Unlimited Streaming
Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps
Start my trial period and start listening to this albumEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
SubscribeEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
Download not available
As the title suggests, the album Virgins, Vixens, & Viragos by American mezzo soprano Susan Graham is meant to cover songs and operatic selections (accompanied with piano) having a wide emotional range. It's not always clear which is which in this collection of female figures running from Purcell to Poulenc, and Graham. Graham's strengths -- intelligence and novel choice of repertory -- are fully in evidence here. The album is worth the purchase price for the six Mignon songs (tracks 3-8) alone. These are settings of texts by Goethe, originally from the novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship), and it's hard for a non-German audience to appreciate how familiar they were to German-speaking listeners of a century ago. Graham's set of six songs ranging from Schubert to the early 20th century (one by Tchaikovsky in German, another by Henri Duparc in French) gives a feeling of how the original hearers of these songs might have approached them as new versions of very familiar texts. The rest of the program has attractive finds as well: some pleasant Poulenc songs, a nice integration of Broadway tunes into a predominantly European sequence, and a fine rarity of a Shakespearean aria in the form of a selection from Joseph Horovitz's Lady Macbeth. All this said, though she's vocally in fine form, Graham isn't (and, to be fair, has never been) a singer with whom the word "fun" comes readily to mind. Although the majority of the material here is not in that language, Graham remains a singer of the French school first and foremost, cultivating a controlled elegance rather than a gutsy set of virgins, vixens, and, the one that would seem to need the fun most, viragos (look it up). The bottom line is that Graham fans are likely to eat this up, and it's an offbeat vocal recital for anybody.
© TiVo
You are currently listening to samples.
Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.
Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.
From kr124,99/month
Susan Graham, MainArtist - Henry Purcell, Composer - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Hector Berlioz, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Franz Schubert, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Robert Schumann, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Franz Liszt, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Henri Duparc, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist - Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Hugo Wolf, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist - Joseph Horovitz, Composer
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Francis Poulenc, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Francis Poulenc, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Francis Poulenc, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Francis Poulenc, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Francis Poulenc, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Francis Poulenc, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Cole Porter, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Vernon Duke, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Francis Poulenc, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Stephen Sondheim, Composer - Susan Graham, MainArtist - Malcolm Martineau, MainArtist
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Album review
As the title suggests, the album Virgins, Vixens, & Viragos by American mezzo soprano Susan Graham is meant to cover songs and operatic selections (accompanied with piano) having a wide emotional range. It's not always clear which is which in this collection of female figures running from Purcell to Poulenc, and Graham. Graham's strengths -- intelligence and novel choice of repertory -- are fully in evidence here. The album is worth the purchase price for the six Mignon songs (tracks 3-8) alone. These are settings of texts by Goethe, originally from the novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship), and it's hard for a non-German audience to appreciate how familiar they were to German-speaking listeners of a century ago. Graham's set of six songs ranging from Schubert to the early 20th century (one by Tchaikovsky in German, another by Henri Duparc in French) gives a feeling of how the original hearers of these songs might have approached them as new versions of very familiar texts. The rest of the program has attractive finds as well: some pleasant Poulenc songs, a nice integration of Broadway tunes into a predominantly European sequence, and a fine rarity of a Shakespearean aria in the form of a selection from Joseph Horovitz's Lady Macbeth. All this said, though she's vocally in fine form, Graham isn't (and, to be fair, has never been) a singer with whom the word "fun" comes readily to mind. Although the majority of the material here is not in that language, Graham remains a singer of the French school first and foremost, cultivating a controlled elegance rather than a gutsy set of virgins, vixens, and, the one that would seem to need the fun most, viragos (look it up). The bottom line is that Graham fans are likely to eat this up, and it's an offbeat vocal recital for anybody.
© TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 19 track(s)
- Total length: 01:14:29
- Main artists: Susan Graham Malcolm Martineau
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: Onyx Classics
- Genre: Classical
(C) 2012 PM Classics Ltd (P) 2012 PM Classics Ltd
Improve album information
Why buy on Qobuz...
-
Stream or download your music
Buy an album or an individual track. Or listen to our entire catalogue with our high-quality unlimited streaming subscriptions.
-
Zero DRM
The downloaded files belong to you, without any usage limit. You can download them as many times as you like.
-
Choose the format best suited for you
Download your purchases in a wide variety of formats (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF...) depending on your needs.
-
Listen to your purchases on our apps
Download the Qobuz apps for smartphones, tablets and computers, and listen to your purchases wherever you go.