Behold the wonder of the internet!

Written by earwormopera

Some kind soul alerted me to the existence of these on YouTube, for all those who missed Röschmann singing Strauss on the radio on Monday night. If it has never occurred to you to wish that Antonio Pappano was see-thru, you may be in for a new experience here.

I listened to some of these clips because – well, I would, wouldn’t I, but due to them being bootlegs taken with someone’s phone there’s enough distortion to the sound that I admit I gave up before hearing all of each of them. Bootlegs are sometimes rather less than ideal in that way. But I didn’t want to end the morning’s musical interlude gritting my teeth, so I went back to the version of these songs that Röschmann recorded with the Rotterdam Philharmonic a few years ago and listened to that instead. (Her “Im Abendrot” on that recording gets me every time.)

I heard “September” as part of her recital in New York last month (with a piano rather than an orchestra) and whenever I hear her sing these songs, I wonder if they may not be a little like the role of the Countess in Figaro for her – it’s pretty damn good when she first begins to perform it, and that’s when it’s recorded, and then by all accounts it gets even better as she performs it more, and you want it recorded AGAIN so you can hear the improvements, but you have to kind of remain in suspense about that. (But naturally I wish she recorded more in general. Back in the 1990s she appeared to produce a CD approximately every 45 minutes, but that is not the case anymore.)

I do warn you – sound is iPhone quality, and it does no one any favors.

Beim schlafengehen:

Fruehling (partial)

Im Abendrot

12 thoughts on “Behold the wonder of the internet!”

  1. I wish Pappano were completely invisible. I find him very distracting in the best of situations (I am ranting without having watched these videos yet.) I saw him conduct the Rossini Stabat Mater. He makes lots of odd faces and if I had been singing for him I would have had to stop watching.
    In other news, I grabbed the audio of the BBC 3 Rossini last night with You know who! YAY BBC 3!

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    1. Having made that complaint, even with crappy sound (like that Mozart I got from p.o.) you can still get a sense of the artistry that was happening, which it’s why, I guess, we still listen to/watch these recordings. 🙂

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      1. Yeah, it’s true – I admit, I did go back and listen to the rest of all the clips later. It’s not ideal – but it’s better than nothing. (Although afterward I did think – hm, her live performances are so good, and she’s giving a recital in Berlin on the 17th, which is a Sunday, which means that if I could get a ticket I could go on Saturday and come back Monday, because I teach Tuesday/Thursday, and we aren’t having a faculty meeting on Monday, and then I thought EARWORM THAT IS INSANE AND THE REASON YOU ARE IN GOOD FINANCIAL SHAPE IS THAT YOU PULL SHIT LIKE THAT ONLY, SAY, EVERY OTHER MONTH RATHER THAN ALL THE DAMN TIME. And so I did not. But, inspired by an Italian bootleg, I thought about it.)

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        1. 🙂 And I was thinking that this recording did not do DR any favors. I KNOW she sounds better than that! And yes, I know DR is great, but I am glad you decided to rethink your travel plan.

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          1. She does sound better than this – I was inspired in the sense that I know from other contexts that her live performances are great, and hearing bits of this one reminds me that there are so many of them I don’t hear. Re: these clips, this is one of those cases where I’m sort of glad the clips are there (maybe? actually maybe not), but I certainly wouldn’t use them to convince someone that she’s awesome. (That is what all those Mozart DVDs are for . . .)

            And yeah, an impulse trip from here to Germany for a Lieder recital would be, let’s say, at best ill-advised.

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              2. I’ve scored tix to ASvO in the Mahler 3rd and a Bryn Terfel recital, and that’s only a 45 minute commute into the hills and I know the sneaky back route to avoid all the traffic. Does that rate some vaunting?

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    1. Hi Lang! I didn’t have a recording of that recital – thank you 🙂

      [for others reading the comment: link goes to bundled audio and program list of Röschmann and Martineau recital at Wigmore Hall in 2010]

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