Gratuitous Friday – Miah Persson is Sifare

Richard Croft & Miah Persson

Yes, I know it's only Thursday, but I couldn't wait to re-share this clip. I am re-posting this absolutely wonderful performance—the performance that caused me to fall in love with Miah Persson—for two reasons: 

1.   The original post has been simply slammed with spam. It's very annoying, especially since the post is a year and a half old.
 

2.   I just heard Christiane Karg sing this in a Mozartwoche concert on Ö1 Radio. She was wonderful, but frankly, I just like this performance better. That being said, I do encourage my readers to go listen to that concert. It also includes two symphonies by Muzio Clementi (of piano sonatina fame), one of which (surprisingly) contains rather extensive variarations on God Save the King.

But more importantly to my readers: In between the Clementi symphonies, soprano Christine Karg (whose "big break" was singing in the same M22 festival series of operas that this video clip in taken from) sings a nice variety of early Mozart opera arias, including this one from Mitradate. 

But before you go listen to that concert, listen once again to the lovely and talented Miah Persson sing Lunga da te, mio bene.

Winter Release of Jonas Kaufmann's Winterreise

From the Blurb @ JK's official website:

After over 20 years of working together and countless performances of Winterreise, Jonas Kaufmann and his piano-partner Helmut Deutsch finally commit the Olympus of the Lied repertoire to disc. 

Jonas Kaufmann says about the work: “Against the background of all the horror stories that bombard us today, we are undoubtedly rather more hardened than Schubert’s contemporaries and yet even today’s listeners can still find this cycle affecting. Even as interpreters we always find ourselves sucked into the emotional undertow of these songs, although we know perfectly well what to expect. I think that Winterreise has the same sort of cathartic effect as a Greek drama: the emotional experience purges the soul. The work has an almost meditative effect on me, because Schubert expressed these emotional depths with a clarity and a simplicity that I ultimately find consoling and that allows me to regain my own inner balance.”

Die Winterreise will be released (in the US) on February 25 April 1, 2014.

Meanwhile, I also learned—courtesy of a lovely blog called Salazar's Opera Family Circle—about several upcoming DVD releases featuring JK (hooray!):

• Ariadne auf Naxos from the Wiener Staatsoper
• Don Carlo, also from the Wiener Staatsoper
• Parsifal aus Der Met 

There goes my February and March lunch money!

Miah Persson and Lisa Della Casa on Ö1 Radio (but not together!)

Sunday was a great day to listen to Austria's Ö1 Radio! From the Mozartwoche 2014:

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu with: 

Miah Persson, Soprano; Maximilian Schmitt, Tenor; Michael Nagy, Bass; the RIAS Kammerchor; Berlin Freiburger Barockorchester; directed by René Jacobs.

And from the archives, on Apropos Musik: Die Arabellissima: an hour-long tribute to Lisa Della Casa featuring music by Mozart, R. Strauss, Wagner, and Lehár.

These two programs are available in archive for about 5 more days. Meanwhile, there are more gems coming from the Mozartwoche, including, on February 16, a concert of excerpts from both Gluck's and Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito featuring Malin Hartelius and...some other singers (who cares who else is there?)

Here is a listing of all of the Mozartwoche concerts scheduled this month on Ö1 Radio.

Sunday Brunch - Mattias Goerne Talks About (and Sings) Schubert

From Spanish television: Some clips of Herr Goerne (my baritone-crush of the month) rehearsing/recording An Sylvia and speaking (in English, Gott sei dank) about his series of Schubert Lieder recordings. 

And here is the full song:

NPR Piece on Brokeback Mountain – The Opera

Here is a news piece from NPR that includes interviews with the librettist and composer, and tantalizingly brief musical snippets from the opera.

"From a powerful short story in the New Yorker to a major motion picture, Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain now takes the stage in Madrid as a new opera, composed by Pulitzer winner Charles Wuorinen." 

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