By: Ellen

Ellen — Fri, 14 May 2010 03:34:09 +0000

It’s fantastic that you have that memory of singing at the piano with your mother. I remember my mother’s mother that way, from when I was pretty young, though it was she who played as we sang. I still have her 1927 baby grand piano.

I’m a big Callas fan. Once, with Bill, who prefers orchestral classical music to vocal, I was in the SoHo Dean & DeLuca. Before long, the music we’d been hearing in the background changed, and an unmistakable voice could be heard throughout the store. Bill’s head snapped in the direction of the nearest speaker as he asked me, almost awestruck, “Who’s THAT?” It was the first time that he’d heard Callas.

I’ll have to listen to the Chaliapin DormirÃ² Sol . . . ; I have the Ezio Pinza version, which I’ve loved since I first heard it.

Dinu Lipatti: too bad that he didn’t leave more recordings. He’s one of my all-time favorite pianists.

Schwarzkopf: in about 1968, I had a subscription to a Carnegie Hall series of solo vocal recitals by women, one of whom was Schwarzkopf (I think that the others were Birgit Nilsson, Marilyn Horne, Shirley Verrett, Anna Moffo [I skipped her concert], and Leontyne Price). I wasn’t sure that, by then, it was worth hearing Schwarzkopf, but I decided to go. Her recital, with Gerald Moore, I’m pretty sure, turned out to be the best of them all! It wasn’t that her voice was the best, because of course it wasn’t; it was that her artistry and nuance were so affecting, especially in the Hugo Wolf songs. Nothing that she did seemed mannered; it was just beautiful. And memorable.

Goldbergs: Have you heard Angela Hewitt’s recording? She’s hardly less of a perfectionist than Glenn Gould was, and I prefer her version. (She plays those fabulous Fazioli pianos . . . . )

Getz/Gilberto: now I understand better what you mean when you talk about freedom in playing; it’s good to know where your feeling for it came from.

Comments on: My Ten Favorite CD’s

By: Ellen