The Very Best Of Kathleen Ferrier

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v=1652351387","options":["Title"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":29838181368066,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":1. Kathleen Ferrier in New York, features historic performances of Mahler and Bach by the much-loved contralto during her triumphant visits to the United States in 1948 and 1950. Reviews: “[This] is an important addition to Ferrier’s discography, and she is indeed marvellous in it, singing ‘Esurientes implevit bonis’ with that unique, indescribable tone and expressive sincerity that characterises her finest work.

Recorded live on Ferrier’s only appearances in Carnegie Hall in January 1948, four months after her acclaimed performance at the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde reunited her with the conductor Bruno Walter and saw her making first appearances with tenor Set Svanholm and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.Her honours and awards included a CBE and Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society; the Kathleen Ferrier Award (which first took place in 1956, and grew out of the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship Fund, set up to support young singers) remains one of the most prestigious annual singing-competitions in the classical world. Hold in affection Jesus Christ – recorded by Ferrier in 1949 with tenor William Herbert, bass William Parsons and Dr Reginald Jacques’ Cantata Singers and bewitching encore in the sublime Jesus, Joy of Man’s Desiring. SOMM Recordings’ acclaimed series of re-mastered recitals by the fondly remembered singer continues with Kathleen Ferrier: 20th Century British Treasures.

Perelsztejn’s film Walter describes the first time he heard Ferrier: “She came and sang Brahms for me, and I engaged her.The CD catalogue number is SOMM Ariadne 5004 and it also features Irmgard Seefried and Friedl Riegler (sopranos), Hugo Meyer-Welfing (tenor) and Otto Edelmann (bass).

For CDs Grading does not include Jewel case as these are replaceable - however any badly damaged Jewel cases will be replaced. In superb recorded sound, this discovery is a real treasure and completes the recordings available of the three works in which Ferrier sang at the 1950 Vienna Bach Festival.

Her career took off following an introduction to Sir Malcolm Sargent, with whom she would later work on a regular basis; early successes included Handel’s Messiah at Westminster Abbey and The Angel in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in Leeds, and by the mid-1940s she was signed to Decca Records. These recorded performances are immensely valuable, as they allow us, so many years later, to hear several songs that Ferrier never set down commercially – including Brahms’ Nachtigall – as well as others that can be now compared with their commercially-made counterparts. Testament releases previously unpublished and deleted recordings from their archives, using their original master tapes and 78rpm metal parts for CD remastering.

Ferrier excelled in oratorio and song-repertoire (not a natural actress, she took on comparatively few operatic roles, but created the title-role in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne in 1946 and won considerable acclaim for Gluck’s Orfeo at the same house the following year); her recordings of folk-songs such as ‘Blow the wind southerly’ and ‘Down by the Salley Gardens’, the arias from Bach’s Passions and Christmas Oratorio, and especially Mahler’s orchestral songs and Das Lied von der Erdewith Bruno Walter and the Wiener Philharmoniker have achieved legendary status.Certain items can take longer to source than the estimated week, particularly during busy trading periods and may take longer to arrive at our warehouse. Please remember it can take some time for Paypal or your card issuer to process and post the refund. Kathleen Ferrier in Celebration of Bach ( Ariadne 5004) was acclaimed by Gramophone as “an important addition to Ferrier’s discography… one of the most beautiful things she ever committed to disc”. The other source is the remarkable collection of Kenneth Leech, a composer and engineer who, from the 1930s to the 1950s, recorded numerous broadcasts, mainly using Bakelite and metal discs – the usual way for an enthusiast to preserve radio programmes at that time.