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"CD Player as Time Machine: Voices Echo Across Decades" by David Mermelstein, New York Times, 19 July 1998 |
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All through the 1970's and until the LP era wound to a calculated close in the mid-80's, voice aficionados reveled in a deluge of reissues. On series like Columbia Odyssey, RCA Victrola and, especially, EMI Références and HMV Treasury, the voices of esteemed but long-dead singers were revived, and new listeners were exposed to the glories of Galli-Curci and Rethberg, Gigli and Thill, Battistini and Schorr. But the digital era changed all that, as the major labels lost interest in such esoteric fare. Small labels with limited resources picked up some of the slack, but their efforts, though worthy, hardly compared with what had gone before. Now, a whole new crop of attractively packaged vocal reissues has sprung up, coming not from the major labels but from a select group of small companies. These new disks from Marston, Romophone and Delos's Stanford Archive Series trumpet their state-of-the-art sound as much as their scholarly booklet essays and rare photographs. In some ways, they even improve on their LP predecessors. Perhaps the most adventurous efforts have been undertaken by the Marston label. For well over a decade, Ward Marston, of Philadelphia, has been a revered figure among collectors of vocal music. His sensitive CD transfers, clean yet brimming with color, have set new standards for sound quality. Frustrated by the constraints of working for others, Mr. Marston last year launched his own label. His fledgling company has produced more than 10 albums, each a gem. Among the best is a twodisk set devoted to the French soprano Ninon Vallin (Marston 52006-2) which for the first time collects her complete Pathé Art Label recordings of 1927 to 1929. Vallin possessed a sparkling voice that throbbed with warmth, and Mr. Marston has captured it at its peak. In keeping with the practice of the day, Vallin sings nearly everything on these disks in her native tongue, yet her portrayals are nuanced, running from tough vibrancy ("Carmen" and "Tosca") to touching vulnerability ("La Bohème" and "Madama Butterfly"). She breaks the French-only rule for Falla's "Popular Spanish Songs"; her atmospheric reading in Spanish is a worthy rival to the recordings of Conchita Supervia and Victoria de los Angeles. And then there is Vallin's intoxicating version of "Chant Hindou," from Rimsky-Korsakov's "Sadko." But it is in arias from "Louise," "Manon" and "Faust" that Vallin stakes her greatest claim, blending superb articulation with a glinting upper register and unforced girlish charm. French singers in particular interest Mr. Marston, and his label has also released two-disk surveys of the baritone Maurice Renaud (52005-2) and the bass Marcel Journet (52009- 2). Renaud, who was born in 1861, was hailed as one of the finest singing actors of his time, and these recordings from the first decade of the 20th century support that claim. His Méphistophélès, in Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust," emerges as an especially slick devil. And though no one today would dare sing Don Giovanni's serenade as Renaud does, his crooning is seductive. The Journet set is the first installment in Marston's complete reissue of the singer's extensive recorded output, and one can scarcely think of a vocalist more deserving of such an honor. Atypically, Journet's plush, radiant voice improved with age, so his electrical records, from the late 1920's and early 30's, make the deepest impression. Among his many talents, Journet was a gifted Wagnerian, and his 1927 account of Hans Sachs's monologue from "Die Meistersinger" and his 1928 recording of Wotan's Farewell from "Die Walküre" (both in French) are richly sung and suffused with feeling. Marston has also released a complete "Manon" from 1923 (52003-2), at the time the first version on record, with Fanny Heldy and Jean Marny. And the label seems intent on its Francophilia: other complete operas are promised, as are surveys of Emma Calvé, Jane Bathori, Claire Croiza and César Vezzani...
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