Leontyne Price’s New York recitals were always big events. She would plan them well in advance, give a ‘try-out’ at home for a group of close friends, and the afternoon or evening itself would seem like a gathering of some great family. Though she had, and still has, the grand manner, nothing if not a heroine, Price the great communicator continues to search for new things.
As she was in her sixty-fourth year when this concert was recorded, there are inevitably moments of slight strain on the high notes. The opera arias at the beginning are impressive for the weight of tone and drama, but it’s the encores, especially the Butterfly extracts, that catch her at her most expressive. Even “Summertime”, which she sang at almost every concert she ever gave, is given a new interpretation here.
The most valuable aspect of this CD, though, is the glimpse it affords of Price the Lieder singer and advocate for American song. Lee Hoiby composed songs specially for her, and it is good to have at least a souvenir of their collaboration in these three beautiful songs. Always it’s spring is a text by e. e. cummings, with a great high-lying climax on the final image of people floating away into the sky, There came a wind like a bugle and Wild nights both set texts by Emily Dickinson and, near the end of the concert, Price is in full cry, words clear, voice poised as of old. My favourite track of all is the penultimate encore, the spiritual Witness, with a sly characterization of Delilah as she asks Samson where his strength comes from. We might ask the same question of Price herself, and her answer in part comes in the final item, America the Beautiful, sung unaccompanied. I would defy anybody to listen to this and remain unmoved.PO'C