Here's something you might be interested in.
Decca has released * Kathleen Ferrier: The Centenary Edition*. It is a 14 disc collection released to honor Ferrier’s 100th birthday. The set also includes a documentary DVD.
In 1953 Kathleen Ferrier died of breast cancer at the age of 41. She was just entering her prime but left behind a legacy of beautiful singing courage.
Ferrier’s is a voice that is never mistaken. Once you hear her voice, it is impossible to hear it again and not know it. There may have been five singers in the entire 20th Century that possessed such a distinct and beautiful tone.
It is the simplicity of her voice that makes Ferrier so appealing to so many. The tone is just “there”. It is free of pretense. It makes no effort to impress. It reaches out and welcomes the listener into the song.
We experience music with Ferrier. She doesn’t impose her opinion on us. Ferrier’s singing serves the song, it serves the music. It is as if she is saying, “Listen to this wonderful music,” instead of “listen to my wonderful voice.”
But the voice is wonderful.
The cancer that started in her breast spread to her bones. In what was to be her final performance, her leg was fractured by the mere act of standing. Ferrier, servant that she was, finished the concert in what must have been excruciating pain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX7FjQu1uss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjvHg9cBriw
Decca has released * Kathleen Ferrier: The Centenary Edition*. It is a 14 disc collection released to honor Ferrier’s 100th birthday. The set also includes a documentary DVD.
In 1953 Kathleen Ferrier died of breast cancer at the age of 41. She was just entering her prime but left behind a legacy of beautiful singing courage.
Ferrier’s is a voice that is never mistaken. Once you hear her voice, it is impossible to hear it again and not know it. There may have been five singers in the entire 20th Century that possessed such a distinct and beautiful tone.
It is the simplicity of her voice that makes Ferrier so appealing to so many. The tone is just “there”. It is free of pretense. It makes no effort to impress. It reaches out and welcomes the listener into the song.
We experience music with Ferrier. She doesn’t impose her opinion on us. Ferrier’s singing serves the song, it serves the music. It is as if she is saying, “Listen to this wonderful music,” instead of “listen to my wonderful voice.”
But the voice is wonderful.
The cancer that started in her breast spread to her bones. In what was to be her final performance, her leg was fractured by the mere act of standing. Ferrier, servant that she was, finished the concert in what must have been excruciating pain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX7FjQu1uss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjvHg9cBriw