03/04/2024
As an antidote (I almost wrote “antidope,” which also applies!) to the annual April Fool’s Episode, I offer another, this of most serious intent, replete with human nobility of a completely different variety than Mari Lyn. (Thank goodness.) I have twice featured the great British bass-baritone Norman Bailey (who also sang both regular baritone and, later in his career, regular bass roles) on my podcast. The first time was on the occasion of his death in the fall of 2021 at the age of 88. The second time was my penultimate episode, “Art Songs for Holy Week,” in which I played him singing one of the Brahms Vier ernste Gesänge. His performance of that song inspired me to once again dig into his recorded output, and specifically his recordings of art song, primarily two recordings made with British pianist John Constable in 1977 and 1979. His beauty of both tone and utterance, and the humanity expressed therewith, made me realize that I had, once again, to share this great artist, no doubt best known for his Wagnerian Heldenbariton roles with you, my Patreon supporters. (I had previously done another bonus episode on him as well, as I often do when the amount of musical material I have assembled far exceeds the limits of a single episode.) I decided to focus today on his recordings of song cycles, placing the Wolf Michelangelo-Lieder and the aforementioned Brahms alongside a third: Beethoven’s musically pioneering 1815 work, An die ferne Geliebte. There are other bonus episodes already half-planned which I hope to be bringing to full fruition in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, Bailey, his tone suffused with an enveloping warmth and majesty that is reinforced by his peerless diction and musicianship, provides well-nigh ideal performances of all of these songs.
Patreon supporters, find the episode by clicking on the link below.
All others will be taken to the Patreon donation page; after making your contribution you will be able to unlock this episode, as well as the other 99 bonus episodes.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/101610086
(If anyone who is not yet a Patreon supporter wants to preview this episode, I'll be happy to send you a Dropbox link. Just shoot me a private message.)