The Bjorling sound: a recorded legacy

Abstract

The Bjorling Sound: A Recorded Legacy. By Stephen Hastings. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2012. xvii, 406pp (hardcover). ISBN 978-1-58046-406-2. $49.95 Stephen Hastings' The Bjorling Sound is the first attempt at an analytical study of the recordings of the Swedish singer, arguably the greatest lyric tenor on record. The Bjorling Sound is not a discography and, as such, does not attempt to document Bjorling's complete recorded output. Harald Henrysson's A Jussi Bjorling Phonography remains the definitive discography of the tenor, either in its second printed edition (Stockholm: Svenskt Muskhistoriskt Arkiv, 1993), or in the updated version available on the websites of the Swedish Jussi Bjorling Society (www.jussibjorlingsallskapet.com) and the Jussi Bjorling Museum (www.borlange.se/jussibjorling-english). Although the online versions have kept abreast of recent CD releases, Henrysson now lists only CD reissues. For original 78-, 45- and 33*/3-rpm catalog numbers, the printed second edition remains indispensable (the online version does list 78-rpm matrix numbers). The twenty-four chapters that make up the bulk of The Bjorling Sound are arranged alphabetically by composer. Not surprisingly, those devoted to composers whose operas were recorded complete by Bjorling are the longest; ninety-one pages are devoted to Verdi and seventy-eight to Puccini. Bjorling made eleven commercial opera recordings, one each of Puccini's Manon Lescaut, La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, Verdi's Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, and Aida, and Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, plus two of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. Except for Madama Butterfly and Turandot, where no live performances with Bjorling exist, Hastings adds the known live performances to his discussions--five in the case of Il Trovatore. Of considerable importance are live performances of operas that are not part of Bjorling's commercial discography, including Gounod's Faust and Romeo et Juliette, and Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera and Don Carlo. Major non-operatic works are also added to the mix: Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (the 1940 broadcast with Toscanini and the NBC Symphony), and three performances of Verdi's Messa da Requiem, including the Decca commercial recording from 1960 with Reiner and the Vienna Philharmonic, plus the familiar 1940 Toscanini/NBC broadcast and an alternate Toscanini performance given at the Lucerne Festival in 1939, the last existing only in a primitive recording of a short-wave broadcast. In addition to analyses of the complete performances, Hastings offers discussions of recordings of individual arias and scenes. Many of the recordings in this category are from operas that Bjorling did not record complete, including Meyerbeer's L'Africaine, Massenet's Manon, Bizet's Carmen, and Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore. Song literature was an important part of Bjorling's repertoire, and is covered in separate chapters to Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Richard Strauss, Sibelius, Grieg, Rangstrom, and Alfven. Hastings has a thorough knowledge of the work and recordings of the major singers of the twentieth century allowing him to make meaningful, and often very specific, comparisons between Bjorling's recordings and those of other important tenors. Throughout his discussions, the level of detail is often exhaustive. One of many examples of Hastings' thoroughness is the section devoted to Bjorling's 1951 recording of the Act II duet from Verdi's Otello with Robert Merrill. He devotes nearly five pages to this recording, drawing comparisons to Caruso, Martinelli, Zenatello, del Monaco, Zanelli, Lauri-Volpi, Vinay, McCracken, Domingo, and Pavarotti. Leaving no stone unturned, he also offers comments on Francesco Tamagno's unpublished 1903 recording of the duet with an unidentified baritone (possibly Tamagno's brother Giovanni). This recording can only be heard in Historic Masters' collection of seven double-faced vinyl 78s devoted to Tamagno's complete 12-inch records (reviewed by me in the ARSC Journal, 2008;39[1]:169-172). …