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CD Review

Sherrill Milnes

There But For You Go I

In Recital, Volume 1
  • Benedetto Marcello
  • I cieli immensi narrano
  • Quella fiamma che m'accende
  • Johannes Brahms: Four Serious Songs, Op. 121
  • Umberto Giordano: Andrea Chénier: Nemico della patria
  • Camille Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII: Aria(s)
  • Henri Duparc:
  • La vie antérieure
  • La vague et la cloche
  • Chanson triste
  • Lamento
  • Le manoir de Rosemonde
  • Aaron Copland:
  • Poems (12) of Emily Dickinson: no 4, The world feels dusty
  • Shall we gather
  • John Woods Duke: Luke Havergal
  • Peter Warlock: Yarmouth Fair
  • Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story: Maria
  • Frederick Loewe: Brigadoon: There but for you go I
  • Josephine McGill: Duna
Sherrill Milnes, baritone
Jon Spong, piano
VAI Audio 1140 74:55
Find it at AmazonFind it at Amazon UKFind it at Amazon GermanyFind it at Amazon CanadaFind it at Amazon FranceFind it at Amazon JapanFind it at CD Universe

The American baritone Sherrill Milnes (b 1935) has sung at the Met and other leading opera companies around the world since the 1960s and is a prolific recording artist. His repertory includes all the important Verdi baritone roles, as well as a lot more, and he is generally admired for his brilliant top tones and for the robust energy he puts into his singing. This is apparently his first recital disc, though it is in fact put together from a number of live performances between 1980 and 1990 (more specific dates are not given), and it presents problems.

The program is attractive and varied, presumably reflecting what he would sing on any given evening: three arias by Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739), Brahms' Four Serious Songs, a group of Duparc mélodies, two Copland songs, and finally, several ballads and show tunes. Milnes is essentially a theatrical artist, with a strong and penetrating voice that is projected with dramatic effectiveness but lacks the subtlety and variety of color needed for the intimacy of the recital hall. His diction has always been somewhat careless, even in Italian opera, and this is most apparent in the French songs (though few Americans can sing them well). Also, by 1980 his voice was showing signs of strain at the top of his range and a troublesome vibrato in quiet passages. As you would expect, he is at his best in the one operatic aria on the disc ("Nemico della patria" from Giordano's Andrea Chenier); elsewhere, his interpretations are intelligent but unbeautiful and not really very interesting. The sound is barely passable, tending to break up in loud passages and excessively reverberant on a number of tracks. Milnes is a fine singer in his own field, and this is not it.

Copyright © 1999, Alexander J. Morin

Trumpet

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