Germaine Martinelli

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: (Louis-Etienne-)Ernest Reyer, Nérini Nerini, Hector Berlioz, César Franck, Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Raoul Laparra, George Frideric Handel, Claude Debussy, Franz Lehár, Gabriel Fauré

Label: Vintage Music Company

Magazine Review Date: 1/1998

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 72

Mastering:

ADD

Catalogue Number: VM1005

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Marie-Magdeleine, Movement: ~	Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra Albert Wolff, Conductor Germaine Martinelli, Soprano Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Composer
(La) Damnation de Faust, Movement: ~	Hector Berlioz, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra Albert Wolff, Conductor Germaine Martinelli, Soprano Hector Berlioz, Composer
Ottone, Re di Germania, Movement: ~	George Frideric Handel, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra Albert Wolff, Conductor George Frideric Handel, Composer Germaine Martinelli, Soprano
Serse, 'Xerxes', Movement: ~	George Frideric Handel, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra Albert Wolff, Conductor George Frideric Handel, Composer Germaine Martinelli, Soprano
Salammbo	(Louis-Etienne-)Ernest Reyer, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra (Louis-Etienne-)Ernest Reyer, Composer Albert Wolff, Conductor Germaine Martinelli, Soprano
Werther, Movement: ~	Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra Albert Wolff, Conductor Germaine Martinelli, Soprano Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Composer
(Les) Béatitudes	César Franck, Composer César Franck, Composer
(L') Enfant prodigue, Movement: Récit et Air de Lia, 'L'année en vain chasse l'année'	Claude Debussy, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra Albert Wolff, Conductor Claude Debussy, Composer Germaine Martinelli, Soprano
Nocturne	César Franck, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra Albert Wolff, Conductor César Franck, Composer Germaine Martinelli, Soprano
(4) Songs, Movement: No. 4, Les Roses d'Ispahan (wds. de Lisle)	Gabriel Fauré, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra Albert Wolff, Conductor Gabriel Fauré, Composer Germaine Martinelli, Soprano
Chènes des jardins	Raoul Laparra, Composer Germaine Martinelli, Soprano Raoul Laparra, Composer Raoul Laparra, Piano
(La) Nuit bleue	Nérini Nerini, Composer Germaine Martinelli, Soprano Nérini Nerini, Composer Raoul Laparra, Piano
(Die) Lustige Witwe, '(The) Merry Widow', Movement: ~	Franz Lehár, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra Albert Wolff, Conductor Franz Lehár, Composer Germaine Martinelli, Soprano
Eva (Das Fabriksmädel), Movement: ~	Franz Lehár, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra Albert Wolff, Conductor Franz Lehár, Composer Germaine Martinelli, Soprano

Author:

If Germaine Martinelli has come to the notice of record-buyers in the post-78rpm era it will probably have been on account of her duets from Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger and Die Walkure with Georges Thill, or maybe from the attractive introduction afforded in Vol. 3 of EMI’s “The Record of Singing” (10/85 – nla). That item, a rare solo from Massenet’s drame sacre (later given as an opera), Marie-Magdeleine, is chosen to open this present selection, and in it we recognize both a lovely voice and a sensitive artist. Less interesting in style and expression is her performance of Marguerite’s arias in La damnation de Faust, though here too the voice is finely produced. Charlotte in Werther emerges more clearly as a character, but all these records so far in conjunction make us wonder whether she was not more truly a mezzo-soprano. Lia’s aria in Debussy’s L’enfant prodigue shows that that was not so, and the utterly delightful solos from The Merry Widow and Eva cancel any last doubt. These and Faure’s Les Roses d’Ispahan are perhaps the gems of the collection.
Fine copies have been used (most of the originals are rare) and though some (the excerpts from Reyer’s Salammbo, for instance) strike me as hard and overbright in sound-quality, everything is certainly very clear. Patrick Bade’s notes provide the answers to many questions but leave several open. More is needed about the music itself (why is the solo from Salammbo the “Air des Colombes”?, who was Nerini, composer of La nuit bleue?, what was Laparra’s Chenes des Jardins?). Also it would be good to know more about the singer’s career. The last date mentioned is 1936 but she was still to be heard in Paris (at the Palais, de Chaillot, for instance, in La damnation de Faust) as late as the summer of 1945.'