Now being alone and on vacation I can finally indulge myself and play classical music around the house as loud and as much as I like.
When I'm on the ship & sharing tiny windowless cabin with a roommate I am always considerate about not disturbing anybody with my music and it also reflects what I think about sharing such small, confined space together - I detest when my co-workers bang out loud their pop fluff - but since now I have house all for myself, classical music it is. Along with anything else that comes to my mind.
In my previous post I wrote impressions of my first rendezvous with Callas. Today I will go up north and visit a certain Swedish singer who was a big deal in post-WW2 years and legend in her own right. Since my adventures in world of classical music are mostly lead by pure instinct and curiosity, I decided to skip completely Wagner colossal body of operatic work until I find courage to face it and somehow got introduced to both Kirsten Flagstad and Birgit Nilsson (both world-known as Wagnerian goddesses) from different corner that suits me better. Therefore I listened Flagstad in Henry Purcell's "Dido And Aeneas" while this morning I discovered wonderful and rare 1963. EP with Christmas music by Nilsson.
At the time of this recording Nilsson already made big into international operatic scene and went a long way from her simple, countryside origins - her father was a farmer - in fact, seems she was one of the very few foreigners who had honor to open a season in La Scala and from than on every major opera house in the world was hers for asking. Nilsson was known for having super-human sound that blew orchestra and audience away, so Wagner became her speciality (winged helmet and all) but this aspect did not interest me, I was curious how did she cope with something different. Here, on these four beautiful and much-loved Christmas songs she was backed only with organ and its magical - there is something about organ background that immediately creates warm, fuzzy feeling in me and no matter what time of the year I always melt. She does "O Holy Night" and "Silent Night" in Swedish which is quite nice (I have already got used to Swedish language versions via Jussi Björling), while Gounoud/Bach's "Ave Maria" and "Panis Angelicus" are done in standard, Latin. I am glad to say Nilsson does not disappoint, that famous "trumpet" is slightly subdued and even gentle here - a proof that she could tone it down when necessary - sure, she soars and holds a note forever but there is tenderness and true respect for music that shine magic dust on this material. Personally I find it very beautiful and interesting how someone famous for completely different, far more aggressive type of music (so much that I understand Wagner is) could effortlessly switch and show a mellower side of her talent.
Birgit Nilsson continued to slay audiences around the world long after this cute, little Christmas EP recording with her amazon-warrior roles but apparently she never forgot it: in 1977 there was a whole LP album recorded again with only organ, titled "Birgit Nilsson at the churches of St. Jacob and Gustav Vasa" and its more of the same, except that this time she was older, had a lifetime of Brünnhildes behind her and did not necessary improve on that previous recordings, even though she re-recorded some of the same songs. Voice is spectacular but to my ears this sounds just slightly too heroic for Christmas music - she does everything right and every note is perfect, but I still prefer tenderness of 1963. recording. Here trumpet is ready to destroy walls of Jericho or at least this is how it sounds to me. Now I really have to get my feet just a little bit into Wagner but the whole darn thing seems so intimidating that I have no idea where to start.
p.s.
The more I read about Nilsson, the more I like her. She apparently was never a stuck-up prima donna although she could easily be one considering what a rare talent she had and there was simply nobody else with that stamina to sing for hours with undiminished power. But everybody remembers her sense of humor, earthiness and what a wit that lady had. When asked what is her advice to young singers, she would say "the most important thing for a singer is to wear comfortable shoes". I love this woman.
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