The Evening Standard (London)

October 20, 2004

THE DEFINITIVE 100 CLASSICAL CDS

NORMAN LEBRECHT

8 MAGNIFICATHY

CATHY BERBERIAN

The most versatile voice of the 20th century has left scarcely a
recorded trace. Cathy Berberian (1925-83) could sing anything from
Monteverdi to post-modernism. Armenian-American by origin, she was
the means by which her husband, Luciano Berio, found his path as a
composer. She inspired works by Cage, Milhaud, Maderna and
Stravinsky, who composed Elegy for JFK for her to perform. She was
also an inventive composer, the hilarious Stripsody being her
best-known score.

This passionate pathbreaker for performance art hardly ever set foot
in a recording studio. Her fans fall back on rare reissues of radio
broadcasts such as this. Beg, borrow or download this 1970 Milan
recital with Bruno Canino at the piano.

Here Berberian performs, in addition to Stripsody and
straight-recitative Monteverdi, a Gershwin Summertime to outweep
Ella’s and a Surabaya-Jonny that is a woman’s world apart from Lotte
Lenya’s abandoned wimp: Cathy is no victim, but a sexual predator
contemplating vengeance.

The summit of this collection is a baroque setting of Ticket to Ride
which, apart from being funny, recontextualises The Beatles as
post-medieval troubadours, peddling a musical narrative that echoes
down the ages.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress