Massenet, Jules - A Recital With Renee Fleming

I thoroughly enjoyed this lovely recital. Renee Fleming presents an intelligent selection of Viennese Fin de Siecle lieder from the cute light fare in the beginning to balance the heavier selections in the middle. I think the Korngold selections are my favorite and she sings the meltingly lovely "Marietta's Lied" in encore. I had not heard the Zemlinsky selections previously and found them rather dark and grim but Ms. Fleming got into the drama of their forboding subject and pulled them off well. Other reviewers have wondered at her selection of Gershwin's Summertime as the final encore but I thought it a nice light happy ending after the heavy emotional pull of the latter selections in the program. Overall a wonderful performance by Ms. Fleming. Her presence on stage is magnetic and she really works to engage her audience. What could be batter than her golden voice in the Golden Hall at the Musikverein! Well worth purchasing for any fan of Ms. Fleming's.

Yes received in a timely manner just what I expected thank you

The program material was not to my taste, though it was well sung. The video images were clear, the sound was fine.

She is wonderful as usual - sublime in recital

Just simply stunning!

A fantastic recital! It is worth having for the Zemlinsky and Korngold alone, but the entire program is wonderful. It is great to have the wonderful often forgotten music of the era represented in such a perfect historically important recital. And, to have them performed to perfection will guarantee they last. Perhaps this will help get the Korngold songs more success and have them get heard by more and more audiences. They deserve so much more than history and World War II allowed.

The great soprano, Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf once said: "When you go and hear a lieder recital, you should leave a different person than you were before it began". For me, after watching Renee Fleming's concert titled 'Vienna at the Turn of the 20th century' in the most sumptuous setting of the Great Hall of Musikverein, well known for its best acoustics, her glorious voice definitely lifted me up and put me down in a beautiful bygone age. It was the best thing that I had ever done at the new year's eve to watch this concert on DVD. It will always remain in my memory as long as I live. Her performance of Korngold's lieder ('Was du mir bist') took my breath away. It's so natural, so poetic and so effortlessly beautiful like watching the afterglow of sunset.

I bought this for my daughter, a singer. She was delighted to find that she had heard Renee sing much of this repertoire in a London concert.

Fantastic!

A great xmas present for a differcult Dad !