# Peer Gynt Mystery Soprano!!!



## Thelonious (Apr 22, 2012)

This is my first post and quite possibly am asking too much but I am at the end of my rope.
I acquired this recording about 20 years ago off a Grieg 2 CD set with Peer Gynt and Piano Concerto in Am.
Now after listening it seems like the beginning has some tape slippage maybe from when i finally got it off a cassette and onto CD.
Anyway, I am now trying to figure out who the soprano singing "Solveig's song" is.
So far I have listened to every version on Itunes, Amazon and Rhapsody and have come up with nothing.
What's unique about it?
Well aside from the singers native language and length of song, this is the only version i have heard that draws out the end of the first line. Every other version I've heard does a much quicker resolve in the last 2 notes
I can include a list of who it is not if it makes it easier.
I hope someone can help it's just one of those trivial mysteries that i can't get out of my head.
Thanks for any help guys and gals.


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## Thelonious (Apr 22, 2012)

Wow, not a hint, tip, comment, clue, whiff, allusion, lead, inkling, remark or scent among the lot of you. I'm very dissapointed in our Opera community:tiphat: Good day to you sirs and madams.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Every country has a wealth of professional, semi-professional and amateur singers so rich that even the locals don't know them all. Your soprano could be any of these. You provide no recording clues, no conductor, no orchestra, no country - nothing, nada, nix. 

Responses are about as helpful as the amount of information given in the first place.


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## Casandra (Jan 22, 2014)

I think it's Elisabeth Söderström.Not 100% sure, but see for yourself  There's a recording of Andrew Davis' conduction.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I think we can eliminate Elisabeth Söderström from the possibles. Her LP with Andrew Davis (Peer Gynt and 5 Leider) is amongst my most played and treasured albums and doesn't sound like her.

Not that Thelonious seems to care... I think he's got a monk on ;-)


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## JohnGerald (Jul 6, 2014)

HMMM... Florence Foster Jenkins?


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## OperaGeek (Aug 15, 2014)

This is a tough one! I have gone through every recording I know, and quite a few I didn't know, but cannot find a match.

As you point out, Thelonious, the first phrase in your recording is very telling _("Kanske vil der gå både Vinter og V*å*r")_. "Your" soprano sustains the first note in "Vår" longer than in any other recording I've heard.

I had a look at the comments on YouTube, and I don't necessarily agree that the singer has to be Norwegian. I'm Norwegian, and I certainly agree that "your" soprano's Norwegian is very good, but it is not perfect. It may just be the singer's technique or diction, or the recording as such, but a couple of words are "smudged" in a way that is not typical of Norwegian. This is perhaps most noticeable in the first phrase of the second verse: _"Gud styrke dig, hvor du i Verden går!"_. In Norwegian, the "d" in "Gu*d*" is not silent, but "your" soprano does not pronounce it. It seems unlikely that a Norwegian singer would get that wrong. Then again, poor diction is hardly unheard of, even among some of the greatest singers...

Further, singers from the other Scandinavian countries can be very good at pronouncing Norwegian correctly, too. In fact, Barbara Bonney's Norwegian in the Järvi recording on DG is quite good, and she's American!

In order to possibly narrow down the field: Are you sure this recording is from a (more or less) complete recording of the Peer Gynt music, or could it be a stand-alone recording of the song?


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I agree with OperaGeek, I'm quite sure she is not Norwegian, there are some words there that are not perfectly idiomatic, I would bet that she is Swedish and her voice qualities are quite close to Elisabeth Söderström's (This said, I can't recall that I've ever heard Andrew Davis recording of Peer Gynt!)..

/ptr


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## TravisTouchdown (Aug 17, 2014)

ptr said:


> I agree with OperaGeek, I'm quite sure she is not Norwegian, there are some words there that are not perfectly idiomatic, I would bet that she is Swedish and her voice qualities are quite close to Elisabeth Söderström's (This said, I can't recall that I've ever heard Andrew Davis recording of Peer Gynt!)..
> 
> /ptr


The Swedish spell out the d in Gud, just as much as the Norwegians do. And it could just as easily be secondary to the singing technique, focusing on the wovels.

But I know for a fact that this singer must be Norwegian, because when you play the record backwards, you can loud and clear hear the words "faen jeg er så kåt" meaning "I wish I was at home doing laundry." :devil:


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