It doesn't matter what voice range Chopin originally scored his 19 songs for. They've been performed by mezzo-sopranos, sopranos, and sometimes with just a lone piano. It was a stroke of genius for Arabesque to have enlisted contralto Ewa Podles. Good contraltos occur rarely, even more rarely than their male equivalent, the countertenor. Not since Kathleen Ferrier has a contralto mined such quarries of feeling. Her rendition of "Nie Ma Czego grzeba" (Faded and Vanished) is so melancholic, so early Romantic, that it could ...
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It doesn't matter what voice range Chopin originally scored his 19 songs for. They've been performed by mezzo-sopranos, sopranos, and sometimes with just a lone piano. It was a stroke of genius for Arabesque to have enlisted contralto Ewa Podles. Good contraltos occur rarely, even more rarely than their male equivalent, the countertenor. Not since Kathleen Ferrier has a contralto mined such quarries of feeling. Her rendition of "Nie Ma Czego grzeba" (Faded and Vanished) is so melancholic, so early Romantic, that it could have been penned by Franz Schubert. The melismas at the end of each stanza can extract tears. Her rendition of "Out of My Sight" dramatically conveys the conflicting emotions of one lover parting from another. Elly Ameling and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sing Schubert lieder with similar finesse, pacing, and eloquence. It's too bad Chopin didn't write more of these songs. They transcend the forms in which he fit them. They are morose ("The Two-Fold End"), raucous ("Drinking Song"),...
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