Masterworks Heritage Series: Unburied Treasure

Given the economic pressures on the major classical labels, it's good news that some of them are now systematically re-activating their old catalogues. DG's series "The Originals" has reissued classic LPs by such notable artists as Richter, Fischer-Dieskau, and Boulez, with the original album covers nostalgically reproduced on the CDs. Sony's new Masterworks Heritage Series dips even further down into the catalogue of Columbia Records, which started recording opera in 1902. A two-CD set called The 1903 Grand Opera Series includes the first opera recordings ever made in this country, with a charming 50-page reproduction of the original brochure. Among the singers showcased are the legendary Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Edouard de Reszke, and Antonio Scotti. An anonymous voice from the past spiritedly introduces each selection by aria, singer, and label.

I particularly cherish two ravishingly beautiful vocal reissues in the Masterworks series: Eleanor Steber's Berlioz and soprano Bidú Sayão's recordings of Villa Lobos, other arias, and Brazilian folks songs. The recording of Berlioz's Nuits d'été (his setting of six intense and haunting poems by Théophile Gautier) that I always go back to is Steber's. Glamorous and charming, this great American soprano is equally at home in French music, Mozart, Puccini, and in the fervent sacred arias by Bach and others that are also included on this disc. Steber transcends the mere beauty of her sound with her wholehearted emotional involvement. Dimitri Mitropoulos conducted this 1954 recording shortly after he and Steber performed the belated New York premiere of the entire work.

The Brazilian soprano Bidú Sayão's most famous recording is of her countryman Heitor Villa Lobos's Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5. Conducted by the composer himself, this is the very first recording of this piece (1945), made even before the work's final section was added. Sayão is accompanied by eight cellos led by Leonard Rose, and a double bass. Villa Lobos had originally planned the solo part for violin, but Sayão talked him into trying it with her voice. In one astonishing section, what you hear sounds like a violin, but is actually Sayão -- humming, as the score indicates, with her lips closed.

The packaging has lots of pictures and information -- everything except what you want most: the words to the songs and arias. Still, it's important that the big labels have begun to realize what treasures lie buried in their own backyards.

-- Lloyd Schwartz