Margaret Price; London Symphony Orchestra / Claudio Abbado - Margaret Price: In Recital

A song recital new to CD from a peerless lyric soprano, coupled with classic recordings of Ravel and Verdi. �In 1971 Andrew Porter wrote that Margaret Price�s voice was among the things that make one �glad to be alive�. In the 1960s she had recorded for a small Welsh label a recital of Welsh, German and Italian songs that would become signature items for her over the coming decades. Reissued in 1969 by L�Oiseau-Lyre, the album makes it to CD for the first time in this compilation. In favourites such as Schubert�s Heidenr�slein, Verdi�s Ave maria and five Welsh folksongs, Price is on sovereign form, with a gleaming upper register and engagingly fresh phrasing. �Also from the early 70s is a rare foray into contemporary music inspired by her Welsh heritage, with Alun Hoddinott�s setting of a text by Emyr Humphries, Roman Dream. She recorded this for Argo along with a set of Gaelic folksongs by Phyllis Tate; these, too, are transferred to CD for the first time.�More familiar delights are offered on CD2, with Deutsche Grammophon capturing her voice in full and glorious maturity in a 1987 album of Verdi songs and a recording of Ravel�s opulent, oriental song-cycle Sh�h�rezade, in which she is sensitively partnered by the London Symphony Orchestra under a long-time musical partner, Claudio Abbado; together in 1971 they had recorded the Altenberg-Lieder of Berg which fill out CD1. Thus Price sings in five languages through the course of the compilation, and shows herself a gifted word-painter in each of them: it�s a comprehensive tribute to the art of a soprano esteemed by Sir Georg Solti as �a musician�s singer and a conductor�s singer�.��The attraction is the voice, warm, with a mezzo quality still evident, beautifully even in texture, nobly full-bodied on high, generous in phrasing.� Gramophone, April 1976 (L�Oiseau-Lyre recital)�The real prize is the haunting Altenberg Lieder, sung to perfection by Margaret Price-and the sound is excellent.� High Fidelity, December 1988 (Berg)* FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA