The first recital is devoted almost entirely to the tunes of Handel's Giulio Cesare (5 arias sung in German), complete with an air of Mozart's Don Giovanni (in Italian). The Wiener Philharmoniker is under the direction of Heinrich Hollreiser; a recital already published 25 years ago but unavailable since, to my knowledge. A program to remain well short, yet complete, at least if one takes into account that the original LP had himself been "stretched" by Mozart arias from integral studios (the Gift of Krips, the Cosi Böhm, Nozze Kleiber: the three leaders mentioned on the cover, consistent with the original vinyl, but we do not find on this CD!).
A Handel surprising seduction, notwithstanding the use of German orchestral style and totally outdated. For it is the quality of the song that captures the attention irresistibly intense and even dramatic but mostly vocally perfect, in a true pure singing lesson, made even more irresistible by the Edenic beauty of timbre. Recordings of rarely published, culminating in a "Non mi dir" Mozartian ineffable, of those that leaves both conquered and admiration, or simply love ...
The second recital is devoted to lieder repertoire, an art in which the Swiss woman has left some beads both too rare and exceptional. A recital announced by the publisher as "unreleased" CD, which perhaps is true only under official label, as this recital is already captured in 1957 there appeared full ten years with Testament (with a complement of 'essential Frauenliebe und Leben Schumann). Note also that we have sacrificed here to the passage of 6 minutes Befreit Strauss!
The piano Karl Hudez shows attentive and rather delicate (some might say bland), leaving fully express the voice itself favored by the sound (we did not complain necessarily here) . A voice of a total beauty, full of simplicity in distinction, with colorful tones set into a certain natural ingenuity, all served with a disarming spontaneity in phrasing to the flexibility and hypnotic curve. A few scattered sound defects (as audible parasite late op.105 / 1 Brahms) will fail to distract the enchantment ...
