A Program Of Song - Leontyne Price

 

Poulenc

A Program Of Song

Leontyne Price

David Gravey at The Piano

Produced by Richard Mohr

Engineer: John Crawford

RCA Victor LM-2278

1958

From the back cover: It was as Mistress Ford in a Juilliard School production of Verdi's Falstaff that Leontyne Price first attracted the attention of the musical world. Among those who recognized her great potential was composer-critic Virgil Thomson, who was preparing a revival of his opera Four Saints in Three Acts. He assigned the Mississippi-born soprano one of the major roles. After a Broadway run the production was sent to Paris to represent this country in the French Inter- national Arts Festival.

Shortly thereafter Miss Price was signed to portray Bess in the now his- toric 1952 production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. The show was so well received in Dallas, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Washington that the Department of State persuaded the producers to postpone the Broadway run and take the production to Europe. It played the capitals of Western Europe with great success and Leontyne Price was acclaimed for both her voice and her acting ability. During the subsequent Broadway run she undertook a few additional engagements, including a recital at the Library of Congress in which she gave the first performance of Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs, with the composer at the piano. One of the happiest outcomes of Miss Price's association with Porgy and Bess was her marriage to the show's star, baritone William Warfield.

In November of 1954 the soprano made her formal New York recital debut at Town Hall. Since that time her schedule of performances has increased with each season. In addition to recital tours she has appeared as soloist with the orchestras of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Washington, D. C. and Toronto. Simultaneously she has pursued a career in opera. In 1955 she sang Tosca with the NBC Opera Company and later appeared with that company in The Magic Flute and in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites.

In the fall of 1957 Leontyne Price made her operatic stage debut with the San Francisco Opera Company in the American première of the Poulenc opera. In subsequent appearances in San Francisco she has sung Aïda, the lead in Carl Orff's The Wise Maiden, Leonora in Il Trovatore, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. It was as Aïda that she triumphed during the summer of 1958, making her debuts with three major European opera companies-first in Vienna under Herbert von Karajan, then at London's Covent Garden, and finally at Verona under Tullio Serafin. During the 1959 season she made her first appearances with the Chicago Lyric Opera Company singing Thaïs, and Liù in Puccini's Turandot.

Side 1 

Fauré
CLAIR DE LUNE, Op. 46, No. 2 (Poem by Paul Verlaine)

NOTRE AMOUR, Op. 23, No. 2 (Poem by Armand Silvestre)

AU CIMETIÈRE, Op. 51, No. 2 (Poem by Jean Richepin)

AU BORD DE L'EAU, Op. 8, No. 1 (Poem by Sully Prudhomme)

MANDOLINE, Op. 58, No. 1 (Poem by Paul Verlaine)

Poulenc
MAIN DOMINÉE PAR LE CŒŒUR (Poem by Paul Eluard)

JE NOMMERAI TON FRONT (Miroirs Brûlants No. 2) (Poem by Paul Eluard) 

TU VOIS LE FEU DU SOIR (Miroirs Brûlants No. 1) (Poem by Paul Eluard) 

CE DOUX PETIT VISAGE (Poem by Paul Eluard)

Side 2

Richard Strauss

ALLERSEELEN, Op. 10, No. 8 (Poem by Hermann von Gilm)
SCHLAGENDE HERZEN, Op. 29, No. 2 (Poem by Otto Julius Bierbaum)

FREUNDLICHE VISION, Op. 48, No. 1 (Poem by Otto Julius Bierbaum)

WIE SOLLTEN WIR GEHEIM, Op. 19, No. 4 (Poem by A. F. von Schack)

Wolf
DER GÄRTNER (Mörike-Lieder No. 17)

LEBE WOHL (Mörike-Liede. No. 36)

MORGENTAU (From an Old Song Book)

GEH', GELIEBTER, GEH' JETZT (Spanisches Liederbuch No. 34)