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Jussi Bjorling In Song
with Orchetsra conducted by Nils Grevillius and Frederick Schouwecker, piano
Testament SBT 11427
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Testament is a CD recording company whose releases are selected from the archives of some of the largest record companies and radio stations in the world. With the permission of these companies they release deleted recordings from their archives, using their original master tapes and 78rpm metal parts for CD remastering.
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| These releases also comprise some never-before-heard recordings, cleaned up and playable on modern equipment. This album contains Jussi Bjorling snippets garnered from material resurrected from the singer’s early years.
In 1928 Bjorling was referred to Joseph Hislop, a Scottish tenor at the Stockholm Music Academy, by Martin Ohman, himself a Swedish tenor of some renown, after hearing Bjorling sing and being amazed that ‘he was only 17 and (possessed) such a top B!’ Hislop extended Bjorling’s range to a ‘brilliant top C’ and from then on it was only a hop skip and a jump to a test recording with HMV. Those tests, with piano accompaniment, took place in Sweden on 4 September 1929 and both recordings are included on this CD. This was followed by more test recordings (on 18 December 1929), this time with an orchestra conducted by Nels Grevillius, when it became evident that Bjorling’s potential as a tenor of tremendous charisma, style, artistry and warmth was immense. Those recordings are also part of this CD.
Also included in this album are recordings made for HMV between 1930 and 1945, plus a recital, recorded by RCA Victor in 1952 of lieder and songs by Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, Grieg, Richard Strauss, Sibelius, Sjoberg, Rachmaninov and, Queen Victoria’s favourite, Tosti. The recital is accompanied on piano by Frederick Schauwecker and although some of the interpretations are examples of how not to sing lieder (in an operatic style – too loud and a smidge too fast) the majority of the tracks are sublimely exquisite and lyrically beautiful. Richard Strauss’s Standchen and Morgen are both delightfully controlled, while Brahms’s Die Mainacht and Liszt’s Es muss ein Wunderbares sein are renditions to die for.
Bjorling was a supremely talented tenor who died much too soon in 1960 and we should be thankful that Testament has provided this glimpse of his formative years and re-affirmed what a complete and compelling singer he was. – John Strapp
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