Vespasiano

Thank you, Alann and JohnRgt! I especially enjoyed the glorious sounds of Mme. Tebaldi . . . always a welcome bit of magnificence!

Thank-you so much, Betsy!! I plan to spend the day surrounded by as much BEAUTY as possible!!

Betsy: The Sibelius song was as much in the nature of a remembrance of Stephen as it is a thank-you to you!

"Was it a dream that once, in a wonderful time, I was your heart's true love? I remember it as a song fallen silent, of which the strains still echo. "I remember a rose you tossed, a glance so shy and tender; I remember a sparkling tear when we parted. Was it all, all a dream? "A dream as brief as the life of a cowslip in a green meadow in springtime, whose beauty soon withers away before a crowd of new flowers. "But many a night I hear a voice through the flood of my bitter tears: hide this memory deep in your heart, it was your best dream!"

Although we never met in person and our communications were limited to on-line exchanges here at The Forum, nonetheless for me, Stephen Speicher was the embodiment of the word "benevolent". Jean Sibelius' brief but beautiful song, "Var det en dröm" (Was It a Dream), is one of my favorites both in terms of music and its text by Josef Julius Wecksell. This performance of it by the great Swedish tenor, Jussi Björling, is one of the most vocally opulent I've ever encountered. I think Stephen would have enjoyed it as well. To Stephen! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjUa5HQHyIY&feature=colike

Thanks so much, Betsy! I have been having a fantastic day and plan on carrying it through to next year and beyond!

A belated but heartfelt Merry Christmas to one and all on The Forum! May the New Year be joyous and productive.

A very happy, if belated, Birthday to you Nicolaus!!

And a very happy Thanksgiving to you, Betsy, and to everyone on The Forum!

As a companion piece to the concert featuring opera greats Dame Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne, here is yet another historic evening from 1979 (January) in which Dame Joan is joined by yet another of her frequent colleagues, Luciano Pavarotti. Again, Sir Richard Bonynge conducts the New York Philharmonic. The general audience pandemonium these great singers (including the fabulous Miss Horne in the October concert and a number of other artists active at the time) were able to generate with their performances is something I remember vividly from my own opera- and concert-going experiences during those years, including this particular concert which I actually attended. They had about them a truly larger-than-life vocal and physical presence rooted in a comprehensive command of their instruments and sheer joy in singing that was pure "magic", even when certain musical "bobbles" may have occurred (as they do in this concert). Sadly, one rarely encounters this today. I hope you enjoy both of these two fantastic evenings! Dame Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti in Concert, 1979

Here is a complete tape of a historic, October concert from 1979 featuring opera greats, Dame Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne, with Sir Richard Bonynge conducting the New York Philharmonic. Dame Joan, several years past her vocal prime in 1979, continued to astonish with the Bel Canto brilliance of her scales, trills, staccati, leaps and the kind of extended high notes (of enormous size, I might add!) that most sopranos of her age and voice type have abandoned if they had them at all. Perhaps things were a bit more difficult physically that evening than they had been 10 years earlier for Dame Joan; but the legendary soprano still could -- and did -- bring down the house in her own inimitable way. Some years younger than Dame Joan, Marilyn Horne was still enjoying her prime vocal years in 1979. Miss Horne's singing in this concert reflects every part of that observation, I think, from brilliant Bel Canto acrobatics that rival note-for-note Dame Joan's to the melting lyricism of Dalilah's music or a simple Steven Foster song (perhaps the highlight of evening!). What a great thing it is to have this record of some of Miss Horne's finest singing. As was the case where their now-legendary appearances together in opera, the various duets featuring Dame Joan and Miss Horne together represent a comprehensive integration of two distinct voices that has rarely been equalled on the concert stage let alone in the opera house. This was truly a concert to remember and on so many levels. Pour the wine, sit back and enjoy! Dame Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne in Concert (1979) NOTE: there is a significant "bobble" after Miss Horne's singing of the Samson and Dalilah aria ("Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix") that cuts a sizeable portion of Dame Joan's superb rendition of an aria from Lucia ("Regnava nel silenzio"). A real shame, but not a deal-breaker for the concert as a whole.

A happy belated birthday to you, Red! And . . . congratulations, Uncle!

Here is the assured and sweeping Symphony No. 1 in B Minor by one of my favorite composers, Sweden's Kurt Atterberg (1887-1974). The work was completed in 1909 when the composer was all of 22 and already the distinctively 20th Century Romanticism and marvelous orchestration that characterize Atterberg's mature style are abundantly clear. Enjoy! Kurt Atterberg: Symphony No. 1 in B Minor

A happy, Happy Birthday to you Betsy! Here's a little something to get us kicking up our heels in celebration: