# SOPRANO TOURNAMENT: (Round 1, Match #2): Leider vs Varnay



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Frida Leider, Germany, 1888-1975






Astrid Varnay, Sweden, 1918-2006






Who's singing did you prefer and why?


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

Leider! Varnay is labored and I don't think it's the slow tempo. I don't really care for Varnay's singing from the 50s. I thought she was very good as Sieglinde in the 1941 Walkure with Melchior, but her voice by this time sounds heavy and overly dark. She also sounds like she's about to go off pitch too frequently for me. Leider is bright and silvery and impassioned. While I prefer Flagstad in this piece, it's a wonderful rendition.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Leider's studio Liebestod is mercilessly rushed (a frequent problem with 78rpm records) and gives only an approximate idea of what she could do with this music. We need to hear her 1933 live performance from the Met to take the measure of her art, but that recording has vanished from YouTube after being there for years. If anyone can find it elsewhere and bring it to us, please do!

Varnay's performance is well-conceived and dedicated, and will be enjoyed by those for whom her loose vibrato and harsh, squally high notes are not offensive. Count me out.

(I agree with vivalagentenuova that Varnay was much better earlier in her career.)


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Leider is my favourite of this type of soprano. She had a warm tone that isn't too dark (sorry Varnay, Modl and Meier!), but doesn't have the Nordic overly bright quality that sometimes annoys me from Nilsson and Flagstad either. In addition her technique was perfect.

N.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I prefer Varnay's mezzo recordings from the 50s and after rather than her soprano ones from any era. She was a superb Ortrud and Klytemnestra and if I'm being honest I only listen to her Brunhilde to get Kna's idiosyncratic way with the tetralogy.

N.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I don't much like Varnay's voice, so the choice for me would be obvious, but some of Leider's high notes sound a bit suspect to me, but it's perhaps the way she attacks them. On the other hand, I think Varnay is the more gripping performance.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Unfair as it is of me to judge as this is not my forte, I simply will base my preference on the particular sound of the singer's voice, and the voice that appealed to me more was Varnay's -- not that that is saying very much because neither of them really touched me. I was more interested in listening to the magnificent orchestra behind the singers.
(maybe sometime we'll have a conductor's choice for a change.)


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Leider for me, despite the fast tempo which doesn't really show her at her best. The ancient recording doesn't do her many favours either. I don't much like the sound of Varnay's voice I'm afraid, which puts me off what is evidently a fine performance.


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## Music Snob (Nov 14, 2018)

Leider, but I want to take a moment to recognize Varnay’s amazing Brunnhilde of the 1950’s, especially under the baton of Knappertsbusch IMO.

As for versatility obviously Leider is victorious here.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

MAS said:


> I don't much like Varnay's voice, so the choice for me would be obvious, but some of Leider's high notes sound a bit suspect to me, but it's perhaps the way she attacks them. *On the other hand, I think Varnay is the more gripping performance*.


Varnay's recording selected has brutally bright and overblown treble, even the string section is like scratching nails on a chalk board so it gives bad impression vocally (compared to soft darker sound recording for Frida) but I like the slower build up and more dramatic accents of Astrid, I feel her convey the ecstasy and boundless bliss of her transfiguration to join her beloved Tristan beyond this mortal world, yes we have some "slide" to top notes but I am less a technical vocal critic and more concerned with overall impression of the subject.....if the sound was better I would take Astrid here

Frida is very good also but a bit rushed in parts (possible because of recording media time limits), and I hadn't notice before her occasional vibrato in voice, I do like her overall warm tone......

Best Leibestod I have heard is 1949 Flagstad for radio recital with Sven Svanholm, entire program is fabulous and available on Naxos CD below.....


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Lieder by a landslide (though this isn't an entirely fair comparison, as, imo, Varnay was a mezzo the whole time and, as previous members of stated, shines more in her later years when she ventured into that rep)


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I am not that familiar with Leider so her Liebestod was a revelation. Such incredible beauty! OMG. I thought, as much as I love Astrid, there is no way she can beat Leider.
I was wrong. The feeling, the majesty, the control Varnay had over every word was amazing. Her voice was also of astonishing beauty. I love that mezzo richness coupled with a gleaming top and full vibrato as it adds drama . I don't listen to the Liebestod much so this was great.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Those commenting on the rushed tempo of Leider's recording must realize that this is not representative of the way she sang this music, and the tempo was undoubtedly not her preference. It may not even have been the conductor's choice, but may have been dictated by the capacity of the recording, a not infrequent problem with 78s. As I've remarked before, Leider's live performance at the Met in 1933 (conducted by the superb Bodanzky, I think) is very different from what we hear here; the tempo begins broadly, phrases are allowed to breathe, and Leider captures as few have done the paradoxical mixture of serenity and passion which define the reality of Isolde's state of mind. After a long evening in the theater, Leider's voice is absolutely secure, she gives us delicious portamenti that perfectly evoke both love and otherworldly delirium, there is no strain toward or at the climax, and the final phrase is as transfigured as one could wish. I offer this descriptive note only because the recording of the performance is no longer on YouTube, and I don't know where else we can go to hear it.

I'd vote for Leider here even if I didn't know how far short of her own standard this studio recording falls, but that knowledge can't but affect my feelings about the present match-up. Varnay was a potent artist and an asset to Wagner productions during the postwar decades (though I agree with those who feel she was best in mezzo roles which suited her dark timbre and didn't expose the increasing strain and harshness of her top), but Leider was in another class as a singer.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Leider is so mersilessly rushed it destroys the dreamlike state and the climax sounds almost comical. But the voice is beautiful and unforced and I like how fearlessly and easily she ascends to upper registers (the final "Lust" is not perfect though).
I had preconception I wouldn't enjoy Varnay and I didn't indeed. It's so laboured from the very first passages it almost hurts me physically. And it gets definitely worse at

"Wie den Lippen,
wonnig mild,
süßer Atem
sanft entweht"

Varnay sounds marginally better in 1955 but Leider wins hands down anyway.


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