Bernac makes Souzay sound like Bastianini. In all seriousness, this
'french style' in melodie has never appealed to me, however 'correct'.
The heir to Souzay's mantle, Francois Le Roux, is much the same. For my
buck, I prefer the Swiss Bernard Kruysen (I have recordings of Faure,
Ravel, Poulenc and Debussy) and the French Canadian Bruno LaPlante.
Mark
"Sing on the interest, not on the principal" - Florence Page Kimball, to
her student Leontyne Price
"The voice is not a fist." - Fritz Wunderlich
"I sing with a slim voice." - Birgit Nilsson
On Sat, 25 Jan 2003, Colin Reed wrote:
> I find that the singer I find least easy to listen to on this is Souzay,
> although many french specialists claim him to be the best interpreter since
> Bernac. I haven't heard Bernac myself, but many friends tell me that I
> would probably find the same as with Souzay. Is this style of singing,
> which I see as eccentric interpretation at the expense of musicality and
> technique, solely common to french music? Does it occur with English
> singers and, being English myself, I just don't notice it as much?
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