For over a decade the American soprano Corinne Winters has been captivating opera audiences with an impressive array of leading roles, from Strauss to Janáček. She grew up in Maryland but only discovered opera in her final year at high school after a teacher spotted her extraordinary potential. That chance discovery set her on a path that has since taken her to the world’s great opera houses.
Listening Room: Corinne Winters
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Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs
This is with the soprano Renée Fleming and conductor Christoph Eschenbach with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. It was recorded in the mid-90s and I mean, if we’re just talking from a pristine-vocal perspective, no one has sung them better!
There are different interpretations that are stunning, but this is the gold standard; you will not hear better singing than this. The tempi are impossible but the phrases she’s able to make… Four Last Songs should be on everybody’s desert island because they are, of course, glorious pieces of music, with – my recurring theme – an incredible depth of text. You can’t get tired of them.
Four Last Songs – sop. Renée Fleming, Houston Symphony Orchestra, cond. Christoph Eschenbach – RCA
Giacomo Puccini: Tosca
Tosca, with Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, and Giuseppe di Stefano with Victor de Sabata conducting. It’s my favorite opera recording of all time. The level of musicianship, the uniqueness and nuance of phrasing and character, and of course, good singing – actually it goes above and beyond good singing. You could close your eyes and picture all the stage stuff flying out.
It’s one of those performances that just keeps on giving. I know people have polarised opinions about Callas but this to me is a perfect opera recording.
Tosca – Callas, Gobbi, di Stefano, Orchestra Del Teatro Alla Scala, Milan, cond. De Sabata – Warner Classics
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Five is dark and heavy. It isn’t necessarily one of Tchaikovsky’s favorite symphonies, which I find interesting. It got me through a very difficult moment in my life; the second movement in particular.
I remember hearing it on the BBC when I was going through emotional turmoil and something cathartic happened where, all of a sudden, I was okay. I can’t explain it. Anything by Tchaikovsky embeds itself deep in my soul and this recording with Karajan and the Vienna Phil has a heaviness, weight and authority in a good way. Well, it’s always the way with Karajan and the Vienna Phil, for better or worse! I was feeling this heaviness inside and I heard it mirrored back at me.
Somehow, if we come across certain music that actually reflects how we’re feeling, it’s even more comforting than if you’re having a down moment and you hear a happy song.
Symphony No. 5 – Wiener Philharmoniker, cond. Herbert von Karajan – Deutsche Grammophon
Josef Suk: Asrael Symphony
It’s not performed that often but I’m in love with it. I heard Jakub Hrůša do it with the Czech Philharmonic at the Proms a couple of years ago and then again with the Bamberg Symphony at the Musikverein in Vienna. I’d done Four Last Songs in the first half, so I was able to sit in the hall for the rest of the concert. I’d never heard it before and I was, of course, blown away by this unbelievably complex and stunning piece of music and also the story behind it.
Josef Suk was married to Dvořák’s daughter and she and her father died at around the same time. So, Suk not only lost his wife, he also lost his mentor and teacher. We hear Suk’s heartache in the symphony, but we also hear these threads of the love that he had.
It gives me goosebumps even thinking about it. It is a complex and intense piece that’s over an hour long but it’s so accessible as well. I’m really surprised that not more people know it.
Asrael Symphony – Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, cond. Jakub Hrůša – BR Klassik
Joni Mitchell: Blue
I think this album is a masterpiece and it relates to what I do because it is so textually brilliant and incredibly rich. I’ve heard it I don’t know how many times, and there are always new things to discover. It’s musically innovative and has everything from charm and wit to deep soul-baring. Plus, you’ve got Joni Mitchell’s voice which as a young woman had a four-octave range and is sweet and breathy.
My dad is an amateur rock musician, and I grew up with that music; I think it really developed a lot of my lower range because I just sang it instinctively. I actually went on to train as a mezzo-soprano before I was a soprano. I think I was always a soprano, but I always had this lower range and people just assumed when I was 18, okay, well, she must be a mezzo, you know? So, I attribute that to singing rock music early on. It really informed everything.
Rhino
