117) Johann Sebastian Bach Cantata

Cantata for the 25th Sunday after Trinity "Du FriedefUrst Herr Jesu Christ", BWV 116

Andree Guiot soprano
Birgit Finnlae - mezzo
Nicolai Gedda - tenor
Robert Massard - bass

Sinfonica e coro di Roma della RAI
Chorus master Gianni Lazzari

7 June 1969

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116) Gian Carlo Menotti The last savage - live performance

Metropolitan Opera House
February 8, 1964 Matinee Broadcast
In English


Abdul - George London
Kitty - Roberta Peters
Sardula - Teresa Stratas
Kodanda - Nicolai Gedda
Maharajah - Ezio Flagello
Maharanee - Lili Chookasian
Scattergood - Morley Meredith
Scholar - Paul Franke
Scholar - Andrea Velis
Tailor - Paul Franke
Tailor - Andrea Velis
Tailor - Norman Scott
Catholic Priest - Robert Patterson
Pastor - Calvin Marsh
Rabbi - Erbert Aldridge
Orthodox Priest - William Dembaugh
Philosopher - Clifford Harvuot
Doctor - Gerhard Pechner
Painter - Lou Marcella
Poet - Gabor Carelli
Composer - William Walker
Singer - Janis Martin
Scientist - Arthur Graham
Businesswoman - Carlotta Ordassy
Woman - Dorothy Shawn
Majordomo - William McLuckey

Conductor Thomas Schippers

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115) Nicolai Gedda and Erik Werba (piano) in Wiener Festwochen

Nicolai Gedda, tenor
Erik Werba, piano
Wiener Festwochen, 30 May 1984

1. Michael Glinka
a. Doubt
b. You faithful maiden
c. I remember

2. Jean Sibelius
a. Sigh, Russia, sigh
b. Jubal
c. Black roses

3. Edvard Grieg
a. Hidden love
b. I love you
c. A swan
d. A dream

4. Hugo Alfven
Sleep

5. Willem Petersen-Berger
a. If I only
b. Under high trees

6. Modest Musorgski
a. The little star
b. To the banks of Don


6. Pjotr IIjič Čaikovski.
a. In this moonlight night
c. Legend
d. Serenade of Don Juan.

Encores:
a. Čajkovskii: Eugen Onegin, Lenski's aria
b. The red sarafan - trad.
c. Carl Sjöberg: To music
d. Aleksander Grečaninov: Lullaby


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114) Giuseppe Verdi Messa da requiem

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Martina Arroyo - soprano

Shirley Verrett - mezzosoprano

Nicolai Gedda - tenor

Cesare Siepi - bass



Cleveland orchestra

Conductor Lorin Maazel



Recorded in New York, November 27, 1972


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112) Hector Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini

Even Sir Colin Davis has rarely conducted a more electrifying Berlioz performance on record than here, demonstrating—with the help of singers from the presentation he promoted at Covent Garden—that for all its awkwardness on stage, this can be a thrilling opera on record. He is enormously helped by his cast, and most of all by Nicolai Gedda here giving one of the very finest, most powerful, most searching performances of his whole career.

The Philips transfer engineers have been just as concerned as in the other big opera project in this series, Les troyens, to use the format of CD with maximum benefit. So the First Act is complete on the first two discs, with each of the two tableaux (six scenes in the first, seven in the second) taking up a whole disc each. That leaves the third disc for the whole of the Second Act, over 70 minutes meaning that there is no unnecessary break anywhere.

The sound too remains very vivid, with the firmness of focus and sense of presence characteristic of Philips engineering of the period all the more apparent on CD. The orchestra is not quite so forward as in some of the Davis Berlioz series, but that sets the stage picture the more clearly, and even the most complex scenes notably the final scene of the casting—are sharpened by the separation of voices. What is not so welcome is that there seems to be rather more treble emphasis than usual, occasionally to the point of fierceness, but that is something which will very much depend on individual hi-fi equipment. I should prefer to have had that brightness compensated by more body in the orchestral sound, but that is to be hyper-critical. This is a superb set, which as in the original issue comes with generous essays as well as libretto. David Cairns's essay on the romantic cult of the Artist-hero, is particularly valuable, along with its explanation of Davis's text, which restores cuts enforced in Liszt's Weimar version and presents the piece (as at Covent Garden) as an extended opera-comique with dialogue.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [1/1989]



Benvenuto Cellini - Nicolai Gedda

Teresa - Christiane Eda-Pierre

Giacomo Balducci - Jules Bastin

Fieramosca - Robert Massard

Pope Clement VII - Roger Soyer

Francesco - Derek Blackwell

Bernardino - Robert Lloyd

Innkeeper - Hugues Cuisnod

Pompeo - Raimund Herincx

Ascanio - Jane Berbioli

Speaker - Janine Reiss

BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Conductor Sir Colin Davis






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111) Giuseppe Verdi Messa da requiem - live performance

Live recording from November 26, 1954


Antonietta Stella soprano
Oralia Dominguez mezzosoprano
Nicolai Gedda tenor
Giuseppe Modesti bass


Wiener Symphoniker

Conductor Herbet von Karajan










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110) Charles Gounod Mireille

Synopsis

The action takes place in 19th century Provence.

Act 1: A mulberry grove on Midsummer night (Fête de la Saint-Jean).
Girls sing as they pick the leaves to feed to silkworms. Taven, an old woman who lives in nearby caves, joins them and comments on their jollity, but they laugh at "the witch" and Clemence voices her wish for a rich husband. Mireille however wants to marry for love, even if her husband be poor and shy, but is teased by the other girls who know that she has set her heart on a poor basket-weaver, Vincent. Taven shares her forebodings with Mireille. Vincent passes by and Mireille gets him to confess his love. As they part, they swear to meet in the church of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer if anything befalls one of them. The girls are heard singing the opening chorus in the distance.

Act 2: In front of the Arles Amphitheatre the same afternoon.
The crowd is singing and dancing a farandole as it waits for the start of a race. Mireille and Vincent arrive separately but they are greeted joyfully and sing the Song of Magali. After the race, Taven takes Mireille aside and tells her that she has just seen three young men, Ourrias, Alari and Pascoul arguing who should claim Mireille's hand. Alone, Mireille swears that nothing will part her from Vincent. Ourrias enters and forces his boastful attentions on her but Mireille politely rejects his advances. Mireille's father Ramon enters, followed shortly by Ambroise, the father of Vincent. Ambroise asks for advice on what to do about his son who is in love with a rich heiress; Ramon suggest beating the boy to cure him. Shocked, Ambroise is reminded by Ramon of a father's prerogative which used to extend even to life and death over his children. At this, Mireille comes forward crying "Kill me!" - she is the one Vincent loves. Ramon is outraged, orders Mireille to go home then turns on Vincent and Ambroise.

Act 3: First Tableau. The Val d'Enfer in the country outside Arles. Night.
Ourrias and some friends are in the wild spot, supposedly peopled by spirits. Ourrias wants to buy a potion from Taven. Alone, Ourrias vents his fury and jealousy and lies in wait for Vincent, who soon appears. Ourrias insults him but although Vincent tries to calm him down, Ourrias strikes him with his trident, and thinking he has killed him, runs off. Taven hears cries and curses Ourrias as he rushes off, then tends to the unconscious Vincent.
Second Tableau. The banks of the Rhone.
Full of remorse, Ourrias hurries to the river bank and calls the ferryman. An echo greets his call and moans sound with ghosts floating above the water. The ferryman (Passeur) arrives and Ourrias impatiently gets aboard. The waters swell, and as the boatman reminds Ourrias of his crime, the boat sinks beneath the waves.

Act 4: First Tableau. Ramon's farm late the same night.
While the harvesters celebrate, Ramon is sad and knows that by denying Mireille's love he has destroyed his dream of a happy old age. From her window Mireille sees a young shepherd singing, and envies his carefree life. Unseen, Vincenette, Vincent's sister, comes to tell her that Vincent is wounded: Mireille resolves to set off at once to Saintes-Maries.
Second Tableau. The Crau desert.
Mireille, staggers in already tired, and dazzled by the sun, faints as she hears shepherd's pipes in the distance. She makes a last effort to continue her journey.

Act 5: In front of the chapel of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Midday.
Pilgrims are singing. Vincent is there, looking for Mireille, and she arrives, exhausted and collapses in his arms. Ramon arrives with Vincenette, and forgives her, but Mireille dies and is called to heaven by a celestial voice.









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109) Hector Berlioz La Damnation de Faust

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108) Johann Strauss II Eine Nacht in Venedig

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf - Annina

Nicolai Gedda - Duke

Emmy Loose - Ciboletta

Erich Kunz - Caramello


Philharmonia Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra London,

Conductor Otto Ackerman


Recorded in London, May 1954






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107) Nicolai Gedda in recital in Zurich, 1998 - live performance

Recital in Zurich on 21 December 1998

Henri Duparc:
L'invitation au voyage
Le manoir de Rosemonde
Extase
Chanson triste
Phidylé

Edvard Grieg:
Verborgene liebe
Ich liebe dich
Ein schwan
Dem lenz soll mein lied erklingen
Ein traum

Pjotr Iljič Čajkovski:
O du mondhelle nacht
Inmitten des balles
Legende
Serenade des Don Juan

Sergej Rahmaninov:
O singe nicht für mich
Was ist dieses schmertz
In the silence of the night
Christus ist auferstanden
Frühlingsfluten

Encores:
Kalman, O Bayadere
Grečaninov, Russian lullaby



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