Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard [Classical] Wagner, Richard [1] Strauss :: Lebendige Vergangenheit: Anny Konetzni

Some Great, Some Good...Anny Konetzni at last!

Impostazione | New York City Area | 07/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a good recital. Preiser has done some beautiful remastering work on these recordings which seem to make Anny Konetzni's voice sound a bit lighter as she was know as "Diesel" Konetzni among recording technicians due to her powerful singing.



The prize of this disc is the heroic "Abscheulicher!" from Fidelio which is wonderfully sung with the high notes in tact. The Tristan and Gotterdammerung scenes are available on other Preiser sets, but has the benefit of the fine remastering here, again giving more breadth to the heroic voice. I found the Wesendonk lieder very enjoyable and Anny Konetzni is the first soprano or tenor to give the third lied "Im Treibhaus" a definite structure. She renders the song musically, timely, and in one piece, rather than the disjointed slow efforts I hear regularly.



The disc represents a 20 year time frame, and though her range was tragically reduced there is virtually no change in the timbre. She sounds as young at 50 years as she did at 30, perhaps younger at 50 since there is less width of vibrato. This, we can't say of many artists, so a fine study of Anny Konetzni's technique is merited.



On the less positive side, I find her efforts in the 1950's almost perfunctory; a little detached, but the euphony and strength of her singing always win me over!!!!!"