Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Hector Berlioz, Vincenzo Bellini :: Eleanor Steber In Concert (1956-1958)

The "Monster" Concert Live

03/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Those of us who are Stebermaniacs know that the October,1958 Carnegie Hall concert preserved in this live recording captured Eleanor Steber at the height of her popularity and vocal artistry. In her autobiography, she admits that she planned the most spectacular program she could conceive, and she blows away the enthusiastic audience with her stamina, technique, versatility and emotion coupled with control and musicality. Every review of this concert I have ever read selects a different "high point;" the spectacular Strauss segment from "The Woman without a Shadow," "Qui la Voce" from I Puritani, the multiple aria encores, Barber's "Knoxville," the Berlioz song cycle: the sheer quantity of glorious singing makes this a collector's item. An additional bonus is a more subdued, but warm 1956 song recital containing selections never before available. The sonic values are excellent in the 1958 concert, a bit less so in the earlier concert. Nevertheless, these are treasures, especially in the light of the few Steber concert recordings in existence."