Lucia Popp (Soprano) Geoffrey Parsons : Piano (Mozart, Schubert) Irwin Gage : Piano (Dvorak, Mahler, R. Strauss) Este disco está hecho con material proveniente de dos conciertos en el St. John's Smith Square de Londres. Al primero, de 1982, pertenecen las canciones de Mozart y Schubert y al segundo, de 1991, las de Dvořák, Mahler y Richard Strauss. En la primera parte dedicada a Mozart y Schubert sobresale la maravillosa linea de canto de la que era capaz la soprano, especialmente notoria en el famoso "Ridente la calma". A pesar de las excelencias canoras y expresivas en Mozart y Schubert, el centro emocional de este disco lo constituye el material proveniente del segundo concierto. Las canciones de Dvořák le dan la posibilidad de lucir el hermoso centro de su voz y su capacidad interpretativa al sumergirse en los textos que hablan de amores perdidos y corazones rotos. En Mahler sobresale especialmente su versión para "Ich ging mit lust" y la famosa "Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen". Como regalo extra se puede oír una mágica versión de "Morgen" de plateada vocalidad e inigualable legato. Los conciertos se realizaron en el St. John's Smith Square el 1 de marzo de 1982 y el 8 de Julio de 1991. This is a recording to enchant both ear and heart. Lucia Popp's voice is bright but warm, pure, perfectly controlled; her intonation is impeccable, her phrasing poised, leisurely, elegant. Though a distinguished opera star, she brings to these songs a wonderful immediacy and simplicity, identifying with mood and character without overdramatizing or exaggerating, and inflects and colors her voice only for expression, never for effect. Her program, recorded live at two different recitals, is varied and imaginative and includes several unfamiliar songs, such as four "Canzonen" by Schubert, sung in Italian, and three songs by Dvorák, two of them from the cycle Cypresses, which he later arranged for string quartet, sung in Czech. Unfortunately, the producers apparently expect the listener to be equally multilingual and provide no texts or translations. However, Popp can put a smile, a tear, tenderness, love, ghostly dread, and ardent ecstasy into her voice, giving it an eloquence beyond words. Her pianists are admirable, though Gage's playing in the Mahler songs is too fussy, and in Strauss's "Morgen!" the violin obbligato is sadly missing. --Edith Eisler