About this Recording 8.110754 - BJORLING, Jussi: Bjorling Collection, Vol. 3: Opera Arias and Duets (1936-1944) |
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Jussi Björling: Collection, Vol. 3 Opera Arias and Duets (1936-44) Jussi Björling was born in February 1911 (on the 5th
according to the midwife’s register, though he celebrated his birthday on the
2nd in accordance with the church register) in Sweden’s province of Dalarna,
near the centre of what is today the city of Borlänge. Stora Tuna, often given
as his birthplace, is the name of the village where the family was then living
and which is now a part of Borlänge. Jussi’s father David was also a tenor and
singing teacher, who taught his three oldest boys Olle, Jussi and Gösta to sing
from their earliest childhood. He let them perform in public before Jussi was
five and as the Bjoerling Quartet they toured extensively in Sweden, and from
1919 to 1921 also in the United States. Jussi’s mother Ester had already died
in 1917, soon after having given birth to a fourth son. Not long after David
Björling’s death in 1926, the group, which also for some time included the
fourth brother Karl, disbanded and Jussi entered the Stockholm Conservatory in
1928. Here, and at the Opera School, his teacher was the famous baritone John
Forsell, also manager of the Royal Opera. In 1930, at the age of nineteen, Jussi Björling made his
official début at the Royal Opera in Stockholm as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don
Giovanni and in the next few years he sang a wide repertoire of rôles there.
His first major breakthrough came at a recital at Tivoli in Copenhagen in the
summer of 1931. As an opera singer, he made his first solo tours outside Sweden
in 1936 and 1937, still singing his rôles in Swedish. He then appeared in
Czechoslovakia and Germany but primarily at the Vienna Opera and was everywhere
greeted with great acclaim. In the autumn of 1937 he gave his first London
recital en route to the United States, where his schedule included three General
Motors radio concerts from Carnegie Hall and opera performances in Chicago in
Rigoletto and La bohème. Jussi Björling’s successful Metropolitan début came in
November 1938 as Rodolfo. In 1939, Jussi Björling made his Covent Garden début in Il
trovatore and in 1940 he opened the Met season for the first time in the new
production of Un ballo in maschera where he appeared as King Gustaf III of
Sweden. During the later war years, he mainly remained in his native country,
but his Italian opera début took place in 1943 in Il trovatore in Florence. In the autumn of 1945, Jussi Björling returned to the United
States for an eight-month tour and during the rest of his life he sang
extensively there, as an opera artist with the Metropolitan, San Francisco and
Chicago operas, but still more in recital and concert, often on radio and
television in programmes like Ford Sunday Evening Hour, Voice of Firestone and
Standard Hour. Björling always returned to Sweden and spent the summers with
his soprano wife Anna-Lisa and their three children at Siarö in the Stockholm
archipelago. He also sang often in opera and concert in Sweden and the other
Nordic countries, where he enjoyed enormous popularity. He appeared twice in
Milan with the La Scala company (Rigoletto in 1946, Un ballo in maschera in
1951) but returned to Covent Garden only in 1960 (La bohème), though he was
heard in recital many times in Britain in the 1950s. In 1954, he made an
extensive concert tour to South Africa. Jussi Björling’s complete opera and operetta repertoire
comprised 55 rôles, but most of them were, like Almaviva in Barbiere or Arnold
in Guillaume Tell, abandoned on his road to world fame. In fact, his total
opera repertoire after the war consisted of twelve rôles. He continued to sing
ten operas which he had learned in Stockholm up to 1936: Aida, Il trovatore, Un
ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, La bohème, Tosca, Cavalleria rusticana and
Pagliacci in the Italian repertoire and Gounod’s Faust and Roméo et Juliette in
the French. In later years, he added Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Verdi’s Don
Carlo, the latter in the famous production which in 1950 opened the Met’s
season and Rudolf Bing’s era as general manager. Jussi Björling was also an
excellent interpreter of lieder and other art songs, and on his concert
programmes, songs of mainly German and Scandinavian origin were featured
prominently and appreciated along with the opera arias. During his last years, Jussi Björling suffered from heart
disease. His life was prematurely ended by a heart attack in his sleep at his
beloved Siarö on 9th September 1960. It is now more evident than ever that the
world then lost one of its most outstanding artists, and in several polls in
different countries he has been selected as the greatest tenor or even the greatest
singer of the last century. Fortunately, Jussi Björling left behind a vast recorded
output through which we are able to experience his artistry. He began to record
very early, even if one disregards six childhood recordings he and his brothers
made in 1920 during their American tour. In October 1929, almost a year before
his début at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, he signed his first recording
contract with Skandinaviska Grammophon AB, the Swedish HMV representative. His
first preserved tenor recordings were made in December of that year. They were,
like most of Björling’s recordings in Sweden, including all the operatic ones,
conducted by Nils Grevillius (1893-1970). Grevillius, appointed Royal Court
Conductor in 1930, became more closely associated with Jussi Björling than any
other conductor, in opera and concert as well as in the recording studio. The
singer praised Grevillius as “extremely inspiring” and thanked him for “much of
my musical education” in his 1945 autobiography. In the spring of 1936, Jussi Björling had already made about
seventy recordings for Swedish HMV’s Scandinavian X series, all in Swedish.
They included opera and operetta recordings, which have already been reissued
by Naxos in Vol. 1 of this collection, and songs, many of which are included in
the second volume. The successful tour to Prague and Vienna which Björling
undertook in March, attracted much European acclaim. Skandinaviska Grammophon
AB wanted to snap up an international star in the making and a new contract was
signed the following month. Under this contract, Jussi Björling made his first
opera recordings in Italian for the HMV Red Label (DA/DB series) in December
(he continued to make recordings in Swedish for the Scandinavian market). The
23 arias and duets in Italian and French from eighteen operas presented on this
CD were all recorded in Stockholm between 1936 and 1944. Jussi Björling’s first two Red Label records, released
during 1937 on HMV in Europe and on Victor in the United Sates, immediately
established him as one of the world’s most talented singers. Both records
featured him in Puccini and Verdi: one in Che gelida manina from La bohème 1
and Celeste Aida 2, the other in La donna è mobile from Rigoletto 3 and
Recondita armonia from Tosca 4. In Britain, the reviewer in Gramophone wrote
about the latter record that past disappointments had made him “extra cautious
of assuming the prophet’s mantle”, but that he “otherwise might be rash enough
to speak of HMV having discovered a ‘new Caruso’”. Stressing that the voice was
different from Caruso’s, the reviewer did say “that a young singer with such a
splendid voice and obvious skill and intelligence should go very far indeed if
he takes himself and his art seriously”. In the United States, Irving Kolodin
expressed his astonishment: “I know no more than you how Sweden and Italy can
be reconciled, but paradox or no, the name of Jussi Bjoerling on two HMV discs
conceals several of the finest performances of the standard tenor airs on
records in the modern era…”. Jussi Björling’s voice retained its unmistakable timbre, its
beauty of tone from top to bottom and its characteristic freedom of delivery
throughout his entire career. Although his recordings from the 1950s can often
seem more expressive, his opera recordings from the 1930s and 1940s with their
youthful bloom, easy flow of tune, purity of intonation, sweetness, flexibility
and careful phrasing will remain classic performances. La bohème would have a special position in Björling’s
career: he performed Puccini’s masterwork much more than any other opera in his
repertoire, and it marked his débuts both at the Met in 1938 and in San
Francisco in 1940. Björling was 25 when he recorded Che gelida manina in
December 1936, fresh, young and poetic; twenty years later, he would contribute
to the most celebrated complete recording of the work under Sir Thomas Beecham.
Jussi Björling included the famous aria with his repertoire a few years before
he made his début in the opera in 1934. As was the case with all his pre-war
débuts, he then sang the rôle in Swedish, but two weeks after this recording
was made, he sang the first act of La bohème in Italian at the opening of a
theatre in Paris, performing classic opera in its original language for the
first time. In Björling’s first recordings in Italian, his unfamilarity with
the language can be noted, but this soon improved and his singing would in a
few years become unusually idiomatic for a non-Italian singer. At Jussi Björling’s 1934 La bohème début in Stockholm, he
was partnered by Hjördis Schymberg. Björling and Schymberg soon became a
celebrated couple in the great romantic rôles at the Swedish Royal Opera, and
appeared there together more than a hundred times, including Björling’s last
Stockholm opera performance in 1960. It seems natural that Schymberg became
Björling’s partner in his first duet recordings, of which two opera duets from
1941 are included on this CD, O soave fanciulla from La bohème % and È il sol
dell’anima from Rigoletto ^. Jussi Björling had stage experience also of the three other
arias with which he introduced himself early in 1937 on the international
record market. Radamès in Aida, with its heroic demands on the voice, was not
one of his most frequently performed rôles; except in Stockholm, he sang it
only a few times in Europe before the Second World War (one of which, a
festival performance in 1936 in Vienna under Victor De Sabata, certainly helped
in launching his international career), and three times in Chicago in 1958. He
had already performed Celeste Aida, however, as a conservatory student. To the
British critic John B. Steane, this “ringing, full-bodied and ardent … firmly
placed, controlled, broad and refined” recording became “an introduction to the
most exciting new tenor voice for years”. When Jussi Björling first sang the Duke in Rigoletto in
1932, at the age of 21, he took up the first of the dozen rôles that would
comprise his repertoire on stage after the war. In the same rôle, he made his
American opera début in 1937 in Chicago. Björling had made early recordings in
Swedish of both the arias featured here; his brilliant 1936 recording of La
donna è mobile was followed eight years later by Questa o quella ¡.
Cavaradossi’s two arias in Tosca, Recondita armonia 4 and E lucevan le stelle 8
were in Jussi Björling’s concert repertoire before he performed the complete
opera in 1934. The elegiac quality in his voice helped in making Cavaradossi’s
farewell to life genuinely moving without mannerisms.
Jussi Björling never sang Ponchielli’s La Gioconda on stage,
but Cielo e mar 5 was one of his concert favourites, and the recording is
representative of his best singing. J.B. Steane’s description of its qualities
can be applied also to other Björling recordings: “The legato is unflawed,
there is none of the aspirating that mars most Italian performances, and the
flow is helped by broad phrasing … the phrases are shaped and shaded … there is
gentleness and exaltation; the high notes are generously held but not
flaunted”. Ch’ella mi creda from Puccini’s La fanciulla del West 6 and O
paradiso from Meyerbeer’s L’africaine 7 were found early on Björling’s concert
programmes and he later also included the complete operas in his repertoire.
When he recorded the Fanciulla aria in 1937, he had already sung the opera for
the last time on stage, while O paradiso was recorded before his six stage
performances of Vasco da Gama’s rôle in 1938, the last rôle he studied in
Swedish. In 1938, Jussi Björling made his first recordings in French,
En fermant les yeux (The Dream) from Massenet’s Manon 9 and Don José’s Flower
Song from Bizet’s Carmen 0. These arias were from operas which he never sang on
stage, unlike Faust’s cavatina Salut! Demeure @, recorded the following year.
Björling established himself as one of the greatest tenors also in the French
repertoire through his acclaimed performances of the two Gounod rôles Faust and
Roméo, in which he appeared frequently especially in Stockholm. The recordings
here show his mastery of the French style, lyrical but virile, emotionally
sustained and expressive, elegantly phrased, and sung in an idiomatic manner in
spite of the fact that the singer had not yet performed any rôle in French on
stage. The very first opera aria Jussi Björling sang in public, in
1926, when he was only fifteen and still touring with his father and brothers,
seems to have been M’apparì (to use the Italian text he would later prefer)
from Friedrich von Flotow’s Martha !. When Björling recorded it in 1939, he had
also sung the opera a few times in Stockholm. In Verdi’s Il trovatore, just as in Aida, Jussi Björling
showed his ability to express all the beauty of the lyric moments while
providing great dramatic intensity, when needed, without sacrificing the
quality of the tone. Ah sì, ben mio # and the following stretta, Di quella pira
$ give examples of this. When Björling recorded the arias in 1939, he had
already had great success in the rôle at the Met in New York and, only a few
months earlier, at Covent Garden in London. He recorded Di quella pira in
Swedish in 1934; a comparison of the top note, transposed down a tone then,
with the brilliant high C in the present version gives an idea of his technical
development in those few years. During the war Jussi Björling temporarily ceased recording
for almost three years. He began again in March 1944 with two arias from operas
by the veristic composer Umberto Giordano which he never sang on the opera
stage. Come un bel dì from Andrea Chénier & and Amor ti vieta from Fedora *
were both, however, often heard in his concerts. Puccini’s Turandot is another
opera which Björling did not sing on stage, though he would study Calaf’s rôle
for a complete recording in 1959. His 1944 version of Nessun dorma! ( retains its
position as a great recording, even if this aria has in later years been
connected in the public consciousness with the Three Tenors. As Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Jussi Björling made one
of his most vivid portrayals on his Stockholm home stage. He sang the rôle in
Swedish between 1936 and 1955 but would never perform it in Italian except in
the recording studio. Both Canio’s Vesti la giubba ) and Turiddu’s farewell
from Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana ™ exemplify Björling’s ability to invest
an aria with great emotional intensity without resorting to non-musical
effects. His avoidance of such means may have contributed to the complaints
about alleged Nordic coldness which used to be heard especially from Italian
critics, but there is ample evidence in his recordings of how he could
immediately communicate the emotions in the music. In Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, Jussi Björling had great triumphs, as for example on the Metropolitan’s opening night in 1940 and at La Scala in Milan in 1951. In New York, he appeared as the Swedish King Gustaf III, according to Verdi’s original intentions, but in Stockholm he remained Riccardo, governor in Boston, since his début in the rôle in 1934. Unfortunately, planned complete recordings never materialised, and the only excerpt Björling recorded was the barcarolle Di’ tu se fedele £, sung here with the elegance, lightness, agility and sense of rhythm that Verdi’s music demands. Harald Henrysson and Sue Flaster Producer’s Note Our intention when restoring this recording was to recreate
as much as possible of Jussi Björling’s unique voice and his rich spectrum of
overtones. We have been extremely economical with noise reduction in order to
minimise the influence of such techniques upon the voice, instruments and
overtones. This is what might be termed a ‘flat’ transfer of the upper,
descant-rich register, to reproduce all the rich overtones that a 78-rpm
shellac disc can contain, and for this reason some surface noise remains. If
you, the listener, wish to experience a nostalgic feeling of how the recording
sounded when played on gramophones from the 1930s and 1940s, we suggest that
you turn down the treble on your amplifier. Try turning it down considerably – perhaps
even to the minimum adjustment – until you find a setting that corresponds to
your memory of how it used to sound. The intention is for the listener to have
the opportunity to listen to Jussi Björling in accordance with his or her own
preferences and tastes. As a listening reference, we have consulted members of
the Scandinavian Jussi Björling Society. Stefan Lindström Stefan Lindström Stefan Lindström has worked in the field of recording techniques and sound reproduction since the 1970s, and has made many gramophone recordings of everything from pop and jazz to chamber music. At an early stage he started to act as a consultant on the restoration of old recordings for various archives and institutions. During the past decades he has worked with sound restoration and archiving, and has restored a large number of reissues of old material from wax cylinders, wire recorders and shellac going back to the earliest infancy of recording technology. |
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