Pure Diva: Tribute to Joan Hammond

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The excitement and sense of urgency of young Tatyana are well caught ad projected, with the fullness of Barker's voice brought into play...Despite the occasional unsteadiness and a certain lack... — International Record Review, January 2012 More…

Release Date: 19th Sep 2011
Catalogue No: MR301129
Label: Melba Recordings
Length: 78 minutes

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Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin Op. 24: Tatiana’s Letter Scene

Work length12:06

$2.00

$2.80

Cheryl Barker
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire

Excerpt, Verdi: Otello

Work length17:01

$3.00

$4.20

Cheryl Barker
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire

Willow Song

Track length12:14

$2.00

$2.80

Ave Maria

Track length4:47

$1.00

$1.40

Verdi: Tu che le vanità (from Don Carlo)

Work length10:43

$1.50

$2.10

Cheryl Barker
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire

Dvořák: Rusalka Op. 114, B. 203: Song to the Moon

Work length6:09

$1.00

$1.40

Cheryl Barker
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire

Korngold: Die Tode Stadt: Mariettas Lied

Work length5:44

$1.00

$1.40

Cheryl Barker
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire

Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann: Elle a fui, la tourterelle

Work length4:38

$1.00

$1.40

Cheryl Barker
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire

Purcell: When I am laid in earth (from Dido and Aeneas)

Work length5:06

$1.00

$1.40

Cheryl Barker
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire

Settle: Shadows

Work length4:03

$1.00

$1.40

Cheryl Barker, Timothy Young
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire

Bishop, H R: Home, Sweet Home

Work length4:20

$1.00

$1.40

Cheryl Barker, Timothy Young
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire

Coates, E: The Green Hills of Somerset

Work length4:05

$1.00

$1.40

Cheryl Barker, Timothy Young
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire

trad.: The Last Rose of Summer

Work length4:45

$1.00

$1.40

Cheryl Barker, Timothy Young
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire

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About

The ravishing Australian soprano Cheryl Barker has an important career in many major opera houses – English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera and The Royal Opera Covent Garden among them – and concert halls. She is widely celebrated for her riveting performances. Pure Diva: is her very personal tribute to her teacher, the great Dame Joan Hammond, a disc, Barker says, “that feels as if it’s been a long time coming”.

The orchestral scenes are high drama from the first note to the last reverberation. Cheryl’s glorious lyric soprano rides the wave of Guillaume Tourniaire’s orchestral texture in grand operatic scenes, arias and songs made famous by Hammond. They include Tatyana’s Letter Scene, Dido's Lament, Desdemona’s Willow Song, and other arias by Verdi, Dvořák, Korngold, and Offenbach. Cheryl’s visceral portrayals of these operatic heroines convey the full emotional depth of these multi-dimensional characters in extremis.

The tributes with piano accompaniment (by Timothy Young) provide a contrast to the preceding drama, encore pieces beloved of Joan Hammond, the biggest selling recording artist during the war. Her recording of The Green Hills o’ Somerset became a best seller and Cheryl includes it as a homage here. The delightful rarity Shadows is a song written for Hammond by the Australian composer Ronald Settle.

Illuminating CD notes are by the late and great vocal commentator John Steane who was an insightful witness to Dame Joan Hammond (1912-96) and all the great singers of her era and those that followed.

Cheryl Barker’s relationship with Melba Recordings stretches back almost to the label’s beginning: Puccini=Passions (MR301085) was her acclaimed 2003 collection of arias with Richard Bonynge conducting Orchestra Victoria.

Reviews

January 2012

The excitement and sense of urgency of young Tatyana are well caught ad projected, with the fullness of Barker's voice brought into play...Despite the occasional unsteadiness and a certain lack of tonal freshness at time, I find much to like in the singing, and the Queensland orchestra and the pianist work well with the soloist.

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Pure Diva

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