoughts wander afar; my tears flow, and I long for you. My heart cries outfor you in pain and passion.

DARGOMIJSKY “Romance”

And yet I love him still. Excitedly I think of his beloved name. Insane is the passion in my soul.

MASSENET “Elegy”

Where are the Springs of yesterday? Green seasons, have you flown away forever?

ENCORES 

BERLIOZ: “Absence ” 

OFFENBACH: (Laughing Song) “La Perichole"

RENALDO HAHN: “Si mes vers"

LISZT: “O, quand je dors”

OFFENBACH: “Le Barbe Bleu”

ABOUT JENNIE TOUREL A glory of the international music scene, Jennie Tourel (1900-1973) was universally acclaimed as one of the greatest vocal interpreters of her day. Through her innumerable recitals, records, television appearances, and as soloist with all the major symphony orchestras, she demonstrated time and time again the astonishing range of her art. Of Russian parentage and educated in France, Tourel made her debut in Paris as Carmen at the Opera Comique. Particularly identified with this role as well as with Mignon, Tourel sang each well over three hundred times. Here portrayal of Charlotte in Werther, also at the Opera Comique, established an in-depth characterization of the role that remains memorable today. Jennie Tourel’s American career was launched in the early 1940s and achieved significance when, as a virtually unknown singer, she was engaged by Arturo Toscanini to be a soloist at the opening concert of the one hundredth anniversary season of the New York Philharmonic. After that, she was a frequent soloist with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bemstein-one season thirteen times-both in New York and on tour, and appeared countless times with Bernstein in concert halls throughout the world and on recordings. Shortly after her triumph under Toscanini, Jennie Tourel was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera Association to sing such roles as Carmen, Mignon, Rosina (in the Barber of Seville) and Adalgisa (in Norma.) Tourel’s distinguished career as a recitalist was enhanced by the fact that she sang in ten languages and spoke five. The word is always important in a song, and she said: “When I sing twenty songs in a recital, I tell twenty stories.” Tourel was on the faculty of The Juilliard School in New York City beginning in 1963 as well as head of the voice department of the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, Israel. The unique blend of performing and teaching careers began in 1955, when Tourel was invited to teach and sing at the Aspen, Colorado, Music Festival. She said: “When I began to be in contact with the young people, I understood how marvelous it is to give something to them of my background and experience.”