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Seduction - Steve Davislim

Seduction - Steve Davislim

Melba Recordings  MR301108

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Vocal


Richard Strauss: Heimliche Aufforderung op.27 no 3, Allerseelen op.10 no 8, Ständchen op.17 no 2, Ruhe meine Seele op.27 no 1, Morgen! op.27 no 4, Zueignung op.10 no.1, Traum durch die Dämmerung op.29 no 1, Ich trage meine Minne op.32 no1, Liebeshymnus op.32 no 3, Verführung op.33 no1, Das Rosenband op.36 No.1, Befreit op.39 no 4, Wiegenlied op.41 no 1, Freundliche Vision op 48 No.1, Waldseligkeit op.49 no 1, Die Heiligen drei Könige aus Morgenland op.55 no 6, Capriccio - Closing scene, Moonlight Music, Der Rosenkavelier: Second Waltz Suite, op 59.

Steve Davislim (tenor)
State Orchestra of Victoria
Simone Young (conductor)

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Review by Graham Williams - October 6, 2008

This recording was first issued on CD eight years ago to much acclaim, and Melba has now re-mastered it for this hybrid SACD release. The SADiE H64 multi track editing workstation was used for the digital re-mastering and then the subsequent mix was mastered for SACD on the SADiE DSD8 Mastering Workstation. The original taping by Phil Rowlands was very good and I did not find that the artificially created multi-channel mix added much more than a slight sense of increased ambience and presence to what was already quite a reverberant acoustic (Iwaki Auditorium, Melbourne).

So many recordings of Strauss songs, with and without an orchestra, inevitably feature sopranos, so it is refreshing to hear a selection of them sung by a tenor as fine as Steve Davislim. Unlike, for example, Siegfried Jerusalem and Rene Kollo, both of whom did record many of these songs, Davislim is not a ‘heldentenor’ and his essentially lyrical voice is very well suited to expressing the wide range of emotions expressed in these sixteen songs.

‘Heimliche Aufforderung’ that opens the programme is, from the text, obviously suited to a male voice and Davislim sings it with a fervour and firm ringing tone that is the hallmark of this recital. It would take too much space to mention all the felicities that are to be found in Davislim’s interpretations of these sixteen songs. Suffice it to say that they range from his wonderful sensitivity in the disc’s title track ‘Verführung’ (Seduction), where in the last verse he refines his voice to a whisper for the final words ‘Du wirst mein eigen noch diese Nacht!’, through to his phenomenal breath control at the climax of ‘Befreit’. The orchestrations used are the familiar ones by Robert Heger, Felix Mottl and the composer himself.

Simone Young’s credentials as an outstanding Strauss interpreter are by now well established, and she accompanies Davislim empathetically. The playing of the State Orchestra of Victoria is responsive to her leadership throughout and as an added bonus we are given two purely orchestral items. The so-called ‘Moonlight Music’ that precedes the final scene of Strauss’s last opera Capriccio with its magical horn solo (beautifully played with mellow tone by the orchestra’s principal horn Richard Runnels) and the sequence of waltzes from Act 3 of ‘Der Rosenkavalier’.

As usual with Melba the presentation of the disc is outstanding. It is supplied within a 30 page hard-backed book that contains detailed notes on the music by the doyen of Strauss critics Michael Kennedy, and full German / English texts in readable sized print.

This is an interesting and valuable addition to the SACD catalogue. Recommended.

Copyright © 2008 Graham Williams and HRAudio.net

Performance:

Sonics (Multichannel):

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Review by John Miller - January 21, 2009

From the age of 6, when he first began composing songs, to the very end of his life, Richard Strauss was in love with the human voice. Having married opera singer Pauline de Ahna, his pragmatic business sense in supporting his family while on his conducting tours suggested a way of obtaining two fees from the same concert. He orchestrated a number of his best songs so that Pauline could join him on the platform. Others were orchestrated by other conductors such as Mottl and Heger.

The recital on this disc comprises: Heimliche Aufforderung op.27 no 3, Allerseelen op.10 no 8, Ständchen op.17 no 2, Ruhe meine Seele op.27 no 1, Morgen! op.27 no 4, Zueignung op.10 no.1, Traum durch die Dämmerung op.29 no 1, Ich trage meine Minne op.32 no1, Liebeshymnus op.32 no 3, Verführung op.33 no1, Das Rosenband op.36 No.1, Befreit op.39 no 4, Wiegenlied op.41 no 1, Freundliche Vision op 48 No.1, Waldseligkeit op.49 no 1, Die Heiligen drei Könige aus Morgenland op.55 no 6, Capriccio - Closing scene, Moonlight Music, Der Rosenkavelier: Second Waltz Suite, op 59.
Total time: 70'26.

My touchstone for these glorious songs has long been Szell & Schwarzkopf's classic RBCD including the Four Last Songs. Most of the great sopranos, however, have aspired to them, and the soprano voice has dominated in recordings, although several tenors have also contributed. Some of the poems were written from a male point of view, others are applicable to either sex, and it makes a most interesting and illuminating change to hear settings sung by a tenor of Steve Davislim's calibre. In Wiegenlied (Lullaby) for example, he is the joyful and proud father, compared with the intimate, half-voiced adoration of Schwarzkopf. In Morgen!, Scottish poet John Henry McKay's ecstatic dream of meeting the beloved again, we find Schwarzkopf at her most inward, hardly able to trust such deep emotions, while Steve Davislim's excitement and confidence in mutual love is barely contained. I should mention here that the long violin solo in the song's introduction is magnificently played by Mara Miller, Concertmaster of the State Ochestra of Victoria; she evidently realises that solo violin parts in Strauss always portray the unfettered soul.

Steve Davislim's wealth of experience of major roles in international opera houses and on concert platforms stands him in good stead for interpreting the more operatic songs in the group, but he also has the lieder singer's ability to encapsulate the more intimate and subtle songs. The voice is flexible and capable of floating long, beautifully-inflected legato lines, with good German pronunciation, enviable clarity of diction and great breath control.

Fellow Australian Simone Young's international career is a remarkable one, including being the first woman to conduct at the Vienna Staatsoper. She has a natural feel for Richard's Strauss' sound-world, and with the aid of a willing State of Victoria Symphony Orchestra provides a backdrop for her tenor which resembles a moving sequnce of Klimt paintings. The orchestra get a chance to show their prowess with the two final tracks, orchestral extracts from Capriccio and Rosenkavalier. I was particularly taken with the rarely heard Moonlight Music from Capriccio, deliciously atmospheric, with fine horn solos.

As the recording was first issued as RBCD in stereo, the SACD re-mastering has been given a competently synthesised ambience from the surround speakers. The recording venue was already very reverberant - probably at its best acoustically with an audience present - and I felt that the SACD surround mix pushed the orchestra quite far back, with a narrow image and rather hazy definition of the instrumental positioning. The stereo layer sounded much more immediate to me, and all the required detail of the accompaniments are there, for example in the hushed feather-down muted strings and caressing flute scales of Wiegenlied. Davislim's voice is given plenty of room to expand and has real tonal lustre.

This disc gave me much pleasure, its superb musicianship outweighing any drawbacks on the recording front. For me, It can happly take its place amongst the best recitals of Strauss' orchestrated lieder and is hightly recommended.

Copyright © 2009 John Miller and HRAudio.net

Performance:

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Sonics (Multichannel):

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