Norma Procter
Mary Norma Procter was a leading British contralto in the years after World War II. She was a pupil of Roy Henderson and Alec Redshaw.
Although she did sing opera (including being chosen by Benjamin Britten to sing the title role of his The Rape of Lucretia at the 1958 Aldeburgh Festival and making her Covent Garden debut in Gluck's Orpheus) she was best known as a concert, oratorio, and recital singer.
She had a rich, warm voice that was strong and reliable, lacking the pinched or squally sound that often is associated with oratorio singing.
Fittingly, she made her debut singing Handel's Messiah at Southwark Cathedral in 1958 and went on to work with the leading conductors of her time, including Bruno Walter, Leonard Bernstein, Jascha Horenstein, Rafael Kubelik, Sir Malcolm Sargent, and Pierre Boulez. She sang in and recorded virtually every Mahler work with an alto part, including the first complete version of Mahler's Das klagende Lied. Others of her recordings include Handel's Alcina with Joan Sutherland, several Bach cantatas, Mendelssohn's Elijah, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
© TiVo
Discography
7 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Beethoven: Symphony No.9, Overtures, Grosse Fugue
Dame Joan Sutherland, Norma Procter, Anton Dermota, Arnold Van Mill, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 4 Aug 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Britten: Spring Symphony, Op. 44
Jennifer Vyvyan, Norma Procter, Peter Pears
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 1 Aug 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor
Jascha Horenstein, London Symphony Orchestra, Norma Procter, Ambrosian Singers, Wandsworth School Boys Choir
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 17 Jun 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No.2 - "Resurrection"
Edith Mathis, Norma Procter, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rafael Kubelik
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1969
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Arthur Honegger: King David A Symphonic Psalm in Three Parts (English translation by Edward Agate)
Norma Procter, William Herbert, Margaretta Scott
Classical - Released by The Digital Gramophone on 28 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs Of England (Purcell, Morley, Arne, Howells...)
Jennifer Vyvyan, Norma Procter
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1953
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Le Messie, extraits (Mono Version)
Norma Procter, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo