EDITA GRUBEROVA/ VESSELINA KASAROVA: LIED-DUETT (Wir Schwestern zwei, wir schoenen)

This is an audio CD of fun soprano/contralto duets accompanied by the piano. The CD consists of 22 short tracks by Brahms, Schumann, Dvorak, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and Rossini. These are song that might be sung at light-hearted European party and not operatic at all (even though they are sung by arguably the premiere bel canto opera soprano and mezzo soprano of our time). Often time opera singers can’t help but sound like fish out of water when singing non-operatic songs, but these two really give us the best of both world. A pair of refined full-bodied voices and a wonderfully light homey touch in these cute but expressive numbers.

The Czech-Swiss coloratura soprano Edita Gruberova is the lighter amber color and pan-pipe like voice that sings the high line, while the Bulgarian-Swiss mezzo Vesselina Kasarova is the rounder and more full-bodied burgundy clarinet-like voice singing the low line (and usually she is the one that sings the song's opening phrase).

These two are very good friends and often give joint concerts in Europe. For good reasons, too. Their voice and singing style match so well they sound like the extension of each other’s voice (so much so it is hard to tell them apart sometimes when the lines intertwine ... to a strangely beautiful effect of the illusion of the voices being the alter-egos talking to each other in your head... tho I won’t comment on who is good and who is evil!). Now, I know it may seem contradictory to describe their voice differently while saying they sound like the extension of each other's voice, but where their vocal ranges overlap, they sound quite alike even though Frau Gruberova is a leggiero (soprano who sings the highest notes in opera) whose range goes up beyond the high F (high C is nothing to her!), while Frau Kasarova is a deep mezzo who can sound like a baritone on really low notes. They also sound like they have identical understanding of each of these song and really paint a coherent picture of each number together. This album was first released in the mid 90's in Europe under the title 'Wir Schwester zwei, wir schoenen (We two sisters, we shine!),' which is also the opening phrase of track #2 (Die Schwester). Quite fitting... two musical sisters indeed!

The ladies are very ably accompanied by the pianist-conductor Friedrich Haider (who also doubles as Frau Gruberova’s husband). He is perfectly in tune with his singers and highlights their singing rather than drawing attention to himself (just as a good accompanist should do). From the sound of it, these three probably sing together all the time and I wouldn't be surprised if they can finish each other’s sentences.

A tip on listening to duets .... focus in on the lower voice. You will always hear the high melodic line even when you aren’t listening for it, but if you focus on the high voice you’ll often miss the texture of the song which is given by the low voice.

The highlights of the CD are probably the 13 Moravian Duets by Antonin Dvorak, and the final meowing fest of a song by ... either Rossini or Robert Pearsall... depends on who’s telling the story.

Tracks:
Johannes Brahms:
1. Die Meere (The Oceans)
2. Die Schwestern (The Sisters)
Die Meere is a rather Slavic sounding song describing a calm ocean under the moonlight. If you’ve seen the film The Pianist, this sounds similar to Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp (the piece Szpilmann plays as the Radio Warsaw is being bombed at the beginning of the film). Die Schwestern, on the other hand, is a lively song of two sisters boasting about their fairness. A very girlish song and it is wonderful how these two really do sound like a pair of Siamese twins... either that or like a girl with a serious case of multiple personalities. I was surprised this tease of a song is actually written by Johannes Brahms. It seems he had a lighter side after all!

Robert Schumann:
3.Schoen Bluemelein (Sweet Flower)
4. Sommerruh (Peaceful Summer)
5.An den Abendstern (To the Evening Star)
Schoen Bluemelein is an easy to hum to kind of song you might sing at boarding school after you're done studying for the day. The piano provides a nice florid contrast to the more traditional sounding vocal lines, though. Sommerruh is a slow nostalgic sounding song about the good old days... or the peaceful summer that never really was but the more you look back on it, the more idyllic it gets in your head. An den Abendstern is a favorite of mine. It’s a perfect lullaby, really, the pace is just roughly larghetto (something between walking and crawling). I admit to having a thing for low female voice... and Frau Kasarova can go really low very solidly especially in pieces like this when she doesn't have to sing over an orchestra.

Antonin Dvorak: Moravian Duets
6. A ja ti uplynu, 7. Velet, vtacku, 8. Dyby byla kosa nabrosena, 9. V dobrym sme se sesli, 10. Slavikovsky polecko maly, 11. Holub na javore, 12. Voda a plac, 13. Skromna, 14. Prsten, 15. Zelenaj se, zelenaj, 16. Zajata, 17. Neveta, 18. Sipek,
These are songs based on Moravian folk poetry set to music by Dvorak in 1877. The sound is something of a blend of Polish and Hungarian music. Having heard Frau Kasarova’s Bulgarian Soul CD, I have to note that the Slavs sure have a knack for making dissonance counterpoints work (the 2 voices and the piano aren't designed to blend in some of these pieces)! I’m sorry I’m not more adept to picking up a new language at my ripe old age of 32.... but if I were trying to pick up Czech, these songs would really come in handy in helping me memorize some cool poems in that language.

My favorites are the simultaneously rowdy and subdue A ja ti uplynu (Watch, love, or some fine day I may swim away!), the wistful Voda a plac (Brooklets and Tears), the very subdue Skromna (The Modest Lassie), the beautiful piano mimicry of the Danube River in Prsten (The Ring), and the song of premonition Sipek (The Pleading Rose).

Sample: (not from this CD, but from a live concert by same artists)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjIujji_K2Y#GU5U2spHI_4

My only gripe is that after a while, if you listen to them all without a break (which is easy to do since they are so short), it's hard to tell these pieces apart if you aren't reading the lyrics along.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy:
19. Gruss (Greeting)
20. Maigloeckchen und die Bluemelein (Lily of the Valley and her Friends)

Gruss is a quintessential Mendelssohn sounding song (think the Wedding March from 'A Mid-Summer Night's Dream) of a shy young lover who gathers flowers to make a garland to her lover but dares not present it. Maigloeckchen und die Bluemelein sounds like a song you might hear at Christmas. It strongly reminds me of The Twelve Days of Christmas, actually. An enthusiastic song of someone who can’t wait for the snow to melt so she could go play in the open field again.

Gioachino Rossini:
21. La regata veneziana (Venetian Regatta)
22. Duetto buffo di due gatti (Comic duet for two cats... or Katzen-Duett)

La regata venezian (in Italian) is positively teasy. It is the longest piece at 4:45 minutes (the only one that's longer than 4 minutes, for that matter). And being composed by the bel canto master Rossini, there is a lot of coloratura in it (the vocal line is highly decorated with many notes sung in fast succession). The song is pretty much a comic song of 2 quarreling friends in a boat... the kind of quarreling as when a wife tries to tell her husband where to go when he drives, you know... ‘Stop and ask for direction, I say!’, ‘No, I’m so NOT LOST!’, ‘Yeah, you are!’ ....kind of deal.

Katzen-Duett by itself makes this CD worth buying.... If you like fun loving party number with 2 coloratura divas meowing at each other to a laughing piano accompaniment. I’m going to go on a limb and say that the first 3 meows you hear is Frau Kasarova. She’s the one that retains the refined sound (probably the shyer of the two diva) while Frau Gruberova (the next 3 meows) is the more fun loving cat that goes for the ‘Don’t touch my tuna!’ sound sometimes. It is hard to tell who is who in much of this number. But as they always end their Liederabend (joint concert) with this number, it’s only fitting this piece also wraps up this joint CD.

All in all, this is a lovely CD of simple yet beautiful songs you’d find yourself humming along (if you could pronounce Czech and German). Highly recommended for lovers of lieders and European folk music... or anyone who loves the kind of songs sung in school yard done really well.

The CD comes with a thin booklet containing track list, short notes on the numbers in German and English, and libretto in German and English (with Czech for the 14 Moravian Duets, and Italian for La regata veneziano).

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends