Title: Kirsten Flagstad: Rarities Artist: Kirsten Flagstad Label: Video Artists Int'l Product Type: COMPACT DISCS UPC: 089948128625 Genre: Classical Artists Release Date: 2020-01-03 Number of Discs: 2
Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962) is one of the greatest interpreters of Wagner on record. She treasured the gifts God bestowed on her, cultivated them with hard work and patience, and what emerged was a miracle of sound, large as the ocean, pure as a sunrise, and radiant with all the colors of the rainbow. Most of the material included in this collection previously appeared on disc only briefly, on the now-defunct Eklipse label. The earliest performance is a 1948 all-Wagner concert from Cuba, conducted by Clemens Krauss, where the soprano is in spectacular form. The latest of the selections, excerpts from a 1957 radio performance of Gluck's Alceste, show that the nearly-62-year-old soprano had lost none of that perfect balance of registers that gave her voice seemingly limitless measures of richness, freedom, and brilliance. Two CDs, total time: 126 minutes.
Tracks: 1.1 Bergen Festival Concert 1953 Songs by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) 1.2 1. Fra Monte Pincio (From Monte Pincio) (5:56) 1.3 2. Lys Nat (Summer Night) (3:14) 1.4 3. En Drøm (A Dream) (3:28) 1.5 4. Tristan und Isolde - Liebestod (7:11) Richard Wagner (1813-1883) 1.6 5. Götterdämmerung - Immolation Scene (19:43) 1.7 Gluck: Alceste (sung in Norwegian and Danish) Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra / Grüner-Hegge 1.8 6. Act II - Mi arridea sinor la vita (2:12) 1.9 7. Act II - A’ vostri lai io pur bagnato il ciglio (5:53) 1.10 8. Act III - O Numi, ispiratemi ardire! (8:42) 1.11 9. Act I - Divinità infernal! (4:48) 1.12 Danish Radio Orchestra and Chorus / Hye-Knudsen Copenhagen, 1957 2.1 Havana Concert, 1948 2.2 1. Wagner: Fliegende Holländer - Senta’s Ballad (7:16) 2.3 2. Beethoven: Ah! Perfido, Op. 65 (11:44) 2.4 3. Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - O sink hernieder (6:42)* 2.5 4. Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Liebestod (6:34) 2.6 Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder 2.7 5. I. Der Engel (3:06) 2.8 6. II. Stehe still! (3:10) 2.9 7. III. Im Treibhaus (5:22) 2.10 8. IV. Schmerzen (2:10) 2.11 9. V. Träume (4:38) 2.12 Havana Philharmonic / Clemens Krauss, conductor 2.13 10. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas - Dido’s Lament sung in Norwegian / Norwegian Radio, ca. 1955 (5:43) 2.14 11. Flagstad discusses “Desert Island Discs” - 1952 (8:25)
