Before we get too many
notices on the bulletin board, I had
better plead that I have denoted Miss
Graham’s vocal register as soprano because
that is the description given her by
Warner on this disc. The tall and elegant
Susan Graham is the Octavian de nos
jours and is not that role written
for a mezzo? Well no actually. In the
same way as Mozart didn’t differentiate
mezzo or soprano for Cherubino, another
of Susan Graham’s signature roles, neither
did Richard Strauss for Octavian. In
Der Rosenkavalier, the only difference
in the range of the roles of Octavian
and the Marschallin, the odd note apart,
is the amount of singing in each role
that is in the upper regions of the
voice. That being said, as soon as Miss
Graham starts a phrase in any of these
songs with orchestra, her creamy timbre
marks her more as a lyric mezzo with
a good, but not gleaming top, rather
than a lyric soprano with a rich tone.
Susan Graham made her
Covent Garden debut as Cherubino in
1994, the same year she first took on
the role of Octavian, with Welsh National
Opera, and sang it in one performance
at the Met to great acclaim. In more
recent years she has dipped her toe
into the soprano fach with Donna Elvira
(Don Giovanni) and Hanna Glawari (The
Merry Widow). She is reported also to
be thinking about the Marschallin. Despite
these excursions, the focus of her repertoire
remains that of the classic high mezzo
plus French song and opera. Her Iphigénie
(en Tauride) at Salzburg in 2000 drew
high praise with comparisons with that
of the British mezzo Janet Baker. Her
recordings in the French repertoire
including Nuits d’Été
(Sony) and French Operetta Arias (Erato)
have drawn favourable comparisons with
great predecessors. The same will be
true of this disc. Inevitably comparisons
of her Shéhérazade (trs.
4-6) will be drawn with that of Régine
Crespin under Ansermet (Decca) recorded
over forty years ago and very much the
benchmark. For me, Susan Graham’s gentle
yearning (tr. 4), with her vital creamy
tone allied to vocal clarity and smooth
legato, are at the very least the equal
of that famous interpretation. Likewise
the orchestral accompaniment of Yan
Pascal Tortelier who treads to perfection
the fine line between glorying in the
lustrous orchestral textures and letting
them become cloying.
If my comments focus
on the central Ravel, it is not to ignore
the conductor’s fine Interlude (tr.
2) of the Chausson, or in Adams’ rarely
heard orchestration of four of Baudelaire’s
poems (trs. 7-10) where he supports
Susan Graham’s fine expressive singing
so impressively. Her command of the
language and the idiom of all the works
here are outstanding. She can stand
as equal among other great and respected
interpreters in this repertoire. With
the additional advantage of a clear
and well-balanced recording catching
her voice and the orchestra to perfection,
I can envisage this disc scooping up
several prestigious awards over the
next year or so. Lovers of fine singing
in this repertoire need not wait for
whatever imprimatur may come, but can
purchase without hesitation now and
enjoy an outstanding recording and performance.
Robert J Farr
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Susan Graham (soprano)