Kathleen Battle. Give Me Jesus. Oh my goodness... she has control of that instrument, and I love it. The sax accompanying her is a beautiful addition. Since I don't know that I could sing a spiritual like that, I gotta give it to the woman. The text came across very clearly overall but when she sings the words, "Just about the break of day.." it seems she is holding her jaw tightly.. this section doesn't seem as musical as the rest, but she could be doin' something stylistically..? She sings with ease, and the piece seems to have a real flow to it, especially with the instrumental accompaniment.
I also checked out Voices of Spring by Strauss. While the conductor's gestural language has me baffled, she maneuvers through those quick moving passages beautifully! She seems to be holding her shoulders up though? I wonder why she's on the list of those not to emulate.. because she moves her mouth a little strangely? I do see a bit of unnecessary movement of her mouth...
I enjoy the sound she makes, and it seems to match the overall feel of the waltz very well. Her voice sounds very fresh in this recording to me. She seems to sing with support, though you don't see much abdominal movement as I did with some of the other singers I've watched. Near the end of this piece, when she sings exactly what the flute plays (imitating her,) I was amazed!! It was just right on!
Secondly, I watched Sylvia McNair sing, under the direction of the late Robert Shaw, Shepherds Abiding. Her voice seems even throughout, and she sings the recit nicely... I can understand the text, and she doesn't do anything really crazy with her mouth. The eager tempo is nicely executed.
Since I didn't get to hear her solo voice in an art song/aria kind of setting in the first video, I then watched her sing Alleluia from Exultate Jubilate by Mozart. The way she pronounces Alleluia seems a little odd to my ear... it's so heavy on Ah-LAY-loo-ya in stead of the vowels being taller and more narrow. The incredible part of this video is that she hardly opens her mouth on the melismatic runs- perhaps this is what is supposed to happen? She maneuvers those runs beautifully despite the lack of opening.. On the final high note, we can be confident that she doesn't keep her tongue stuck in the back of her throat, I can see it almost sticking out.
I can't be sure that her sound is even as far as it all being in the vertical tower of sound.. She breathes in through the vowel often, which is a great habit to have. This woman perplexes me a bit! I think she has a beautiful tone, but some of the technical issues seem to get in the way.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment