"Laudamus te" W.A. Mozart

Renee Fleming sings "Laudamus te" by Mozart
(05:05)

Can you go as low ... low ... low .... ( ... as a soprano of course ... 😉)

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=qDJZa7pp80g&feature=related

Originally posted by ivanhoe
Renee Fleming sings "Laudamus te" by Mozart
(05:05)

Can you go as low ... low ... low .... ( ... as a soprano of course ... 😉)

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=qDJZa7pp80g&feature=related

nice one

Originally posted by ivanhoe
Renee Fleming sings "Laudamus te" by Mozart
(05:05)

Can you go as low ... low ... low .... ( ... as a soprano of course ... 😉)

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=qDJZa7pp80g&feature=related

You've got a good ear, Ivanhoe. That 'Laudamus Te' comes from Mozart's
'Great Mass' in c.

The lowest note is an A below the staff, and the highest note demanded
in that movement is the A above it (a two-octave tesitura). A public-domain
score link is below.

http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/8/88/Mozart_427-3_Laudamus_VS_PML.pdf

However, the largest leap the soloist is required to make is a perfect
eleventh, or octave and a fourth (in mm. 38-9, and 39-40, e.g.). The low
A is in m. 56 followed by a scalar passage up to the high A. The other
low A is in m. 132 followed by the disjunct final gesture (very difficult).

The first movement of the Mass (the 'Kyrie'😉 is also very demanding for
the soloist (in the 'Christe Eleison'😉.

http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/f/ff/Mozart_427-1_Kyrie_VS_PML.pdf

It has a leap of a minor thirteenth (an octave and a minor sixth!) in m. 69,
which is preceded by four very difficult measures. Like the 'Laudamus Te'
it also has a two-octave range (from A-flat below the staff to A-flat above
it). If memory serves, the A-flat is the lowest note in the whole Mass
(incomplete as it is) which can be found in m. 52. The 'Et Incarnatus
Est' movement features a high C, and several high Bs and the largest
leap of a minor fourteenth (octave and a flat seventh, which is just insane).

The soprano part of the extant portions of the Mass were intended for
Mozart's wife, Costanze who was evidently a very proficient musician herself.

I did the 'Kyrie' with my choir for the Distribution of Ashes on Ash Wednesday
in 2007 and again that year on Good Friday during the Veneration of
the Cross (as part of a set of Kyries).

Nemesio

Originally posted by Nemesio
You've got a good ear, Ivanhoe. That 'Laudamus Te' comes from Mozart's
'Great Mass' in c.

The lowest note is an A below the staff, and the highest note demanded
in that movement is the A above it (a two-octave tesitura). A public-domain
score link is below.

http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/8/88/Mozart_427-3_Laudamus_VS_PML.pdf

However, the l ...[text shortened]... ay during the Veneration of
the Cross (as part of a set of Kyries).

Nemesio

Thank you for your profesional and detailed comment. I appreciate this.

Originally posted by ivanhoe
Thank you for your profesional and detailed comment. I appreciate this.

Well, it is one of my favorite pieces. I like René Flemings interpretation, but my favorite
is with the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir under John Eliot Gardiner. The first
soprano soloist is Sylvia McNair, who does the 'Kyrie' and 'Et Incarnatus.' I tend to prefer a 'straighter'
tone for anything before the 19th century and this ensemble/choir tends to offer that. Diana
Montague does the 'Laudamus Te' expertly, I might add; she has a darker tone than your average
soprano, giving those high notes a richness that might surprise the average listener.

If you like the piece, I recommend it highly.

http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Montague-Hauptmann-Soloists-Gardiner/dp/B0000040YW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1205006293&sr=8-1

Nemesio

Originally posted by ivanhoe
Can you go as low ... low ... low .... ( ... as a soprano of course ... 😉)

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=qDJZa7pp80g&feature=related

Can you go as high...high...high?

YouTube

Originally posted by Nemesio
Well, it is one of my favorite pieces. I like René Flemings interpretation, but my favorite
is with the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir under John Eliot Gardiner. The first
soprano soloist is Sylvia McNair, who does the 'Kyrie' and 'Et Incarnatus.' I tend to prefer a 'straighter'
tone for anything before the 19th century and this e ...[text shortened]... -Gardiner/dp/B0000040YW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1205006293&sr=8-1

Nemesio

Thanks for the tip.

Originally posted by Nemesio
Can you go as high...high...high?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERsjRsCBlBo

Beatiful !

Listen to and look (!) at a different interpretation of the same aria:

Natalie Dessay performs "Der Hölle Rache" from Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte." Paris 2001.


YouTube&feature=related

Originally posted by ivanhoe
Beatiful !

Listen to and look (!) at a different interpretation of the same aria:

Natalie Dessay performs "Der Hölle Rache" from Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte." Paris 2001.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02yf6RHIQjQ&feature=related

Well, I prefer the Serra:

YouTube&feature=related

but that might be because that the performance I saw as a kid some fifteen years ago. And
despite the fact that Kathleen Battle is one of the world's most unpleasant Prima Donnas, I
found her performance to be riveting. Manfred Hemm's Papageno is nonpareil. Here is an
extended clip:

YouTube

I also prefer Damrau's queen of the night to Dessay's:

YouTube&feature=related

She has the power and control that i look for in the more Romantic interpretations of Mozart
(but, as I said, I prefer the more Classical interpretations -- straighter tone, less melodrama
in dynamic extremes; but, hey, if you're going to be Romantic, you might as well milk it like
this performance). She has the breadth of an alto, but the range of a soprano. Personally,
I like that quality.

Frankly, it sounds to me that the Dessay interpretation was almost a quarter-tone sharp
in places and she rushed a few runs, but YouTube is not the sound-producing medium to
listen overly critically.

Nemesio

Originally posted by Nemesio
Can you go as high...high...high?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERsjRsCBlBo

Some can't: YouTube&feature=related 😀
It's so horrible that it's fantastic in its own way.

Originally posted by Nordlys
Some can't: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h4f77T-LoM&feature=related 😀
It's so horrible that it's fantastic in its own way.

The only thing more funny (or more painful) than this recording is how seriously she took herself. Apparently she held recitals quite often and performed quite as horribly at each one. My favorite quote from the liner notes on this album is:

"After a taxicab crash in 1943 she found she could sing "a higher F than ever before." Instead of a lawsuit against the taxicab company, she sent the driver a box of expensive cigars."

The rest of this album is even more excruciating.

np

Originally posted by Nemesio
Well, I prefer the Serra:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqBW_9OjhlA&feature=related

but that might be because that the performance I saw as a kid some fifteen years ago. And
despite the fact that Kathleen Battle is one of the world's most unpleasant Prima Donnas, I
found her performance to be riveting. Manfred Hemm's Papageno is nonpareil. Here i ...[text shortened]... ns, but YouTube is not the sound-producing medium to
listen overly critically.

Nemesio

I like these versions, but prefer my recording with Christina Deutekom.

np

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b0074sfn.shtml?order=aztitle%3Aalphabetical&filter=channel%3Abbc_four&scope=iplayerchannels&start=1&version_pid=b0069nn8

great concert of some of Mozart's sacred works from St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna in celebration of 250 years since the maestro's birth ... only available for another week, so hurry, you have been warned.

Originally posted by Siskin
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b0074sfn.shtml?order=aztitle%3Aalphabetical&filter=channel%3Abbc_four&scope=iplayerchannels&start=1&version_pid=b0069nn8

great concert of some of Mozart's sacred works from St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna in celebration of 250 years since the maestro's birth ... only available for another week, so hurry, you have been warned.

When I log into it, it says that it can only be played in the UK.

😕

Originally posted by Nemesio
[b]Well, I prefer the Serra:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqBW_9OjhlA&feature=related

Stunning...