Phase 4 Stereo Revival: Eileen Farrell, Marilyn Horne & Robert Merrill

Decca Classics is scheduled to release a 41-CD box set of its Phase 4 Stereo recordings that will feature 11 first international CD releases. Choosing from over 200 albums dating back as early as 1964 when the company started recordings of big classical works for large scale symphonies, the collection features film scores, popular ballet titles, big band and light classics, alongside major piano and violin concertos. Included in the set are some vocal pieces as well. Carl Orff's Carmina Burana featuring Norma Burrowes, Louis Devos, and John Shirley-Quirk, under the direction of Antal Doráti, and Beethoven's Symphony #9 featuring Heather Harper, Helen Watts, Alexander Young, Donald McIntyre, with conductor Leopold Stokowski, have both been previously released on CD. Three other discs are coming to the market complete for the first time on CD: The Magnificent Voice of Eileen Farrell, Marilyn Horne Sings Carmen and Robert Merrill: Americana. The Eileen Farrell recording totals 36 minutes and features tunes from

Broadway shows, spirituals and traditional American standards. One hopes that this will spur Sony Classics to release her other albums (originally recorded on Columbia) not previously made public like the Arias in the Grand Tradition, Carols for Christmas, This Fling Called Love, and highlights from Cherubini's Medea. Of rare interest is the disc with Marilyn Horne singing highlights from Bizet's Carmen with conductor (and then-husband) Henry Lewis. The recording features highlights from all four acts, including the title character's two big arias "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" and "Près des remparts de Séville." Also left unreleased by Sony Classics was the recording (originally for RCA) of Marilyn Horne Sings Carmen Jones, which comes from the soundtrack of the film featuring Dorothy Dandridge for whom the mezzo dubbed the singing. The third selection found in the new box-set is Robert Merrill: Americana. Much like the Farrell album, this recording features Broadway (Oklahoma), Stephen Foster classics and traditional American

songs ("Camptown Races," "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," etc). Earlier this year, Decca released a host of treasures long in the vault. Let's hope that the executives continue to relinquish the goods. No word on whether these discs will be sold individually after the release of the box set. Listen to audio clips and see complete track list here for the Phase 4 Stereo box set. See some intriguing albums missing from the Phase 4 Stereo box set, read more about the Phase 4 Stereo history, and see the artwork for the new release, after the jump. 

Stephanie Blythe Offers Up A Great American Songbook CD

With the cross-over capabilities of Eileen Farrell, the booming-voice belt of Kate Smith, and Americana can-do spirit of Marilyn Horne, the mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe charters 19th-century popular song territory with the new CD As Long As There Are Songs. The recording will be released on September 24, 2013. Click here for the full liner notes and here to order the CD. A bonus audio clip of "Bei mir bist du Schön" can be heard here. Complete track list after the jump.

Sony Classical Digs Deep For Rarities on Verdi Bicentennial

Sony Classical has taken the opportunity to mine the treasure trove of their back catalog (featuring recordings from inherited labels of RCA Victor Red Seal, Columbia, and CBS Masterworks) to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi's birth. Some rarities are unearthed for the first time on this occasion, while others have had previous incarnations on compact disc in the past. Of particular interest is the album "A Verdi Collaboration" featuring soprano Anna Moffo with conductor Franco Ferrara. Making its appearance for the first time on CD, it is a welcome tribute from the discography* of Ms. Moffo who passed away in 2006. Track listing from this 1962 recording includes:
1. Vespri Siciliani, Act V: "Mercè, dilette amiche"
2. Ernani, Act I: "Ernani involami"
3. Aida:, Act III: "O patria mia"
4. Il trovatore, Act IV: "D'amor sull'ali rosee"
5. Giovanna d'Arco, Prologue: "O ben s'addice questo torbido cielo"
6. Otello, Act IV: "Salce, Salce - Ave Maria"
7. Un ballo in maschera, Act III: "Morrò ma prima in grazia"
8. Simon Boccanegra, Act I: "Come in quest'ora bruna"

*Sony Classical would do well to look at the soprano's other recordings in the vault that could be released in a box-set tribute: "Anna Moffo Sings Berlin," "French Opera Arias," "Dream Duet" with Sergio Franchi, "Songs of Debussy," "Anna Moffo Sings Gershwin," "Bist du's, lachendes Glück" and "True Love" duet albums with Rudolf Schock, "Film music of Ennio Morricone," and the complete recording of Massenet's "Thais." In the meantime, there is a 10-CD collection that will satisfy some needs!

After the jump are several more of the original cover art releases of Verdi works by Sony Classical that will be showing up mid-summer in the international markets.

Happy Birthday: Eileen Farrell

"Suicidio" La Gioconda Ponchielli

Eileen Farrell (February 13, 1920 – March 23, 2002) was an American opera and concert singer soprano. During her career, Farrell was greatly admired as an opera singer, but she preferred the concert hall and radio to the theater. Farrell was born in Willimantic, Connecticut, but she moved at an early age to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, which she always publicly and affectionately called her home town. Her parents were vaudeville singers. In 1942 she made her concert debut on CBS radio where she soon presented her own radio program. During 1947–1948, she toured the US as a concert singer, and in 1949 she toured South America.

"Cäcilie" Strauss

Farrell's song recital in New York in October 1950 was enthusiastically acclaimed and gained her immediate recognition. That year, she also appeared in a concert performance of Berg's Wozzeck as Marie. In 1952, she was engaged by Arturo Toscanini for his first and only studio recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. In the 1955 film Interrupted Melody, which starred Eleanor Parker as Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence, Eileen Farrell supplied the singing voice. As early as 1956 she appeared before an audience of over 13,000 under the direction of the conductor Alfredo Antonini in a