Over a relatively short period, Price and Karajan worked together on a surprisingly large number of projects. Of course, there were their three very famous commercial recordings: Tosca;  their controversial Carmen; and the much-loved Christmas album.

In addition during the early 1960s in Vienna or Salzburg there were Don Giovanni, Aïda, and Il Trovatore with Giulietta Simionato, Franco Corelli and Ettore Bastianini, which eventually circulated as one of the most famous of all “pirate” broadcasts.

But they also performed together sacred works in addition to the Verdi Requiem at La Scala which was the subject of a film by Henri-Georges Clouzot.

Besides today’s Bruckner, there were also Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and the Mozart Requiem.

As a special addendum, I’ve included a “Vissi d’arte” (in pretty wretched sound) from what was likely Price’s last-ever Tosca. It seems that she and Karajan didn’t work together again after 1964 until the Brahms Requiem, part of a special 4-evening visit to Carnegie Hall by the Berlin Philharmonic in 1976.

I’m not aware of any other recordings of Price in this music—could it have been the only time she performed it? This reunion was followed by more Trovatores again in Salzburg and Vienna (in a rare appearance opposite Luciano Pavarotti) along with the EMI recording.

Speaking of Price’s Tosca, later this month the Museum of Modern Art will host two screenings of the notable 1955 NBC Opera production (in English), which will be, I understand, a very rare opportunity to see this early Price document.

 

 

Bruckner: Te Deum

Salzburg Festival
24 August 1960
Broadcast

Leontyne Price
Hilde Rössl-Majdan
Fritz Wunderlich
Walter Berry

Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor – Herbert von Karajan

Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem

Carnegie Hall
13 November 1976
In-house recording

Leontyne Price
José van Dam

Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor – Herbert von Karajan

Puccini: Tosca – exc.

Vienna Staatsoper
10 June 1964

In-house recording

Tosca – Leontyne Price

Conductor — Herbert von Karajan

Today’s three Leontyne Price recordings can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a square with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 files will appear in your download directory.

After a surfeit of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess from the Met, one can hear Price, William Warfield and Cab Calloway in a complete 1952 Berlin broadcast from the historic USO tour.

In addition, nearly 300 other podcast tracks are always available from Apple Podcasts and iTunes for free or via any RSS reader.

The archive listing all “Trove Thursday” offerings in alphabetical order by composer was updated to include all material as of mid-November 2019.