Chandos Records is proud to release a 2-CD collection featuring the legendary Danish soprano Inga Nielsen.

This collection embraces this artist’s astonishingly wide ranging repertoire, from some of the most demanding roles in the operatic repertoire to lieder and operetta – Pergolesi to Schoenberg and Jerome Kern. It has been released to celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of her debut as a professional singer.

Much of this material is rare and, with the exception of one item, appears on CD for the first time. It includes many of the roles in which Inga Nielsen has been especially associated with on stage. Included are recent performances of her Chrysothemis (Elektra), Kaiserin (Die Frau ohne Schatten) and Leonore (Fidelio), roles for which she has received tremendous acclaim.

This set also includes guest appearances of Plácido Domingo, as well as the young Antonio Pappano, as both conductor and pianist/accompanist. As a bonus, there is a track recorded when Miss Nielsen was six years old, accompanied by her father, and also two further examples of her very early singing career from this time.

The accompanying booklet is lavishly illustrated with many photographs, and Inga Nielsen herself provides the illuminating sleeve notes. The 2-CDs are available at mid price.

The versatile Danish soprano Inga Nielsen was very much a child prodigy, making her first professional recording at the age of nine singing Danish folksongs and Christmas carols for Columbia Records.

These two CDs span a period of more than fifty years, from her first ever recording, made at the age of six accompanied by her father, all the way through to the latest recordings made in August 2006 and April 2007. The set marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of her debut as a professional singer and demonstrates the range of her talent in performances of opera, oratorio, lieder, operetta, spirituals and musicals. Inga Nielsen has personally selected the repertoire from the large archive of her recordings.

Inga Nielsen has performed with some star players in the operatic world, and it is great joy for her that so many are included in this retrospective. Plácido Domingo has given permission for their recording of ‘Toi! Vous! Oui… c’est moi!’ from Massenet’s Manon to be included. This is complemented by performances conducted by such greats as Antonio Pappano in La traviata, Lamberto Gardelli in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Gustav Kuhn in Lucia di Lammermoor.

In 1992 the Queen of Denmark honoured Inga Nielsen by appointing her Knight of the Order of Dannebrog, equivalent of the English DBE.

Dedicated to recordings by the Danish soprano who died earlier this year aged 61, this 2-CD collection demonstrates her range and versatility, as well as the technical excellence and appealing sincerity of her singing.
Nielsen covers an amazing range of music, one moment singing Leonore’s great aria from Beethoven’s Fidelio, the next going into bel canto mode for the mad scene from Lucia. I enjoyed the duet from Massenet’s Manon. Sound quality is variable but good.
Nielsen covers an amazing range of music, one moment singing Leonore’s great aria from Beethoven’s Fidelio, the next going into bel canto mode for the mad scene from Lucia. I enjoyed the duet from Massenet’s Manon. Sound quality is variable but good.
Reviews from some of her recent performances:
As Strauss’s Salome, she is regarded by many as definitive…
Nielsen is an extraordinary, magnificent singing actress in the title role. Her voice has something of the legendary Ljuba Welitsch’s girlish innocence, and her way with the text reveals an artist totally attuned to every dramatic nuance that Strauss offers… Comparisons with such illustrious names as Nilsson, Borkh, and Goltz are completely justified.
This is a timely tribute to one of the finest and perhaps most underrated sopranos of our day.
Nielsen made her debut during childhood, long before developing an international career. Her vocal individuality and musical personality hallmark this splendid album
The range of her work is astonishing, passing Lucia in her Mad scene and the Violetta-Germont duet from La Traviata (conducted by a young Antonio Pappano), the St Sulpice duet from Manon with Domingo, and strenuous sessions with Strauss in Die Frau ohne Schatten and Elektra. Search your record shelves: if they have nothing of Inga Nielsen, now is the time to fill the gap.
Throughout, you’re conscious of how Nielsen’s voice has gained in weight and power at the occasional expense of flexibility during the course of a lifetime’s involvement with music. What remains constant is her remarkable, laser-like tone, and the fierce dramatic commitment she brings to everything she sings.


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