The Complete Recordings of Maud Powell, Vol. 1

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Music reviews of The Complete Recordings of Maud Powell, Vol. 1

Music Review: At last! Maud Powell's musicianship available again
Rating: 5 Stars

These three CDs were available only from the Maud Powell Foundation. I managed to get volume 3 several years ago after hearing all three discs from a library, but volume 2 has not been available. So, I've waited for volumes 1 and 2 hoping they'd come back "someday." Well, here they are, and Naxos has also released volume 3 according to their January 2 2002 newsletter.

Maud Powell (1867-1920) was in 1904 the first solo instrumentalist to record for Victor's new celebrity artist series on their Red Seal label. Their promotional materials told us to "Listen to Maud Powell's violin...if you want to find out how much can be got out of a fiddle, go--listen to--Maud Powell." They were right.

Powell's performances are the type of playing that may bring tears to your eyes, going straight to the heart and soul of the music and resonating with whatever you find inside yourself. She starts with a remarkably intense tone and naturally easy phrasing, then adds a tastefully varied vibrato and portamento (as vocally-inspired ornaments to heighten the expressivity). She varies her intonation according to the keys and the directions of the phrases, as her younger contemporary Pablo Casals did on the cello. It is extraordinary, like the best singer one can imagine but going beyond words. It is the kind of performance where it doesn't even matter what music she's playing...classical bon-bons, excerpts, folk songs, whatever. The music becomes a living thing in performances this good: breathing and moving and dancing right in front of you, and commanding your attention. It will get to you and you will feel it. What more needs to be said?

Bravo to Naxos for making these recordings available. The sound is pretty good, too, considering that the recordings were made before the availability of electric microphones. I hardly notice the background noise of the record since the performances are so directly engaging. These discs would be a "must-have" even at three or four times the price that Naxos is asking for them....

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