♫ Kathleen Ferrier

Gustav Mahler, Drei Rückert-Lieder (mp3)

"Nichts lag ihr ferner als Sentimentalität – in jenen Tränen kam Stärke des Gefühls zum Ausdruck, nicht Schwäche, und ein tiefes Verständnis für ein anderes großes Herz.“
(Bruno Walter über Kathleen Ferrier)

A la voix de Kathleen Ferrier

Je célèbre la voix mêlée de couleur grise
Qui hésite aux lointains du chant qui s'est perdu
Comme si au-delà de toute forme pure
Tremblât un autre chant et le seul absolu.

O lumière et néant de la lumière, ô larmes
Souriantes plus haut que l'angoisse ou l'espoir,
O cygne, lieu réel dans l'irréelle eau sombre,
O source, quand ce fut profondément le soir !

Il semble que tu connaisses les deux rives,
L'extrême joie et l'extrême douleur.
Là-bas, parmi ces roseaux gris dans la lumière,
Il semble que tu puises de l'éternel.

Yves Bonnefoy, Hier régnant désert, in Poèmes, Gallimard, Collection Poésie, 1982, p. 159.

Here is a song from Haendel's Messiah, performed by the great English contralto Kathleen Ferrier. Kathleen Mary Ferrier CBE (1912 – 1953) ... Alle » was born in Blackburn, and later moved with her family to Higher Walton, Lancashire. She left school at 14 and worked as a telephone operator in Blackburn. She married a bank manager in 1935, and moved to Silloth and later to Carlisle, in the north of England. It was in Carlisle that her husband bet her that she would not take part in a singing competition. She entered and won in two categories - singing and piano. It was this which brought her talents to public attention, and was a significant factor in her deciding to pursue a career in singing. During the early days of the war she gave concerts for the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts and then moved to London in 1942, where her main career began. She studied with Dr Hutchinson in Newcastle and later with baritone Roy Henderson, who was a well known singing teacher at the time. The unique timbre of her voice was in part due to a medical anomaly: her throat was exceptionally wide. Ferrier excelled in the music of Mahler, in Bach and in Handel. Ferrier is well remembered for interpretations of British folk songs, including the lovely "Blow the wind southerly". Much in demand throughout the UK, she also sang regularly in the Netherlands, where she was extremely popular, and in France, Germany, Italy and in Scandinavia. She paid three visits to North America (1948, 1949 and 1950) and sang at each of the first six Edinburgh International Festivals.
(↗schuon25)

Claudio Monteverdi, Arianna - Lasciate mi morire

Hochgeladen von zmerliamel

Mendelssohn, Elias

Some of the very few remaining moving images of legendary contralto Kathleen Ferrier arriving at Schiphol Airport Amsterdam for the Holland Festival in January 1951