Countermelody

DANIEL GUNDLACH
  • 4.8 (46)
  • MUSIC COMMENTARY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Countermelody devoted to the glories of the human voice raised in song.

  1. 2D AGO

    Episode 460. A Countermelody Nosegay (Mostly Mezzos Edition)

    One of my favorite kinds of Countermelody episode is a potpourri of singers, music, and recordings that charm and enchant to me at that given moment. Today’s episode, which began as a compiled setlist about six months ago, is a particularly enchanting bouquet of musical delights, or, to coin a favorite word from my childhood, a “nosegay.” Today’s bevy of mostly mezzos and contraltos includes such old favorites of mine as Helen Watts, Ninon Vallin, Lisa Kirk, Mitsuko Shirai, Tatiana Troyanos, Elena Obraztsova, Sarah Walker, and Françoise Hardy, joined by new favorites Gertrude Niesen, Mimi Hines, Viorica Cortez, Marie-Thérèse Escribano, and Helen Merrill, with the slender but delectable voice of long-lived Swiss tenor Hugues Cuénod guiding the way to a similar treasure trove of tenors that will follow in a few weeks. Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

    1h 16m

  2. 5D AGO

    The Art of Steven Blier

    There was only one way to follow up my interview with the iconic, the unique Steven Blier published earlier this week, and that is with an episode dedicated to his dazzling at the keyboard and his accomplishments as the co-founder and artistic director of NYFOS, the New York Festival of Song, which is just concluding its 38th season. Going all the way back to Steve’s first recordings in the late 1980s, I have compiled a setlist that is a testament to his love of song, and his ever-expanding interests in that field. Performances both live and studio, many of them straight from Steve’s own archives, feature composers ranging from Franz Schubert to Leonard Bernstein, Eubie Blake to Albert Roussel, Eduard Toldrà to Marc Blitzstein, and Billy Strayhorn to Kurt Weill , including work commissioned specifically by and for Blier and NYFOS. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. These are performed by vocal colleagues of Steven’s past and present, including William Sharp, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Darius de Haas, Stephanie Blythe, Christopher Trakas, Corinne Winters, Kurt Ollmann, Lisa Vroman, Federico De Michelis, Joshua Blue, Sasha Cooke, Brett Polegato, and many, many others. Kudos to this magnificent artist who has enriched all of our lives! Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

    1h 56m

  3. APR 27

    Episode 458. A Conversation with Steven Blier: From Ear to Ear

    Today a new segment of Countermelody Conversations that has been months in the offing! One of the ineffable delights of hosting Countermelody over the years is the connection it has brought me with my listeners, fans, and subjects, including some extraordinary (and sometimes famous) musicians and people. One of the podcast’s most devoted fans is a man that I have held in adulation for years: pianist and educator Steven Blier, co-founder of the New York Festival of Song, now concluding its 38th season. Powered by Blier’s vision, musical insight, and an intrepid sense of stretching boundaries, NYFOS has revolutionized the genre of the song recital. Last November, Steven’s extraordinary memoir, From Ear to Ear: A Pianist’s Love Affair with Song, was published to great acclaim by W.W. Norton. A few years ago I, as the host of Countermelody, received a fan letter from this man whom I have admired for decades. Since then, I pay him a visit whenever I return to New York and have also taken in every NYFOS concert I possibly can. This past February, almost exactly two months ago, in the depths of New York’s ungodly deep freeze and the week before NYFOS’s powerful concert entitled “Fugitives,” I paid a visit to Steve at the Upper West Side apartment he shares with his husband Jim, and we resumed our ongoing conversation about music and song. And this time I brought my mic along! Our widen-ranging and in-depth conversation covers the gamut from many topics and personalities discussed in the book, punctuated throughout by fascinating musical examples, including by frequent NYFOS collaborators Kate Lindsey, Theo Hoffman, Cyndia Sieden, William Sharp, and Julia Bullock, with special focus on the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. I am naming this week “Steven Blier Week” at Countermelody, for on Friday I shall bring you “The Art of Steven Blier,” an additional episode featuring nearly forty years of recorded performances of Steven Blier, both live and in the studio. Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

    1h 36m

  4. APR 24

    Episode 457. Ein Opernabend mit… Anna Tomowa-Sintow

    Today’s episode serves two purposes: First, I introduce my listeners to a wonderful series first released on Eterna, the East German state record label, entitled “Ein Opernabend mit…” which featured singers, some but not all of them German, active in East Germany between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. Some of these singers are well-known to lovers of great singers, with others much less-so. The quality of the singing varies from release to release, but the very best of these represents singing on the most exalted level. Over the past several years, I have been collecting these (sometimes very rare) recordings and now have nearly all of them in my personal collection. I’ll be doing an ongoing Countermelody series featuring these recordings, and present the first such episode today, featuring what is by far the most famous and well-circulated of these recordings, “Ein Opernabend mit Anna Tomowa-Sintow,” which features the beloved Bulgarian jugendlich-dramatisch soprano in some of her core repertoire (from Yevgeny Onegin, Otello, Forza del destino, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Arabella) made in December 1974 with Kurt Masur leading the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. ATS had recently joined the ensemble at the Staatsoper Berlin (then located in East Germany) and is heard in her creamy, exultant prime. I have supplemented this album with additional material recorded between 1970 and 1993, featuring Tomowa-Sintow in refulgently beautiful (and sometimes quite dramatically alive) excerpts from Così fan tutte, Forza, Die ägyptische Helena, Daphne, and the Vier letzte Lieder. I had a former boyfriend who once dismissed this singer as “garden variety.” All I can say is, if this is garden variety singing, then this is a garden I don’t want to leave anytime soon! Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

    1h 39m

  5. APR 20

    John Wustman In Memoriam

    I had hoped not to be bringing this episode to my listeners until many years hence. Alas, my dear teacher and mentor John Wustman, one of the most influential, pathbreaking, and inspired of all accompanists (a term he far preferred to “collaborative pianist”) died this past Thursday at the age of 95. I have already featured his magnificent artistry on countless episodes, including two devoted expressly to his superb artistry and musicianship. Rather than simply reissuing one of those episodes (or recycling an additional bonus episode already published for my Patreon supporters), I decided to focus on his work with one singer in particular, the French soprano Régine Crespin. Wustman’s work with singers such as Luciano Pavarotti and others is well-remembered and documented, but at a crucial point in his career, it was his recital work with Crespin that was (at her insistence) documented on two commercial releases of art song, both recorded in the mid-1960s, one on EMI, the other on London/Decca. These form a central part of Wustman’s recorded legacy. Today, however, I am focusing on rare live recordings of the pair in recital between 1967 and 1970, the twilight of Crespin’s prime. From these, I have chosen five different song cycles that were featured in those performances, works by Poulenc, Debussy, Milhaud, Schumann, and Hugo Wolf. These recordings have not received widespread circulation, and for that reason alone they would constitute essential listening, but what is even more exceptional is the strong musical bond between the two performers, one which emanates out to their audience in a way which is utterly remarkable. I shall be featuring further episodes with my beloved Mr. Wustman in months to come, but I am particularly honored to share these with you today, as we mourn his death and celebrate his ongoing legacy. Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

    1h 27m

  6. APR 16

    Back in the Saddle

    Greetings to all from your recently Venetianized podcaster, now (as the title of today’s episode indicates) once again back in the saddle and bringing you the fourth and final of my vacation (or holiday, if you prefer) episodes featuring great sopranos and tenors of the 1960s and 1970s, as compiled by the late great collector and vocal aficionado Ed Rosen. Today is the second of the tenor LPs from that collection and once again features a range of the brightest and best of that era in thrilling live performances: from Richard Tucker and Franco Corelli (both of whom are heard in excerpts from La Fanciulla del West) to Björling, Carreras, Bergonzi, di Stefano, Kraus, Pavarotti, Gedda, and del Monaco singing everything from Nemorino to Siegmund (!) The vocal splendor of these singers is matched by (for the most part) their musical refinement and taste. And if certain of the featured tenors forgets his musical manners, rest assured that the amplitude of their thrilling high notes is suitable compensation! Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

    58 min

  7. APR 13

    Episode 454. Gone Fishing

    David and I are still on holiday in the magical city of Venice; it’s my first vist here in nearly forty years and it has been beguiling and enchanting (as well as exhausting)! Before we left, I put together yet another episode of great sopranos of the 1960s and 1970s in stunning live performances as compiled on a 1970s pirate release by Historical Recording Enterprises which I present to you here. Many of my favorites (Callas, Olivero, Scotto, Cruz-Romo, Freni), capped by an unforgettable “Casta Diva” by Shirley Verrett. Also a little celebratory commentary about the dazzling upset in the Hungarian electino last night, one which gives us perhaps a glimmer of hope for the grim situation in the United States. Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

    1h 4m

  8. APR 10

    Out of Commission

    Next up in my series of Countermelody “vacation episodes,” here’s the tenor counterpart of the soprano episode I published at the beginning of the week. This is the Historical Recording Enterprises mid-1970s release of the first of two issues of “Ten Top Tenors in Ten Live Performances.” Included in the mix are Carlo Bergonzi, Jussi Björling, José Carreras, Franco Corelli, Giuseppe di Stefano, and others singing favorite tenor arias from Manon Lescaut, La forza del destino, L’elisir d’amore, Tosca, among others, in live performances recorded between 1950 and 1976. The album is punctuated by my commentary on each of the individual singers, usually respectful, sometimes a little sassy. Next week you’ll hear Volume Two from the same collection, containing additional rafter-shaking favorites with similar commentary from your host! Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

    1h 11m
See All (461)

4.8
out of 5
46 Ratings

About

Countermelody devoted to the glories of the human voice raised in song.

Information

  • Creator
    DANIEL GUNDLACH
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    461
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Countermelody

You Might Also Like