Last month, I did a podcast with Frederica von Stade, the great American mezzo-soprano — a Q&A. It was only natural to follow that up with a music podcast, a Music for a While, which is here. I call this podcast a “Flicka-fest.” (“Flicka” is von Stade’s nickname.) It is a sampler.
In this podcast, I say,
Von Stade is an unusually — an unusually — versatile singer. She has sung something like 70 opera roles, of various types. And vast amounts of song literature — various languages, and periods, and styles. She is not a specialist.
She is best known, probably, for Mozart. And for French music. And for contemporary American music. But she has sung anything and everything.
Her gifts are manifold: intelligence, technique, spirit — and a stunning, stunning voice. One of the most beautiful we have ever heard.
The sampler duly includes Mozart, French music, and contemporary American music. But it also includes a Rossini aria, some British folk songs (in famous arrangements by Benjamin Britten), and Mahler (“Das himmlische Leben,” from the Symphony No. 4).
Maybe I could say a word about the contemporary American song I have included. It is “Jenny Rebecca,” written by Carol Hall in the mid-1960s. Von Stade recorded it in December 1977 with her pianist Martin Katz. Two days later, she gave birth to a daughter — whom she named “Jenny Rebecca.”
All politics and no play makes Jack a dull boy. When you’re in the mood for a Flicka-fest, it is, again, here.