Kathleen Battle - Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall

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Music reviews of Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall

Music Review: E X C E L L E N T ! ! !
Rating: 4 Stars

Kathleen then moved onto Mozart, and instead of singing his lighter lyric arias that we are used to hearing from Kathleen, we hear two of his art songs. Perhaps one of his most famous art songs, "Ridente la calma" is a soft, pure, and gentle song about love, much like his "Deh Vieni" that Susanna sings in "Le Nozze di Figaro." Kathleen sings this with a soft purity that will just melt your heart. Her high notes are always right in the head, and her placement of notes is superb. Something you will want to play over and over again.

Liszt. A composer that most people know best for his piano music and not his vocal music. He did write some very pretty french melodies, such as "Oh! Quand je dors." It is very pretty, and haunting, and of course, only Kathleen could make it that way.

After the Liszt french set, we move on to a set of R. Strauss lieder, very pretty, and cute music. I still prefer the music of french, but Kathleen did do an amazing job on both lieder, her tone properly placed, her vowels in the correct place, just an amazing job.

Then comes in a set of Rachmaninov, including his "Vocalise", which is sung with excellent technique, breath control, vocal legato line, pure tone, every thing just excellent. Very haunting, making you get goose bumps up and down your spine. A great pleasure to hear.

Then we pull over on Broadway to hear one of Kathleen's broadway tunes, "Summertime" from 'Porgy and Bess.' The tone placed a bit differently then the placement on the classical, but that is still good, because "Summertime" is more jazz like then opera like.

My favorite on the CD is "Adele's Laughing Song" (Mein Herr Marquis) from 'Die Fledermaus,' with the great belly laughs sounding like Kathleen is really laughing. The expression in this aria is superb. The trills, the high Ds, the long run at the end are all very amazing showing off the very best of Kathleen's beautiful voice.

How ever, I did take off one star because of all the spirituals on this disc. I don't care for spirituals in the least, no matter who is singing them. It is not any thing that Kathleen did wrong, I just don't like them, and I think she could have saved the audience and her voice by cutting those pieces out, and if she really had to put one in she could have put in "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."

Overall, this is a very enjoyable CD. Buy it and enjoy for a lifetime. A true treasure.

Description of Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall

Classical CDs

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