Reviews

J. B. Steane reviewed the album on LP in Gramophone in June 1982. It was, he thought, an engaging, vivacious recital, but rather like a sandwich that was missing its proper slice of ham. The last track on the A side of the disc was "Tanti affetti" from Rossini's La donna del lago. It was a climactic end to the first half of the record in that it showed off Frederica von Stade's virtuoso technique, but, although not a shallow composition, it was not the substantial kind of piece that a recitalist should programme before her interval.^[2]

The B side of the disc began with Maurice Ravel's Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, "the nearest we come to the provision of a major work". The absence of more ambitious music was not the only reason that the disc felt slightly disappointing. "Good song recitals", Steane wrote, "have some meat, and then... jam!" Nothing in von Stade's album quite supplied the requisite sugar rush.^[2]

Her American songs did not have a particularly high glycaemic index, and even her encore somehow failed to hit the mark. With its refrain of "the fairy was laughing too", "The leprechaun" had merely "the kind of charm that coaxes smiles and a somewhat cautious laugh". Von Stade's American songs evoked "an interest, a curiosity, an expectation of pleasure", but none of them was truly thrilling. Aaron Copland's "Why do they shut me out of heaven?", Richard Hundley's "The astronomers" and Virgil Thomson's "A prayer to St Catherine" were too quirky to be really exciting, and Hundley's "Come ready and see me", although engaging, was too gentle to be the right kind of song with which to bring down the curtain.^[2]

That the programming of the disc was not as well judged as it might have been did not mean that the album was lacking in delectable ingredients. Durante's "Danza, danza, fanciulla gentile", taken at a very sprightly pace, had a "gaiety [that was] delightful and infectious". The Rossini aria had "brilliant flourishes". Joseph Canteloube's "Brezairola" had a "dreamy beauty". Ravel's "Chanson de cueilleuses de lentisques" had a "quiet joy". Most cherishable of all were those songs that drew upon von Stade's special gift of wistfulness. Alessandro Scarlatti's "Se tu della mia morte" had an "indrawn sadness", and in Hundley's "Come ready and see me", "she has a song that might have been written for her, so well does it suit her voice and art."^[2]

The album was well engineered, with "clear, natural and well-balanced" sound. Applause was included, but the LP was mercifully free from the type of intrusions perpetrated by audiences on some other live recordings. In sum, it was regrettable that the disc lacked "a particular sense of occasion" - the author of its sleeve notes had not even thought to mention where or when it had been recorded. But the album nevertheless deserved a warm welcome. It was one to be dipped into "for this song and that, rather than for the recital [as a whole], be it never so 'Live!'."^[2]

George Jellinek reviewed the album on LP in Stereo Review in November 1982. Frederica von Stade's rendition of Rossini's "Tanti affetti in tal momento", he wrote, was somewhat put in the shade by the "unforgettable bravura" of the version of the aria recorded by Marilyn Horne.^[3] It suffered, too, from being accompanied by a piano instead of by a chorus and orchestra. But there was nothing negative that could be said about her recital's other selections.^[4]

It was refreshing that, as was her wont, she had sought out music that many listeners would be unfamiliar with. Even when choosing from the well-thumbed scores of Italian arie antiche, she mad managed to find some that few of us would have heard before. And her twentieth-century American songs were "all worth knowing" too.^[4]

Her performances were "wonderful ... in her own exquisite style". She brought "her customary and much-praised musicality, lovely tone and sensitive control of dynamics to just about everything in this latest programme". Her American songs in particular were sung with "great charm and excellent diction". In some of her earlier records, the sheer beauty of her vocalism had not always been matched by the quality of her interpretations. But there was now "a certain intensity in her singing that is most welcome".^[4]

As usual, Martin Katz was an excellent partner at the piano, and the audio quality of CBS's digital recording was exceptionally good.^[4]

David Shengold wrote about the album in Opera News in 2016, reviewing a box set of von Stade CDs in which it was included.^[1] He praised her performance of Alessandro Scarlatti's "Se tu della mia morte" as "particularly exquisite" and her version of Ravel's Cinq mélodies populaires grecques as "affectingly done".^[5]

The album was also reviewed in The complete Penguin stereo record and cassette guide, which described it as "taken from a live recital with von Stade vivacious and characterful in generally lightweight repertory". Its sound quality, the book said, was "kind to the voice and naturally balanced".^[6]

Accolade

The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for the best classical solo vocal performance of 1982.^[7]

Musical

• Frederica von Stade (b. 1945), mezzo-soprano
• Martin Katz (b. 1944), piano^[1]

Other

• David Mottley, producer
• Bud Graham, engineer^[1]