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All four of these sopranos
were born within the twenty-one year
period that enabled the earliest born,
Kiurina, to have sung under Mahler and
the youngest, Konetzni, to have sung
at the State Opera as late as 1973.
They all rose to prominence when Vienna
still boasted stellar native casts and
all left behind evidence of their musicianship
all but a couple here date from a
twelve year period from 1927-39.
Berta Kiurina, born
in Linz in 1905, was appointed by Mahler
to the Vienna Company where she stayed
fully a quarter of a century. A famed
Mozartian she also took on coloratura
roles, as well as Strauss and Korngold,
and gave the first Viennese performance
of Turandot (as Liù) in 1926.
She must have made quite an impression
because she was asked to record this
disc from it the following year. The
discs show that she was equally fine
in both the lyric and the more florid
repertoires and in that Turandot extract
she reveals despite approaching fifty
undiminished artistry of expression.
The voice itself is neither particularly
penetrating nor large but it is exactingly
focused and beautiful the half tones
of Turandot illuminate her seamless
legato. True, there are a few technical
blemishes along the way but she was
an important singer and caught here
in good quality Odeons, Parlophons and
Ultraphons just in time she died in
1933, at fifty-one.
Luise Helletsgruber
is best known for her Glyndebourne association
and her contribution to three Mozart
opera recordings made there under Fritz
Busch. Its apt shes here because she
took over from Kiurina not least as
Liù and sang at the Salzburg
Festival every year for a decade. A
prominent member of the Viennese operatic
fraternity she won the admiration of
a host of distinguished conductors,
remaining with the company for twenty
years. She became a fine teacher only
to die in a car accident at the age
of sixty-six. In the 1929 extract from
the Marriage of Figaro she has something
of Lotte Lehmann about her very attractive
and expressive singing, mediated by
excellent breath control, a firm line,
and clean attack. She can be delicate
as well (as in her Mimi discs) and when
it comes to her Turandot she proves
a worthy successor to the noble Kiurina.
The tempo is relatively slow but the
lyrical impulse is sustained and the
singing is generous and also powerfully
engaging - exciting and technically
splendid.
The third of the trio,
born in 1903, is Maria Reining. She
began at the Volksoper but after the
exodus of Lotte Lehmann (to America)
and Viorica Ursuleac (to Berlin) took
on an increasing number of roles at
the State Opera. Incidentally Preiser
misspell Reinings name in a couple
of places and give both 1902 and 1903
as her year of birth (it was 1903).
She was best known as a Strauss heroine
though she was widely admired in Mozart
and in Wagner. We dont get her Strauss
here, which is a disappointment though
its true that the surviving evidence
is not all to her favour in this repertoire.
Instead her Walküre is really fine
and her Lohengrin no less so, proving
her to have been a leading Wagnerian
of her time.
The last of the quartet
is Hilde Konetzni who found her way
to Vienna via provincial stints in smaller
houses and in the German Theatre in
Prague (by no means a smaller house).
Her arrival in 1936 inaugurated almost
40 years of service to the State Opera
Company. Her range extended beyond Mozart
and Rosenkavalier (one of her best known
roles) to include the Bartered Bride
and Russian roles. Partly this was a
result of lyrico-dramatic temperament
but part of it might have had something
to do with her Czech roots. Though she
was Viennese born she was, like many
ostensible natives from that city, incorrigibly
plural. Luckily her Bartered Bride with
Tauber and Beecham and sung in German
has survived and has been released several
times. Luckily in the Weber she has
Schmidt-Isserstedt conducting for her
and excellently and she proves an
excellent Weber singer as indeed she
does in Rosenkavalier. This 1944 Telefunken
is one of the finest examples of the
Strauss on record. The nature of her
voice production and its concomitant
softness and evenness - can be heard
in Tannhäuser, recorded in 1937.
With good notes from
Clemens Höslinger and unproblematic
transfers this quartet of eminent Viennese
sopranos can be genuinely welcomed.
Inevitably it offers only a partial
look at their careers and repertoires
but it demonstrates their great strengths
and the overlaps and reflections that
stalked the Vienna Opera for well over
half a century.
Jonathan Woolf
Berta Kiurina (1882-1933) (soprano) 1 