Regine Crespin - Schubert's Der Tod und das Madchen

[georgiannanyman]

Everyone has something especially fine and no one has everything.One can't compare Marion Anderson's voice ('The voice that comes along once in a hundred years'-Toscanini) with any other..And Crespin has a wonderful,clear vocal line and an aristocratic style and sound.So she takes her place among the best.

[SmithAbbott]

Read an interview with Regine Crespin and she says her voice is dramatic soprano

[SAMARA3365]

very beautifull, also the interpretation, quite no accent. and of course her low D is different than one of marain andersons. Crespin was a wonderful soprano, Miss Anderson was a real contralto. But stunning anyway, since many "so called mezzos" just can't sing a low D! listen to Mariylin Horne, for her a low F is already the edge and there is not more soundon her F than in Crespins low D!

[MisterPapageno]

very nice voice and interpretation !

[paulostroff99]

Beautifully sung.TY.

[MrBerlino90]

fabulous compass!!! fabulous voice!!! fabulous song!!!

[suffisance]

RC ... crypto mezo.

[michelormiz]

great! stupendo! unforgettable voice and high class style

[minnie888444]

Part 1 is sung very well, but without rendering the maiden's desperation. Part 2 is too similar in color to Part 1. "Freund", and the vowel a on C "nicht zu strafen" too brutal. The low D sounds good. An exception, even men have difficulty going so low.

[MisterPapageno]

@minnie888444 I think she renders the maiden's desperation very well, which is very hearted but not too desperated (Christa Ludwig gives more enphasis but I think she ruins the singing line)

[Toscavsky]

Maravillosa

[charliekelev]

Her range on recordings seems to go

from low D to high Db, the widest I

know. I guess cheryl studer also

recorded a low F# (in her Vespri

siciliani recording) and a high F

in her magic flute recording

[ARTUROPVIOLA]

it is a rule on good singer to have wide ranges: Lucia Popp sang low G and high F, Auger High Fsharp and low Ab) and the list goes on! Crespin is one of those greatest!

[rellrizzy]

@baksty

.. she's actually a dramatic SOPRANO. :)

[Haaxma]

Holy chills Batman!! Excellent interpretaion.

[levieuxpiano]

Géniale et pourtant méconnue en France : quand comprendra t-on ici qu'il faut soutenir les artistes, en particulier de cette dimension, afin de les inciter à donner le meilleur d'eux-même?

[Hisrevenge]

A soprano hitting a low D? The only thing I can say is holy SHIT. She is all kinds of amazing.

[baksty]

@Hisrevenge

she's not soprano...

she's a Dramatic Mezzo

[Hisrevenge]

Hey, you can take that up with the person who posted the video and wrote the description, not me. And besides, she was considered a soprano for quite some time, so depending on the time this video was made, she could have still been singing largely soprano roles.

[baksty]

@Hisrevenge alot of Mezzo soprano have a large Range, so they can do roles of sopranos if you want to Decide What kind of voice she is you should decide that According to the Gwen

[Hisrevenge]

I've never heard the term gwen before. Explain?

If one is a true mezzo soprano singing dramatic soprano roles would not be possible for an extended amount of time. If I'm not mistaken she didn't start singing predominantly mezzo soprano roles until the 70's.

[baksty]

@Hisrevenge its mean timbre

[Haaxma]

I studied singing and sing professionally, and learned that colour, brightness, darkness etc of the voice are the telling aspects to know what kind of a voice one has. I heard of a very famous italian dramatic mezzo (I forget who now) who would sing The Queen of the NIght in her dressing room for fun!

[99Isher]

E' grandissima, è stupenda, come sempre. Esce vittoriosa finanche dal confronto con il Re gravissimo.

Mi permetto di segnalare due altre grandissime interpretazioni, quella del Contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink, e quella del Mezzosoprano Christa Ludwig.

Tre interpretazioni, e tre voci, molto diverse, ma tutte e tre assolutamente esemplari.

[Trovatore75]

...and by the way Marian Anderson was a dramatic mezzo if not even a Contralto (she sung Ulrica). It's a pretty crazy comparison to make...

[Trovatore75]

@pharrisbaritone

You're obviously not a woman - otherwise you would know that a low D is pretty low for a Soprano. She goes down because as an interpretation you go downwards when you sleep or die - you don't die very well rising an octave. She prefers interpretation to a pretty middle D and that's the difference between good singers and great ones.

[Trovatore75]

Großartige Sängerin... Es waren schöne Zeiten wo die Sänger nicht dazu gedrillt waren alles nur steril zu singen :)

[gipskull]

please also take a look on my cover version ... thank you - this video is realy great !

[mauromori]

Brava! Não se intimida com o Ré grave no final!

[kleinbittersdorf]

i dont like vibrato stuff at all...mais elle chante tres bien ..bellissima

[pop0313]

very good ... I love her low pitch

[mbr87]

super lied, eins meiner favoriten von schubert! thx!

[am1748]

Fantastic pianist! beautiful introduction with round tone but distinct melodic line. Gives perfect support and partnership ti this great singer.

[daniellecrp]

Brava!

[ClassicalMusicReview]

This is not one of my favorite performances by her. The phrases go by politely and prettily without a strong affect. Nor is even that weak affect varied. Each phrase is pretty much like the rest and there is very little inflection of color here.The timing is also too straightjacketed.I have never seen anyone mourn so regularly in Swiss time as this...except modern pianists executing Chopin. I don't believe that she was much in the mood for mourning here...or even Schubert on this night.

[moghedien13]

ALthough I think, like mostly everybody else, that Crespin was definitely a mezzo later on or maybe something in between, im so glad she sang soprano even if she didnt have very well developed high notes. much as i love birgit nilsson and others, none of them brought so much womanliness to singing wagner and strauss as daramtic sopranos (with maybe the exception of rysanek).

[Teard3mon]

It would be better, if she would makes her voice more different between the maiden and the death.

[rustydog1236]

listen to her vibrato... Absolute control and conscience manipulation to make it so beautiful. Just perfect.

[climatechangekills]

To be mezzo, contalto or soprano is a question of color of the timbre not necesarily the range. A soprano can have low notes as a contralto high notes it is the color of the voice that is going to be different! the princess eboli is sung by a mezzo and the higher note is un contre ré which is high! ok natalie dessay can't sing eboli but a falcon or a dramatic can it's just going to sound different than a mezzo. The higher notes are going to lose their roundness and are going to sound bright

[Iareto]

This is true, but by that logic, Hvorostovsky is bass-baritone or even a bass (black color). Range does have something to do with it, but not "I can hit that note". It's more of a "I am comfortable singing this high for an entire four hour opera" kind of a thing. It's pretty difficult to tell, all things considered.

[climatechangekills]

Yes the range is important but I think the color is paramount to "classify" someone. I sang mezzo for 4 years people thought and some still do that i was mezzo because have got dark low notes, I discovered that I was falcon because of the high notes which sounds bright and lose the roundness of the mezzo. And of course felt a lot more confortable singing Elsa than dalila! After 4 years my cordes were slack! You're right the range is important but the color is too.

[climatechangekills]

(Continued) Crespin has low notes as we have seen, but she doesn't sound like Borodina who is a mezzo, they both have a wide range but the timbre is different. Crespin's is dark and then clear once she reaches the medium and high range whereas Borodina's is dark all the way. It can be hard to pick up. But once it's done it is worth for it saves a lot of damage. There're so many sopran dramatic or falcon who try to sound mezzo and mess up their voices.

[climatechangekills]

(Continued 2) They artificially inflate their voice to sound mezzo. Which after a while causes the vocal cordes to become slack and the voice to start wobbling. Real mezzos are rare and contraltos are even rarer for it is true it is almost a man voice. ;)

[Prickler32]

I think you are both right. It's a combination of the two things. My voice sounds quite bright at the top but there is no way I could call myself a baritone. I could never sustain that range over the lenght of a full opera.

[jlee800]

I was listening to Christa Ludwig and she couldn't sing the low note as well as Regine Crespin.

It's too bad Crespin didn't record much lieder.

[GingaNed]

Ahhhhhhhhh ! Ich finde sowas immer voll gruselig !

[Natarwen]

Régine est la meilleure!

[melinat]

Excellent performance for a soprano...incredible the low notes at the end.Jessye Norman sings this lied very well too but the low notes are not so clear.

[khykhy]

very clear.. but not a beautiful and rich as Marion Andersons D

[hoshiesther]

@khykhy it's Marian Anderson, dear...

[141407078989]

soprano? great high but very good low too, I would say mezzo...

[BOKAJIUCTKA]

if a soprano has low notes that means that she is a mezzo?what about Maria Callas?she supposed to be a soprano coloratura but she had also low notes...

[141407078989]

if a soprano can sing low D, then what can we expect from mezzos? a man voice? and from contraltos? I've allways said that Callas speaking voice is a mezzo voice, just as many other dramatic soprano who just happen to be mezzos with no fear to sing high

[BOKAJIUCTKA]

if a soprano has low notes that means that she is a mezzo?what about Maria Callas?she supposed to be a soprano coloratura but she had also low notes...

[wotansings]

Crespin's top was always difficult(only loud or an efficient but disconnceted piano, no ohter dynamics,no messa di voce possible), her top and high middle register always sounded clearly soprano, but the lower register was astonishngly developped as we can hear here. In France that's what they call a "Falcon" (a famous singer of the past who had this type of vice qualities). She switched quickly over to mezzo (due too vocal problems and cancer desease)

[ata1968]

Thank so so much for sharing this clip with all of us. I truelly enjoy of her voice.

[Jopolis07]

best ive heard from a woman - personally i prefer dietrich fischer diskau.

[benderpm]

Beautiful!

[SignoraSanDenato]

Amazing artist...she just embodies the art of lieder singing! And her pianist is awesome too!

[sonqualnave]

wow she made the low D...

[emmapeels]

eh oui, une tessiture de soprano dramtique très ample, mais ses graves sont encore plus beaux dans "ma bele amie est morte" de Berlioz un superbe mi (E) grave !

[leontyne2]

very classy. just words and music and a beautiful voice that is expressive and sensitive to the texts. Peter Gelb should watch this and learn that opera doesn't have to be all showbiz. The music and the text says it all!

[ah332]

i believe it's "der tod" not "das tod"

[themackdiva]

Well thank goodness for people who have true respect for this golden age of Singers...Keep posting.

[Glenmed]

Wonderful voice and interpretation in each fach in French, German and Italian. Love her "Les Troyens".