Countermelody

• Episode 420. Art Song Gal Pals Celebrate Mary

  Today I was torn between bringing you an episode with trashy secular holiday songs or taking the high road with the Christmas portion of Paul Hindemith’s Das Marienleben cycle, featuring recordings by Jennie Tourel and Erich Itor Kahn (in the songs) preceded by Lotte Lehmann, reading from the original Rainer Maria Rilke poetry cycle. I chose the high road, and I think that I chose wisely. Neither Lehmann’s nor Tourel’s exceptionally beautiful recordings was ever reissued in any format, and these days it is quite rare to even find a copy of either. I was lucky recently to obtain copies of both and I offer the poems and songs from the first half of the cycle here, supplemented by Irmgard Seefried singing two Hindemith motets on the life of Christ, the versatile British soprano Dorothy Dorow singing a carol text set by Arnold Bax. And for those who would have preferred Holiday Trash, I begin the proceedings with the the iconic “Not on Christmas” sequence from John Waters’s 1974 masterpiece, Female Trouble. In short: something for everyone in this holiday episode! Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

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• Episode 419. Wunderlich in Duet

  Anytime I do an episode on Fritz Wunderlich, the sun breaks through the clouds, emotionally speaking. Possessor of a bright-timbred voice of such exquisite beauty anchored by a profoundly satisfying musical sensibility, he and his legacy inspire rather than sadden me. Today I’ve chosen a duet program, because it allows me to showcase Fritz’s effortless stylistic flexibility, while at the same time highlighting a rainbow of singing partners, some of whom are old favorites, and others of whom might not yet be well-known to my listeners. Today’s treasure-trove of singers includes sopranos Maria Stader, Lucia Popp, Teresa Stratas, Erika Köth, Edith Mathis, Stefania Woytowicz, Pilar Lorengar, Melitta Muszely, Trude Eipperle, Hilde Güden, Anneliese Rothenberger, and Ruth-Margret Pütz; mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig; and baritones Hermann Prey and Marcel Cordes, among others. Wunderlich and his co-stars sing repertoire ranging from the early Baroque through Janáček, including a particularly generous helping of Italian opera (albeit sung mostly in German), German Singspiel and Viennese operetta. It’s a long episode, so don’t hesitate to divide the episode up into bite-sized segments. No matter how you slice it up, I forecast a blissful response to these clarion tones! Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

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• Episode 418. Christmas Art Songs with Bär and Schreier

  This episode celebrates the artistic accomplishments of two of the finest twentieth century singers to come from the environs of Dresden, Peter Schreier and Olaf Bär. Both were former child choristers in the Dresdner Kreuzchor (albeit from two different generations). Both went on as adults to rise to the top of the musical firmament, particularly in their performance of German art song.  Each of these two singers were celebrated in the music of Bach, and in their performance of what their fellow Germans call Kunstlieder and both made memorable and substantial recordings of Christmas art songs, Schreier’s in 1979, accompanied by the late Norman Shetler, and Bär’s in 1996, with the superb Helmut Deutsch. The focus in this episode is on their performance on these respective recordings of the Christmas songs of Max Reger, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Hugo Wolf. We also hear a recording of Schreier during his days as a boy alto in the Dresdner Kreuzchor) singing a selection from the Weihnachtslieder of Peter Cornelius. Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

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• Episode 417. Hail, Queens!

  Okay, I confess that the title of this week’s episode is intentionally misleading, but if I told you what it actually was outright, you might not listen, and that would be a great loss! On Monday I celebrated Larry Kert for World AIDS Day, and today, I have made a selection of musical settings of the Marian Antiphon Salve Regina, which translated means, “Hail, Queen,” so there you have the inspiration for the episode. In fact, this is an episode chock-full of particularly glorious singing, and I don’t think you’ll regret spending the time with these glorious Queens of Song (with a few Kings tossed in)! The 11th-century Salve Regina text, far from being dry and dull, provided inspiration for a wide range of composers, primarily of the Baroque (Handel, Vivaldi, Hasse, the Scarlattis, Monteverdi, and a number of others), but also of later vintage (Mozart, Johann Christian Bach, Schubert, and even Puccini). The singers who perform these works are a Who’s Who of Countermelody favorites (Helen Donath, Rachel Yakar, Margaret Marshall, Francisco Araiza, Elly Ameling, and Roberta Alexander) and new friends, including three countertenors (Gérard Lesne, John Angelo Messana, and Jochen Kowalski) who provided inspiration to me as a young singer. Dive right in to this episode, my friends, and never fear: would I steer you wrong? Never! The episode begins with a tribute to Madeline Kahn, who died 26 years ago this week. Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

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• Episode 416. Larry Kert (World AIDS Day 2015)

  Today is World AIDS Day, if anyone needed to be reminded. Though I considered doing a compendium episode of broad scope commemorating a handful of the thousands upon thousands of musicians that succumbed to AIDS, I decided instead to focus on one, Broadway icon Larry Kert, who created the role of Tony in West Side Story and was subsequently an early Robert in Sondheim’s Company, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. On December 5, we observe his 95th birthday. In between these career highs, he was involved in a number of notorious Broadway flops (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, La Strada, and Rags) from each of which we hear rare recordings. And yet during his life, superstardom eluded him. It’s quite likely that some of this had to do with him having lived his life openly and unapologetically as a gay man in a time when most comparable figures were deeply in the closet. But Larry was also a familiar figure on television of that era, appearing as a guest star on popular series, on game shows, on commercials, and as a particular favorite of Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, in which he made 29 guest appearances. He also was often seen as a replacement in and on tours of popular musicals such as Cabaret, Two Gentlemen of Verona, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, and, finally, La Cage aux Folles, to name just a few. In that last show, his frail health meant that he had to miss significant numbers of performances, though he continued to make important appearances on stage and on recordings until just shortly before his death on June 5, 1991 at the age of 60. On the episode, we hear him with such legendary co-stars as Teresa Stratas, Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera, Madeline Kahn, Maureen McGovern, Mimi Hines, and Harvey Evans, as well as his WSS co-star Carol Lawrence. We also trace the support and influence he received over the course of his career from his trusted friend Martin Charnin, who played a sometimes surprising role in Kert’s career. Though Larry Kert felt that he never received the recognition he deserved, this episode demonstrates how he stood at the forefront of all Broadway tenors of his generation, as well as past and future ones. Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

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