The Very Best Of Kathleen Ferrier

Product Information

In 2012 Decca issued a 14-CD + 1-DVD boxed set (Kathleen Ferrier: Centenary Edition - The Complete Decca Recordings) which comprises all recordings published by that company, including several important 'off-air' recordings to which they had the rights. Kathleen, by Maurice LeonardKathleen, by Maurice Leonard, Hutchinson (1988) – An excellent portrait that enlarges considerably on earlier biographies. It reveals aspects of Kathleen’s life and illness that her sister had been reluctant to focus on so soon after Kathleen’s death, and was written with Winifred’s full co-operation and help. Extensively illustrated. A revised and updated version was published in May 2008 by Nonsuch Publishing. Kathleen’s career began to take off. She made records and became well known on the concert platform and in all the great oratorio works, particularly the Messiah and Elgar’s masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius. The composer Benjamin Britten wrote his second opera, The Rape of Lucretia, with Kathleen in mind for the title role.

Kathleen sang for the first time in New York in 1948, to great acclaim, and then began tours of America, Canada, Holland, Scandinavia and America again. The problems of travelling abroad were almost as bad as travelling at home. Stars in those days did not have the entourages they have now, and Kathleen was mostly on her own, coping with indifferent and sometimes non-existent hotel arrangements. Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde, with B Walter, J Patzak & VPO 1952 (Naxos 8.110871)
Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde, with B Walter, J Patzak & VPO 1952 (public performance) (Tahra Tah 482) Kathleen Ferrier, by Charles RigbyKathleen Ferrier, by Charles Rigby, Robert Hale (1955) – An unauthorised biography, the subject of much controversy on its publication. Inaccurate in many ways, it does include some photographs of Ferrier not published elsewhere. Extensively illustrated.

As 1953 began, Ferrier was busy rehearsing for Orpheus, an English language version of Orfeo ed Euridice to be staged in four performances at the Royal Opera House in February. Barbirolli had instigated this project, with Ferrier's enthusiastic approval, some months previously. [90] Her only other engagement in January was a BBC recital recording, in which she sang works by three living English composers: Howard Ferguson, William Wordsworth and Edmund Rubbra. [91] During her regular hospital treatment, she discussed with doctors the advisability of an oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries), but on learning that the impact on her cancer would probably be insignificant and that her voice might be badly affected, she chose not to have the operation. [92] [93] a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "Kathleen Ferrier Edition Vol 6". ArkivMusic. Archived from the original on 4 October 2012 . Retrieved 20 May 2011. Soprano: Elsie Suddaby; Contralto: Kathleen Ferrier; Tenor: Eric Greene; Bass [Jesus]: Henry Cummings; Bass [Arias]: William Parsons; Bass [Judas, Peter]: Gordon Clinton

She was an artist held in awe and affection by numerous colleagues and countless fans worldwide and her reputation is undiminished to this day. A true contralto, whose repertory encompassed English song as well as German Lieder, her recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Vienna Philharmonic under Bruno Walter [and tenor Julius Patzak] is one of the most celebrated classical recordings of all time and has been a staple of the Decca catalogue since it was first released in 1952.

Shortly after her return to Britain early in June 1949, Ferrier left for Amsterdam where, on 14 July, she sang in the world premiere of Britten's Spring Symphony, with Eduard van Beinum and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. [63] Britten had written this work specifically for her. [64] At the Edinburgh Festival in September she gave two recitals in which Bruno Walter acted as her piano accompanist. Ferrier felt that these recitals represented "a peak to which I had been groping for the last three years". [65] A broadcast of one of the recitals was issued on record many years later; of this, the critic Alan Blyth wrote: "Walter's very personal and positive support obviously pushes Ferrier to give of her very best". [66] Kathleen Ferrier, Zoe Vlachopoulos, Ann Ayars, Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, Southern Philharmonic Orchestra, Fritz Stiedry

We are grateful for all that has survived. Every piece, however apparently insignificant, gives us just a little further light on the glory that was Kathleen Ferrier; and the great works proclaim it con amore! The daughter of a Lancashire village schoolmaster, Ferrier showed early talent as a pianist, and won numerous amateur piano competitions while working as a telephonist with the General Post Office. She did not take up singing seriously until 1937, when after winning a prestigious singing competition at the Carlisle Festival she began to receive offers of professional engagements as a vocalist. Thereafter she took singing lessons, first with J.E. Hutchinson and later with Roy Henderson. After the outbreak of the Second World War Ferrier was recruited by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), and in the following years sang at concerts and recitals throughout the UK. In 1942 her career was boosted when she met the conductor Malcolm Sargent, who recommended her to the influential Ibbs and Tillett concert management agency. She became a regular performer at leading London and provincial venues, and made numerous BBC radio broadcasts. Numerous British, continent and American concerts followed. In these Kathleen Ferrier reintroduced many previously neglected British songs to her audiences, such as Blow the wind southerly, Now sleeps the crimson petal and Ma bonny lad, some of which she was castigated for singing at the time, as they were considered artistically inferior but which now, thanks to her courage in recording them, form a much-loved part of her musical heritage. Paul Campion's book 'Ferrier - A Career Recorded' (second edition, published by Thames in 2005 and now distributed by Music Sales) contains details of all Ferrier recordings known at the time of publication.a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "Kathleen Ferrier Edition Vol 8". ArkivMusic. Archived from the original on 4 October 2012 . Retrieved 20 May 2011. Many of Ferrier's recordings were initially issued on 78 rpm discs. In due course these and later recordings were reissued in other formats: Long-playing (LP), cassette tape and compact disc (CD). The tables list only the dates and locations of the initial recordings. Beethoven, Symphony no 9, with B Walter, I Baillie, H Nash, W Parsons & LPO 1947 (Music & Arts CD 1243)
Berkeley L, Four Poems of St Teresa of Avila, with A Goldsborough & SO 1948 (33rpm LP REGL 368) Ferrier met Albert Wilson in 1933, probably through dancing, which they both loved. When she announced that they were to marry, her family and friends had strong reservations, on the grounds that she was young and inexperienced, and that she and Wilson shared few serious interests. [9] Nevertheless, the marriage took place on 19 November 1935. Shortly afterwards the couple moved to Silloth, a small port town in Cumberland, where Wilson had been appointed as manager of his bank's branch. The marriage was not successful; the honeymoon had revealed problems of sexual incompatibility, and the union remained unconsummated. [15] Outward appearances were maintained for a few years, until Wilson's departure for military service in 1940 effectively ended the marriage. The couple divorced in 1947, though they remained on good terms. Wilson subsequently married a friend of Ferrier's, Wyn Hetherington; he died in 1969. [16] Early singing career [ edit ] a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Kathleen Ferrier Edition Vol 4". ArkivMusic. Archived from the original on 4 October 2012 . Retrieved 19 May 2011.

Later she met and married a bank manager. In 1937, on a lark, she took him up on a bet that she wouldn't dare enter a regional singing competition. She took home first prize and along with it the confidence to start accepting singing engagements around Northern England. During 1951 Kathleen had an operation to remove a malignant breast tumour. This seemed to be successful and she resumed her career after a spell in hospital. She toured again, at home and abroad and was one half of many brilliant collaborations – with Roy Henderson, Benjamin Britten, Sir John Barbirolli and the great German conductor Bruno Walter, with whom she was instrumental in bringing the work of the composer Gustav Mahler to a much wider audience. Throughout 1952 she was dogged by problems of movement and it was found that further treatment was necessary. Determined as ever, she fulfilled as many of her commitments as she could between regular hospital visits. Eventually though, she was unable to meet the travel demands. She and Barbirolli were working on an English version of Orfeo and it was as much as she could do to keep up with this. Despite a further operation her condition continued to deteriorate and she was re-admitted to hospital where she died on 8 October 1953. The following 18 months saw almost uninterrupted activity, encompassing a number of visits to continental Europe and a third American tour between December 1949 and April 1950. This American trip broke new ground for Ferrier — the West Coast — and included three performances in San Francisco of Orfeo ed Euridice, with Pierre Monteux conducting. At the rehearsals Ferrier met the renowned American contralto Marian Anderson, who reportedly said of her English counterpart: "My God, what a voice — and what a face!" [67] On Ferrier's return home the hectic pace continued, with a rapid succession of concerts in Amsterdam, London and Edinburgh followed by a tour of Austria, Switzerland and Italy. [68] In Vienna, the soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was Ferrier's co-soloist in a recorded performance of Bach's Mass in B minor, with the Vienna Symphony under Herbert von Karajan. Schwarzkopf later recalled Ferrier's singing of the Agnus Dei from the Mass as her highlight of the year. [69] London Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Sir Adrian Boult; Basil Lam (Harpsichord); Michael Dobson (Oboe d'amore) Re-mastered by Norman White and Adrian Tuddenham, this remarkable account pre-dates Ferrier’s often-reissued 1952 recording by four years and finds her in exhilarating fresh voice – a vivid, vital display of a great artist at her peak.

Contents

Soloists; Vienna Symphony Orchestra cond. Herbert von Karajan; Wiener Singverein; Alois Forer and Anton Heiler (organ)