Helen Watts – Lieder Recital - Eloquence: ELQ4828588 - 2 CDs or download

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Watts’s rich, old-fashioned voice and creamy legato are beautifully matched by Geoffrey Parsons’s restrained, luminous piano sound. Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody is surpassingly beautiful, if slow. — BBC Music Magazine, February 2020, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 9th Aug 2019
Catalogue No: ELQ4828588
Label: Eloquence
Length: 1 hour 48 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Wolf, H: Gedichte von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Work length19:12

$4.40

$6.00

Helen Watts (contralto), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Recorded: 1966
Recording Venue: --, --

5. Mignon I (Heiß mich nicht reden)

Track length4:13

$1.10

$1.50

6. Mignon II (Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt)

Track length2:50

$1.10

$1.50

7. Mignon III (So laß mich scheinen)

Track length4:39

$1.10

$1.50

9. Mignon IV (Kennst du das Land)

Track length7:30

$1.10

$1.50

Excerpt, Wolf, H: Italienisches Liederbuch

Work length2:29

$1.10

$1.50

Helen Watts (contralto), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Recorded: 1966
Recording Venue: --, --

1. Auch kleine Dinge

Track length2:29

$1.10

$1.50

Excerpt, Wolf, H: Lieder (6) für eine Frauenstimme

Work length1:07

$1.10

$1.50

Geoffrey Parsons (piano), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1966
Recording Venue: --, --

6. Mausfallen-Sprüchlein (Mörike)

Track length1:07

$1.10

$1.50

Wolf, H: Gedichte von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Work length4:17

$1.10

$1.50

Helen Watts (contralto), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Recorded: 1966
Recording Venue: --, --

19. Epiphanias

Track length4:17

$1.10

$1.50

Schumann: Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42

Work length22:03

$8.80

$12.00

Helen Watts (contralto), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Recorded: 1966
Recording Venue: --, --

1. Seit ich ihn gesehen

Track length2:18

$1.10

$1.50

2. Er, der Herrlichste von allen

Track length3:19

$1.10

$1.50

3. Ich kann's nicht fassen, nicht glauben

Track length1:36

$1.10

$1.50

4. Du Ring an meinem Finger

Track length2:34

$1.10

$1.50

5. Helft mir, ihr Schwestern

Track length1:53

$1.10

$1.50

6. Süsser Freund, du blickest mich verwundert an

Track length4:53

$1.10

$1.50

7. An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust

Track length1:13

$1.10

$1.50

8. Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan

Track length4:17

$1.10

$1.50

Schumann: Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Op. 135

Work length9:56

$5.50

$7.50

Helen Watts (contralto), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Recorded: 1964
Recording Venue: --, --

1. Abschied von Frankreich

Track length1:57

$1.10

$1.50

2. Nach der Geburt ihres Sohnes

Track length1:30

$1.10

$1.50

3. An die Königin Elisabeth

Track length1:54

$1.10

$1.50

4. Abschied von der Welt

Track length2:51

$1.10

$1.50

5. Gebet

Track length1:44

$1.10

$1.50

Excerpt, Schumann: Liederalbum für die Jugend, Op. 79

Work length3:06

$2.20

$3.00

Helen Watts (contralto), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Recorded: 1964
Recording Venue: --, --

23. Er ist's

Track length1:26

$1.10

$1.50

13. Marienwürmchen

Track length1:40

$1.10

$1.50

Excerpt, Schumann: Liederkreis, Op. 39

Work length1:12

$1.10

$1.50

Helen Watts (contralto), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Recorded: 1964
Recording Venue: --, --

12. Frühlingsnacht

Track length1:12

$1.10

$1.50

Excerpt, Schumann: Liederalbum für die Jugend, Op. 79

Work length2:24

$1.10

$1.50

Helen Watts (contralto), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Recorded: 1964
Recording Venue: --, --

12. Der Sandmann

Track length2:24

$1.10

$1.50

Excerpt, Schumann: Myrthen, Op. 25

Work length2:13

$1.10

$1.50

Helen Watts (contralto), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Recorded: 1964
Recording Venue: --, --

1. Widmung

Track length2:13

$1.10

$1.50

Schubert: Ständchen 'Zögernd leise', D920 / 921

Work length5:36

$1.10

$1.50

Helen Watts (contralto), Viola Tunnard (piano)
Elizabethan Singers
Louis Halsey
Recorded: 1966-10-27
Recording Venue: Kingsway Hall, London

Brahms: Mädchenlied, Op. 107 No. 5

Work length1:48

$1.10

$1.50

Geoffrey Parsons (piano), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1964
Recording Venue: --, --

Brahms: Des Liebsten Schwur, Op.69, No.4

Work length2:27

$1.10

$1.50

Helen Watts (contralto), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Recorded: 1964
Recording Venue: --, --

Brahms: Der Schmied, Op.19, No.4

Work length1:02

$1.10

$1.50

Geoffrey Parsons (piano), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1964
Recording Venue: --, --

Brahms: Ständchen, Op. 14 No. 7

Work length3:19

$1.10

$1.50

Geoffrey Parsons (piano), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1964
Recording Venue: --, --

Brahms: Gestillte Sehnsucht, Op. 91 / 1

Work length6:43

$1.10

$1.50

Geoffrey Parsons (piano), Cecil Aronowitz (viola), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1963
Recording Venue: --, --

Brahms: Geistliches Wiegenlied, Op. 91 No. 2

Work length6:11

$1.10

$1.50

Helen Watts (contralto), Geoffrey Parsons (piano), Cecil Aronowitz (viola)
Recorded: 1963
Recording Venue: --, --

Brahms: Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53

Work length13:18

$1.10

$1.50

Helen Watts (contralto)
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Pro Arte Choir, Lausanne, Choeur de la Radio Suisse Romande
Ernest Ansermet
Recorded: 1965-10-31
Recording Venue: Victoria Hall, Geneva

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Presented on CD for the first time and newly remastered, a pair of Romantic Lieder recitals by the Welsh contralto who inherited the mantle of Kathleen Ferrier.

The history of British contraltos on record stretches back to Constance Shacklock and before her Dame Clara Butt, but it was Ferrier who defined the sound of that voice type for millions of listeners around the world. Produced as if from a great distance, noble and yet communicating the most profound and immediate of emotions, the possessors of a true contralto voice inspired Handel, Elgar and others to compose some of their most heartfelt arias.

It was with the music of Handel that the Welsh contralto Helen Watts made her debut on record: in performances of Semele and Sosarme recorded by L’Oiseau-Lyre, released in 1955 and recently reissued by Eloquence. Along with Alfred Deller and William Herbert, Watts counts among for British singers discovered by the founder of L’Oiseau-Lyre, Louise Hanson Dyer, in her search the young and talented musicians who could breathe new life into old and mostly unfamiliar music. Her career burgeoned, on disc and especially on the concert platform, where she became the alto soloist of choice for countless performances of Messiah and The Dream of Gerontius.

However, Watts was also an accomplished recitalist, and her gifts in this area have often been overlooked. The present release compiles the first two song recitals she recorded, in 1963 and 1964. In the world of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -Leben she enters intimately into each song’s shades of feeling, and she brings a special passion to the three Mignon songs of Hugo Wolf. The earlier recital couples more Schumann – notably the late and haunted Five Songs of Mary Stuart – with favourite Lieder of Brahms such as Ständchen and the Op. 91 pair with obbligato viola (Cecil Aronowitz). The anthology is completed with more Brahms, the Alto Rhapsody she recorded in Geneva with Ernest Ansermet in 1965: solemn yet warm and deeply human, a perfect testament to her art and to the praise of her modern counterpart, Nathalie Stutzmann: ‘an extraordinary contralto’.

‘Gestillte Sehnsucht shows off her velvety low notes to perfection … She sings Mary’s prayer on the birth of her son with deep devotion … [Geoffrey Parsons] is a perfect partner in this most successful recital … Helen Watts must give us some Wolf.’ Gramophone, May 1964

‘The Mignon songs, so complex in texture but needing to be performed with great clarity and simplicity, call for the notable gifts of interpretation Miss Watts possesses.’ Gramophone, October 1966 (Wolf)

Reviews

February 2020

Watts’s rich, old-fashioned voice and creamy legato are beautifully matched by Geoffrey Parsons’s restrained, luminous piano sound. Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody is surpassingly beautiful, if slow.

January/February 2020

In all the Brahms selections the singer comes alive, adding a welcome affectionate manner and more depth of involvement...everything deserves admiring attention.

Helen Watts – Lieder Recital

2 CDs

Downloads

Contents

Download queue