Jennie Tourel "The Art of Jennie Tourel: Live Recital At Alice Tully Hall".(review of the VAI Audio CD and the Pearl CD "Jennie Tourel Sings Ravel, Berlioz, Offenbach")(Sound Recording Review)

Songs by Stradella, Beethoven, Liszt, Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, et al. Levine, piano. With bonus arias by Saint-Saens, Tchaikovsky, Rossini, Monteux, cond. 1969 conversation with John Ardoin. No texts, English translations only of recital program. VAI Audio VAIA 1213-2 (2)

[] "JENNIE TOUREL SINGS RAVEL, BERLIOZ, OFFENBACH" New York Philharmonic, Bernstein; Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Abravanel, Morel. No texts or translations. Pearl GEM 0198

Jennie Tourel was one of the most alluring, imaginative recitalists one could have the good fortune to experience. The mezzo was born in 1900, and at her final recital at Town Hall, in 1972, the year before her death, her singing was still astonishing--not only the control, which was impressive, and the beauty, which was enduring, but her expressive power in an array of material requiring the broadest emotional range, from coquette to victim. Tourel's languages--she spoke five and sang in ten--and command of style were impeccable. VAI has now rereleased Tourel's legendary Alice Tully Hall recital from 1970, with the young James Levine at the piano, and it is cause for rejoicing. At that moment in time, Tourel could offer a rare blend of artistic maturity coupled with enough vocal security to make just about all her desired points about the songs. Although this is a superannuated voice, it belongs to a wizard who has managed to preserve an impressive legato, stunning diminuendos, and a piano not always in evidence in her earlier opera ventures.

The opening, Stradella's "Per pieta," finds the mezzo warming up but already impassioned, and Monsigny's "La sagesse et un tresor" is delivered with nimble delicacy. Beethoven's "An die Hoffnung" and "Ich liebe dich" are followed by a most painterly rendition of Debussy's "Trois chansons de Bilitis," with Levine providing fine, atmospheric support. Tourel, of Russian parentage but educated in Paris, was a champion of the songs of Liszt, Glinka and Tchaikovsky, as well as the operetta arias of Offenbach. Liszt's "Mignon's Lied" is sung divinely, with pianos meltingly floated and all gradations of longing expressed. It is intensely moving. This is followed by three more Liszt songs, all models of dynamic control used at the service of expression, the final "Comment disaient-ils" ended with a perfect trill. Glinka and Tchaikovsky find the singer fully warmed up and offering a lesson in Russian song; these items and Massenet's "Elegie" feature the added depth provided by Gary Karr on double bass. "Elegie," a favorite of Tourel's, affords her the opportunity to teach us how nostalgia can be conveyed unabashedly yet elegantly. The encores are typical Tourel: Liszt's "O quand je dors" and Berlioz's "L'Absence," both improving upon her earlier commercial recordings of these pieces, and her La Perichole laughing song, infectiously charming, and truly funny.

Bonus tracks from 1945-46 Standard Hour radio broadcasts ...