MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Classic Recitals: Hilde Gueden - Sings Operetta Evergreens

To celebrate Decca's 75th year of recording - the launch of a new series of Classic Recitals from the LP era.

Decca's recorded legacy is dominated by the huge number of complete opera recordings and vocal recitals. While a vast number of these recordings have seen CD release in the past 20 years, many of the original LP recitals have been reissued with other material in order to increase the overall playing time due to the longer time available on CD, and modern covers have replaced the originals.

This new mini-series is unashamedly nostalgic and presents original recitals as they were first published during the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. Original LP cover art is reproduced and the original back of the LP is used as the inside of the digipack. A clear tray is used with a detail from the original LP sleeve as a background, and the back of the digipack gives the tracklist and artist details in a uniform, current style.

In this 1961 recital the Viennese soprano Hilde Gueden is accompanied by the Vienna State Opera Orchestra under the musical direction of one of the greatest interpreters of this repertory, the legendary Robert Stolz (1880-1975). Stolz was also a highly acclaimed and distinguished composer of operettas and this recital includes a number from Der Favorit as well as his completion of a song from Benatzky's Im weißen Rößl (White Horse Inn). It was in 1935 in one of Stolz's operettas, Servus servus, that Gueden made her Viennese debut at the Volksoper. Born in Vienna on 15 September 1917, Gueden also studied in that city at the Conservatory. Operatic roles followed and during the late 1930s and early 1940s Gueden started performing roles in Mozart and Richard Strauss operas; her appearances at the Vienna State Opera began in 1946 and continued there until 1973. Gueden sang in a number of the important opera houses including Covent Garden (debut 1947) and the Met (debut 1951).

Gueden's complete opera recordings include legendary Decca recordings of Der Rosenkavalier (Erich Kleiber), Arabella (Solti), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Knappertsbusch), and Die Fledermaus (Karajan). This Classic Recital of Operatic Evergreens, recorded in 1961, amply demonstrates Gueden's consummate skill and artistry in the type of repertory she first found fame with. Hilde Gueden died at Klosterneuberg on 17 September 1988.