# Any Emma Kirkby fans out there?



## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

I discovered her back the early eighties, In my early days of listening to classical music I only really listened to purely orchestral or instrumental music.
I couldn't get into vocal music, the forced vibrato style of singling just didn't appeal to me.
It all changed when I just happen to switch on the radio to hear the most beautiful singing I had ever heard to date, no over the top vibrato just a beautiful pure voice with effortless phrasing and blending perfectly into the instrumental accompaniment.
I sat transfixed and found at the end it was this Emma Kirkby singling Monteverdi, it opened the door to vocal music for me.
Since then I seen her live countless times and she is still singing as beautiful as ever even in her early sixties.
The emotional intensity she can conjure up on the stage is remarkable, you get totally hypnotised by that remarkable voice.
This South Bank Show map's the renaissance and the early part of her career, but she can be dazzling in 18th century music too, I dont think anyone sings Handel or Mozart as well as she does.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Lucky you to have heard her live. She is one of my favourite singers but I have only encountered her on recordings.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Absolutely. Emma Kirkby and Evelyn Tubb are very enjoyable singers and helped to bring the music of Monteverdi alive for me.


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

Good to hear of some other fans out there, perhaps she’s better know in the UK. 
I know her recording are always near or at the top in most reconditions. 
I feel very privileged to have heard her so many times live.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I'm always impressed with her singing. I was on another forum which regularly trashed her singing; I can't understand why.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

I have many of her singing on CD. Love her voice. Her fame shot to the stars when she recorded _The Messiah_ with Christopher Hogwood (the first period instrument version of the work), especially in the America.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I've recently acquired a number of Emma Kirkby's recordings & I like her voice (also that of Evelyn Tubb, they're on an album together doing Monteverdi duets and solos). I think it's good that many of her recordings have now been reissued, available at budget price.



Manxfeeder said:


> ...I was on another forum which regularly trashed her singing; I can't understand why...


Well, looks like Emma was the punching bag on that forum, as guys like John Cage & Xenakis have been here on TC for a while. Looks like people like punching bags, but I think "real" punching bags - eg. those found in gyms - are better & more useful than virtual ones...


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

Sid James said:


> I've recently acquired a number of Emma Kirkby's recordings & I like her voice (also that of Evelyn Tubb, they're on an album together doing Monteverdi duets and solos). I think it's good that many of her recordings have now been reissued, available at budget price.
> 
> Well, looks like Emma was the punching bag on that forum, as guys like John Cage & Xenakis have been here on TC for a while. Looks like people like punching bags, but I think "real" punching bags - eg. those found in gyms - are better & more useful than virtual ones...


I've indeed got that lovely recording myself and heard them both in concert at the time it was being recorded.
As for Emma's voice it has matured, many years ago I remember someone I knew who was heavily into grand opera being very dismissive about her voice saying she "sounded like a boy soprano" and indeed she did early on, but she certainly doesn't now. 
Last time I heard her I was impressed how powerful her voice was considering her small frame, certainly easily heard over a reasonable sized period orchestra.


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## hocket (Feb 21, 2010)

*Presto wrote:*



> I remember someone I knew who was heavily into grand opera being very dismissive about her voice saying she "sounded like a boy soprano"


Which was of course the aim in most Medieval and Renaissance music as having professional yet boyish sopranos was the answer to the problem posed by modern choirboys being unsable to match the training and experience of their counterparts in the past. Emma Kirkby and Tessa Bonner set the standard for all who have followed them on this front.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

What's not to like?

If I listen to Emma Kirkby within any given day. I can say that my day hasn't been wasted.  Her voice is just so pure, so musical, so beautiful. It's like filling your glass with cold water on a hot summer's day.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

I share the enthusiasm for Kirkby. I am particularly impressed by her contributions to the Hildegard von Bingen "Feather on the Breath of God" ablum (with the Gothic Voices), as well as her contributions to the Consort of Musicke's complete Dowland songs.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

Winterreisender said:


> I share the enthusiasm for Kirkby. I am particularly impressed by her contributions to the Hildegard von Bingen "Feather on the Breath of God" ablum (with the Gothic Voices), as well as her contributions to the Consort of Musicke's complete Dowland songs.
> 
> View attachment 32983
> 
> View attachment 32984


Both of those collections are on my ever expanding Amazon wishlist. 
It will probably take me a long time to get to the Gothic Voices disc as I got 8 discs of Hildegard's music performed by Sequentia for xmas. The Dowland on the other hand is near the top so hopefully will get to it before the year is out.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Oh yes - wonderful voice, wonderful singer - beautiful purity and clarity

for those who don't know, there's a lot of good stuff she has recorded http://www.discogs.com/artist/836115-Emma-Kirkby#p=2&t=Releases_All


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

presto said:


> Good to hear of some other fans out there, perhaps she's better know in the UK.


LOL. Ms. Kirkby, for some many years, has had an international repute (both in performance and recordings) and following. She is virtually an endemic presence when it comes to those who listen to earlier music, known as the phrase use to have it, as 'an oratorio specialist'


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I've always been impressed by her singing.


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

Headphone Hermit said:


> Oh yes - wonderful voice, wonderful singer - beautiful purity and clarity
> 
> for those who don't know, there's a lot of good stuff she has recorded http://www.discogs.com/artist/836115-Emma-Kirkby#p=2&t=Releases_All


A good link but it only lists a fraction of her recordings.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Her Dowland solo albums and Elizabethan solo albums with ayres (Virgin, L´Oiseau-Lyre & Hyperion labels) are often very fine.


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