Marilyn Horne The Complete Decca Recitals

My first ever introduction to Marilyn Horne was when I heard her on 1978. recording of "Orlando Furioso" by Antonio Vivaldi - I didn't know anything about her, not even what she looked like but her voice was authoritative, strong and commanding - later I found out she is affectionately called "General Horne" because she always have this strong willed aura about her.

This CD box released around the time of her 70. birthday is tribute to great american national treasure - it collects 11 original solo albums recorded for "Decca" trough three decades and they are nicely presented in miniature replicas of original vinyl releases. It is quite a job to go trough all of them, but I did and to my biggest surprise discovered that yes, General Horne is a heroic voice but she also has a great sense of humor, can soften her approach when music demands it and even surprise listener with unexpected introspection,melancholy and tenderness. It's clear immediately she is absolutely at home with music by Rossini but than again, she is also absolutely fantastic in french repertoire and when I got to her "Bach album" another surprise waited for me - I thought this was the best Bach singing I ever heard in my entire life. Obviously with 11 albums there are ones that fascinated me immediately and the other ones that need a bit of serious listening to get familiar with the music - no such a problem with the last album from 1986. titled "Beautiful Dreamer: The Great American Songbook" where Horne sings famous american folk songs backed with harp,piano and viola. Just when you think it can't get any better, big chorus kicks in. And than she starts to quack, imitating the duck in hilarious "I Bought Me a Cat" proving once for all that classical music don't have to be dead serious and can be great fun indeed. 

This was one of the best purchases in a long time and sheer quantity of music guarantees lots of listening and discovering.

My favorite Marilyn Horne story is following and I liked it so much that I need to share it here:

"One reviewer, who shall remain nameless, wrote of a Lieder recital she had given that her 'German diction was poor'. Home called the newspaper, and without identifying herself asked to speak to the writer in question. When she had him on the line, she 'began to chatter non-stop in German'. The poor dope eventually stammered, 'I don't speak German', to which she replied sweetly, 'Well, this is Marilyn Home, and I do!'