Roberta Alexander, Netherlands PO, Edo De Waart - Samuel Barber: Andromache; Cleopatra; Vanessa; Knoxville; Songs (1993)
Samuel Barber: Andromache; Cleopatra; Vanessa; Knoxville; Songs (1993)
Roberta Alexander, soprano; Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra; Edo De Waart, conductor
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue&Log) ~ 234 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 139 Mb | Scans ~ 52 Mb
Genre: Classical, Vocal | Label: Etcetera | # KTC1145 | Time: 01:00:40
Roberta Alexander, soprano; Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra; Edo De Waart, conductor
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue&Log) ~ 234 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 139 Mb | Scans ~ 52 Mb
Genre: Classical, Vocal | Label: Etcetera | # KTC1145 | Time: 01:00:40
Roberta Alexander’s outstanding CD of vocal music by Samuel Barber demonstrates the soprano’s understanding of the composer’s musical language and emotional content … The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic plays very well under the tasteful leadership of Edo de Waart.
This follow up to Roberta Alexander's Etcetera disc of Barber songs with piano (9/88) will be welcomed by the composer's growing band of devotees. Alexander has her admirers too, and only those familiar with Leontyne Price's sublime and sultry Knoxville or her devastating account of the scenes from Antony and Cleopatra will find much to criticize. De Waart neither indulges nor supercharges Barber's music as Schippers did for RCA on that long-deleted LP (8/69), and, rather against my expectations, I found his more relaxed approach just as compelling in its own way. Alexander's voice is not as large as Price's; this is arguably an advantage in Knoxville which she sings relatively straight (though much less so than Eleanor Steber—on CBS—who commissioned the work), but she can sound strained when Barber demands bold declamation at the extremes of the range. As Anthony Burton points out in the notes, Barber himself trained as a singer—one of the very few composers to have done so since Renaissance times. And yet his vocal writing is always a challenge, by no means easy to bring off when, like Britten, he liked to play to the strengths of specific performers.
Those who admire the American composer when he's being flagrantly conservative—and preferably regressing to childhood if not the womb—will skip the forced chromaticism of Andromache's Farewell (the definitive CBS recording by Martina Arroyo is both more comfortably sung and more scorchingly intense) and relish the simpler songs from earlier in his career, in particular the exquisite Sure on this Shining Night. Barber's setting may be modelled on Robert Schumann, but in its orchestrated form there are portents of Knoxville, which also sets a text by James Agee. Nocturne, again from the Op. 13 group, is based on a love poem by Frederic Prokosch who reports hearing none other than Sir Thomas Beecham singing it informally, to his own accompaniment.
The recording itself is beautifully engineered without being entirely consistent. There's always plenty of space around the recessed orchestral image, but the soloist is occasionally masked by the resonance. The military imagery of Joyce's I Hear an Army could have done with a closer focus on (and less vibrato from) the singer. On the other hand, the poignant aria, ''Must the winter come so soon?'' (from Barber's first full-length opera, Vanessa) finds the microphones closer and Alexander effectively scaling down her voice to impersonate the young niece of the protagonist. It's a pity the number is faded out so abruptly given that the composer himself published it separately. But these are minor reservations when much of the music is little known, although this must be the first time that all Barber's operas have been simultaneously available complete on disc in the UK. Etcetera supply full texts and deserve high praise for another adventurous issue.'Review by Gramophone
Roberta Alexander, Netherlands PO, Edo De Waart - Samuel Barber: Andromache; Cleopatra; Vanessa; Knoxville; Songs (1993)
Roberta Alexander, soprano
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Edo De Waart, conductor
Recorded at "De Doelen", Rotterdam on August 24, 25 and 26, 1992
Tracklist:
01. Andromache's Farewell, op. 39 (12:45)
02. Antony and Cleopatra, op. 40 - Give me some music (08:32)
03. Antony and Cleopatra, op. 40 - Death of Cleopatra (07:57)
04. Three Orchestrated Songs - I hear an Army (02:35)
05. Three Orchestrated Songs - Nocturne (03:21)
06. Three Orchestrated Songs - Sure on this shining night (02:29)
07. Vanessa, op. 32 - Must the winter come so soon (02:30)
08. Vanessa, op. 32 - Do not utter a word (04:48)
09. Knoxville: Summer of 1915, op. 24 (15:42)
Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015
EAC extraction logfile from 30. April 2016, 0:03
Barber / Scenes & Arias - Roberta Alexander
Used drive : PLEXTOR CD-R PREMIUM2 Adapter: 5 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 30
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : Yes
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 896 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM ARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "COMMENT=EAC Secure Mode, Test & Copy, AccurateRip, FLAC -6" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
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1 | 0:00.00 | 12:45.62 | 0 | 57436
2 | 12:45.62 | 8:32.00 | 57437 | 95836
3 | 21:17.62 | 7:57.00 | 95837 | 131611
4 | 29:14.62 | 2:35.00 | 131612 | 143236
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6 | 35:10.62 | 2:29.00 | 158312 | 169486
7 | 37:39.62 | 2:30.00 | 169487 | 180736
8 | 40:09.62 | 4:48.00 | 180737 | 202336
9 | 44:57.62 | 15:42.13 | 202337 | 272999
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [A7435973] (AR v2)
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Track 2
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [58CA6EC3] (AR v2)
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Track 3
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [765B0F3F] (AR v2)
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Track 4
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Test CRC 79678658
Copy CRC 79678658
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [42C72A2E] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename D:\EAC extraction\05 - Three Orchestrated Songs - Nocturne.wav
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Test CRC 091FDE65
Copy CRC 091FDE65
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [033AE4F1] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename D:\EAC extraction\06 - Three Orchestrated Songs - Sure on this shining night.wav
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Test CRC 0F305917
Copy CRC 0F305917
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [391A921F] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename D:\EAC extraction\07 - Vanessa - Must the winter come so soon.wav
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Test CRC 63E04EEC
Copy CRC 63E04EEC
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [153855D8] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 8
Filename D:\EAC extraction\08 - Vanessa - Do not utter a word.wav
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Test CRC F2795FB1
Copy CRC F2795FB1
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [35279ADB] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 9
Filename D:\EAC extraction\09 - Knoxville; Summer of 1915.wav
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [AF6B2C41] (AR v2)
Copy OK
All tracks accurately ripped
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End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
[CTDB TOCID: uMom3nigqvPhtDtfJFBEGFDSsS8-] found
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3 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
4 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
5 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
6 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
7 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
8 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
9 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum 209A6779AFF3708C1AEA9EBE3A7C9200662378238410663A7B11FECD13AF94CE ====
EAC extraction logfile from 30. April 2016, 0:03
Barber / Scenes & Arias - Roberta Alexander
Used drive : PLEXTOR CD-R PREMIUM2 Adapter: 5 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 30
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : Yes
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 896 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM ARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "COMMENT=EAC Secure Mode, Test & Copy, AccurateRip, FLAC -6" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 12:45.62 | 0 | 57436
2 | 12:45.62 | 8:32.00 | 57437 | 95836
3 | 21:17.62 | 7:57.00 | 95837 | 131611
4 | 29:14.62 | 2:35.00 | 131612 | 143236
5 | 31:49.62 | 3:21.00 | 143237 | 158311
6 | 35:10.62 | 2:29.00 | 158312 | 169486
7 | 37:39.62 | 2:30.00 | 169487 | 180736
8 | 40:09.62 | 4:48.00 | 180737 | 202336
9 | 44:57.62 | 15:42.13 | 202337 | 272999
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Test CRC F4C2CF58
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [A7435973] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename D:\EAC extraction\02 - Antony and Cleopatra - Give me some music.wav
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Test CRC 40D089D7
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [58CA6EC3] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename D:\EAC extraction\03 - Antony and Cleopatra - Death of Cleopatra.wav
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Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 5B46D4AC
Copy CRC 5B46D4AC
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [765B0F3F] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename D:\EAC extraction\04 - Three Orchestrated Songs - I hear an Army.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:08.62
Peak level 89.4 %
Extraction speed 1.8 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 79678658
Copy CRC 79678658
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [42C72A2E] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename D:\EAC extraction\05 - Three Orchestrated Songs - Nocturne.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:03.62
Peak level 90.6 %
Extraction speed 1.8 X
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Test CRC 091FDE65
Copy CRC 091FDE65
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [033AE4F1] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename D:\EAC extraction\06 - Three Orchestrated Songs - Sure on this shining night.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:03.62
Peak level 64.3 %
Extraction speed 1.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0F305917
Copy CRC 0F305917
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [391A921F] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename D:\EAC extraction\07 - Vanessa - Must the winter come so soon.wav
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Extraction speed 1.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 63E04EEC
Copy CRC 63E04EEC
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [153855D8] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 8
Filename D:\EAC extraction\08 - Vanessa - Do not utter a word.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:03.62
Peak level 73.7 %
Extraction speed 1.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F2795FB1
Copy CRC F2795FB1
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [35279ADB] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 9
Filename D:\EAC extraction\09 - Knoxville; Summer of 1915.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:05.62
Peak level 86.8 %
Extraction speed 1.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 1FCFD8C1
Copy CRC 1FCFD8C1
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [AF6B2C41] (AR v2)
Copy OK
All tracks accurately ripped
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
[CTDB TOCID: uMom3nigqvPhtDtfJFBEGFDSsS8-] found
Submit result: uMom3nigqvPhtDtfJFBEGFDSsS8- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
2 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
3 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
4 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
5 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
6 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
7 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
8 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
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==== Log checksum 209A6779AFF3708C1AEA9EBE3A7C9200662378238410663A7B11FECD13AF94CE ====
foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-03-03 00:36:27
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Barber / Scenes & Arias - Roberta Alexander
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR15 0.00 dB -21.17 dB 12:46 01-Andromache's Farewell, op. 39
DR15 -0.12 dB -23.17 dB 8:32 02-Antony and Cleopatra, op. 40 - Give me some music
DR14 0.00 dB -19.67 dB 7:57 03-Antony and Cleopatra, op. 40 - Death of Cleopatra
DR13 -0.96 dB -18.01 dB 2:35 04-Three Orchestrated Songs - I hear an Army
DR14 -0.86 dB -23.27 dB 3:21 05-Three Orchestrated Songs - Nocturne
DR12 -3.82 dB -22.61 dB 2:29 06-Three Orchestrated Songs - Sure on this shining night
DR11 -6.23 dB -23.55 dB 2:30 07-Vanessa, op. 32 - Must the winter come so soon
DR13 -2.65 dB -21.89 dB 4:48 08-Vanessa, op. 32 - Do not utter a word
DR16 -1.22 dB -23.10 dB 15:42 09-Knoxville: Summer of 1915, op. 24
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Number of tracks: 9
Official DR value: DR14
Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 552 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================
log date: 2017-03-03 00:36:27
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Barber / Scenes & Arias - Roberta Alexander
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR15 0.00 dB -21.17 dB 12:46 01-Andromache's Farewell, op. 39
DR15 -0.12 dB -23.17 dB 8:32 02-Antony and Cleopatra, op. 40 - Give me some music
DR14 0.00 dB -19.67 dB 7:57 03-Antony and Cleopatra, op. 40 - Death of Cleopatra
DR13 -0.96 dB -18.01 dB 2:35 04-Three Orchestrated Songs - I hear an Army
DR14 -0.86 dB -23.27 dB 3:21 05-Three Orchestrated Songs - Nocturne
DR12 -3.82 dB -22.61 dB 2:29 06-Three Orchestrated Songs - Sure on this shining night
DR11 -6.23 dB -23.55 dB 2:30 07-Vanessa, op. 32 - Must the winter come so soon
DR13 -2.65 dB -21.89 dB 4:48 08-Vanessa, op. 32 - Do not utter a word
DR16 -1.22 dB -23.10 dB 15:42 09-Knoxville: Summer of 1915, op. 24
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Number of tracks: 9
Official DR value: DR14
Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 552 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================
Roberta Alexander, Netherlands PO, Edo De Waart - Samuel Barber: Andromache; Cleopatra; Vanessa; Knoxville; Songs (1993)
Roberta Alexander, Netherlands PO, Edo De Waart - Samuel Barber: Andromache; Cleopatra; Vanessa; Knoxville; Songs (1993)
