Anchor, appogio, squillo, blade, support, leggato line - call it what you will but this voice has got it all - heroic, dramatic and spine chilling. This man can sing!.
Until this month I had never heard of Donald Smith....my loss all these years. Here's hoping TH-cam never goes away. What a tragic loss its disappearance would be. TH-cam reaches all around the world and introduces singers to those who would go to their graves having missed the incredible artistry that exists (existed) beyond the borders of the U.S.A. I consider Donald Smith a major revelation and find. THANKS to the poster for this treasure.
gmmix, the same happened to me today. I had an old cassette for decades with Aled Jones Hymns, on which Don Smith was singing. Today I started to search for this exceptional singer on the net desperately, because I wanted to find him singing “Abide with me” in digitalised form. No success, until I find him now. That old recording Abide with me would be so nice to have here on TH-cam! BBC Welsh Choir is singing with him.
You may be interested to know that Donald used this exact same aria as a practice piece to understand how the voice would sing on any day. He used to sing the first opening 6 or 8 bars of the aria to the Ab in the form of scales over and over again. Also the two rising scales to the Bb towards the end of the aria, thus achieving perfect ease and control of the voice. As the two most difficult passages of the aria (apart from the final C#) he was easily able to master this aria.
Tenore fino ad oggi a me sconosciuto, l'ho scoperto partendo da una compilation di "Amor ti Vieta", ho ascoltato vari brani presenti nel sito, e sono rimasto favorevolmente impressionato, voce di bel timbro, notevole squillo e grande facilità nel registro acuto
Can you believe after a long life in music that I had never heard of Donald Smith until today when station KUSC (Southern California) played one of his performances! What a splendid voice. And what a treat hearing him sing one of my favorite compositions. I read the details of his life on Wiki and he didn't have an easy time of it, did he.
The plan is to eventually post the entire album. I also have copies of recording of rehearsals for this album, some of which in my opinion are better than those arias chosen for inclusion for the album. Thanks you for your comment
Thank you for your constructive comments on the tenor Donald Smith. Whilst Donald enjoyed a marvelous career spanning over 50 years, the greater majority of this was spent in England and in his home land Australia. He did study in Italy briefly in the 1950's, performed in Canada and Mexico in the 1970's, but unfortunately never sang the USA. Not for the want of being invited, he was just a difficult man to entice to leave his home shores!
Thank you for your comment. It is definitely my intention to upload the whole album. I have mentioned this before and will do my best to make this happen as soon as I can. Please subscribe to this channel and you should get a notification when songs are uploaded.
He did a lot of work with Dino Borgioli in London .Borgioli , one of the greatest of the early light tenors...... but note the similarity of production
Please download by all means. If you have 'Realplayer' installed on your computer (it's free to download from the internet), when you come to listen to the aria on TH-cam, there will be an option to the right above the screen that will download it for you. best of luck and thank you for your comment.
@robmanrico Please ignore my last comment! Downloading realplayer made all the difference! Sorry - I really am a dumb computer user!! Thanks so much for making this fabulous recording available and I know my aunt is going to be thrilled to bits!
@robmanrico Thank you for giving me permission to download. Unfortunately the only option I can find is one to upload! Can you please offer any other suggestions as so far I have only been able to allow my aunt to listen to the recording via the telephone. Rather than bother you again, I have been trying to find someone else with a copy of this recording and whilst there must be many people, you are the only one I can find! I do appreciate your assistance.
Hi robmanrico I was so pleased to find this as my 85 year old aunt has been trying to find it from music stores but with no luck. She does not have the internet. I'm afraid I am a bit of a novice at this and I don't know the correct protocol - but is it possible for me to download a copy to put on cd for her? Hope to hear from you, Sally
The second word of the Latin title should read animam, not animan. Why the double and single inverted commas? Double inverted commas are speech marks, used to denote a quotation. Single inverted commas can be used to denote a quotation within a quotation, or to substitute the word so-called. Neither form has any place here. Smith was a splendid dramatic tenor whose performances in London I well remember admiring. As such, his voice is unsuited to Rossini’s style of writing. Use of it in that context is a bit like using a sledge hammer to crack a walnut. He nonetheless makes a fine professional job of the task, despite an uneasy-sounding gear change above the passaggio, aided by a suitably ponderous and heavy orchestral contribution. Its conductor evidently shared my views.
Thank you for your interesting comments Mr Freeman. Re your correction/problem with misspelling/typos and your perspective as to the only possible use of 'inverted commas', 'quotation marks'; (None of which incidentally has anything whatsoever to do with the recording, music or singing), so do not really "have any place here" either, but since you asked! Quotation marks used legitimately by the author to punctuate the information being provided with the Donald Smith recordings posts have been used for many years as follows:- To indicate a 'word', 'subject', 'phrase' being referred to in the information. To give the 'sentence' or 'phrase' more meaning/rhythm. To highlight certain words or phrases etc., as well as their normal use, such as to show where speech or a quotations may begin and end. The chosen formula for these posts include, using 'Single' inverted commas to highlight the 'song/music name', whilst "Double" marks are used to highlight the "opera, oratorio or from where the work originated", eg. from Schubert's "Maid of the Mill" song cycle. Whilst you are indeed entitled to your personal opinion/s regarding the vocal attributes of the singer and the suitability or otherwise as to the singing of this aria from the "Stabat Mater", it's a nonsense to claim anything such as "Its conductor evidently shared my views" by aiding the singer and recording with a "suitably ponderous and heavy orchestral (sic) contribution".
Un signor tenore.Bella voce,timbrata,estesa e squillante.Una vera sorpresa.Da repertorio pesante.
Anchor, appogio, squillo, blade, support, leggato line - call it what you will but this voice has got it all - heroic, dramatic and spine chilling. This man can sing!.
What a first class voice and singer. What a high Db !!!!
Until this month I had never heard of Donald Smith....my loss all these years. Here's hoping TH-cam never goes away. What a tragic loss its disappearance would be. TH-cam reaches all around the world and introduces singers to those who would go to their graves having missed the incredible artistry that exists (existed) beyond the borders of the U.S.A. I consider Donald Smith a major revelation and find. THANKS to the poster for this treasure.
gmmix, the same happened to me today. I had an old cassette for decades with Aled Jones Hymns, on which Don Smith was singing. Today I started to search for this exceptional singer on the net desperately, because I wanted to find him singing “Abide with me” in digitalised form. No success, until I find him now. That old recording Abide with me would be so nice to have here on TH-cam! BBC Welsh Choir is singing with him.
Bravo ,,,,,,,,,,,biut voice
You may be interested to know that Donald used this exact same aria as a practice piece to understand how the voice would sing on any day. He used to sing the first opening 6 or 8 bars of the aria to the Ab in the form of scales over and over again. Also the two rising scales to the Bb towards the end of the aria, thus achieving perfect ease and control of the voice. As the two most difficult passages of the aria (apart from the final C#) he was easily able to master this aria.
D flat.
Tenore fino ad oggi a me sconosciuto, l'ho scoperto partendo da una compilation di "Amor ti Vieta", ho ascoltato vari brani presenti nel sito, e sono rimasto favorevolmente impressionato, voce di bel timbro, notevole squillo e grande facilità nel registro acuto
Can you believe after a long life in music that I had never heard of Donald Smith until today when station KUSC (Southern California) played one of his performances! What a splendid voice. And what a treat hearing him sing one of my favorite compositions. I read the details of his life on Wiki and he didn't have an easy time of it, did he.
Bravo! That was Fantastic! Thank you!
Please may the entire album find its way up? Or is it possible to access it another way?
The plan is to eventually post the entire album. I also have copies of recording of rehearsals for this album, some of which in my opinion are better than those arias chosen for inclusion for the album. Thanks you for your comment
Bravo
Fantastic!
Thank you for your constructive comments on the tenor Donald Smith. Whilst Donald enjoyed a marvelous career spanning over 50 years, the greater majority of this was spent in England and in his home land Australia. He did study in Italy briefly in the 1950's, performed in Canada and Mexico in the 1970's, but unfortunately never sang the USA. Not for the want of being invited, he was just a difficult man to entice to leave his home shores!
Thank you for your comment. It is definitely my intention to upload the whole album. I have mentioned this before and will do my best to make this happen as soon as I can. Please subscribe to this channel and you should get a notification when songs are uploaded.
He was a great tenor. Do you happen to know where he trained/who his teacher was? No one hardly sings like this other than the great Italian tenors.
He did a lot of work with Dino Borgioli in London .Borgioli , one of the greatest of the early light tenors...... but note the similarity of production
Please download by all means. If you have 'Realplayer' installed on your computer (it's free to download from the internet), when you come to listen to the aria on TH-cam, there will be an option to the right above the screen that will download it for you. best of luck and thank you for your comment.
@robmanrico Please ignore my last comment! Downloading realplayer made all the difference! Sorry - I really am a dumb computer user!! Thanks so much for making this fabulous recording available and I know my aunt is going to be thrilled to bits!
@robmanrico Thank you for giving me permission to download. Unfortunately the only option I can find is one to upload! Can you please offer any other suggestions as so far I have only been able to allow my aunt to listen to the recording via the telephone. Rather than bother you again, I have been trying to find someone else with a copy of this recording and whilst there must be many people, you are the only one I can find! I do appreciate your assistance.
Why did we not hear a thing of Donald Smith here at the Met?
Hi robmanrico I was so pleased to find this as my 85 year old aunt has been trying to find it from music stores but with no luck. She does not have the internet. I'm afraid I am a bit of a novice at this and I don't know the correct protocol - but is it possible for me to download a copy to put on cd for her? Hope to hear from you, Sally
@marlyharris Thre are plenty more where that came from if you would like to go to 'Robmanrico's' channel
The second word of the Latin title should read animam, not animan. Why the double and single inverted commas? Double inverted commas are speech marks, used to denote a quotation. Single inverted commas can be used to denote a quotation within a quotation, or to substitute the word so-called. Neither form has any place here.
Smith was a splendid dramatic tenor whose performances in London I well remember admiring. As such, his voice is unsuited to Rossini’s style of writing. Use of it in that context is a bit like using a sledge hammer to crack a walnut. He nonetheless makes a fine professional job of the task, despite an uneasy-sounding gear change above the passaggio, aided by a suitably ponderous and heavy orchestral contribution. Its conductor evidently shared my views.
Thank you for your interesting comments Mr Freeman. Re your correction/problem with misspelling/typos and your perspective as to the only possible use of 'inverted commas', 'quotation marks'; (None of which incidentally has anything whatsoever to do with the recording, music or singing), so do not really "have any place here" either, but since you asked!
Quotation marks used legitimately by the author to punctuate the information being provided with the Donald Smith recordings posts have been used for many years as follows:-
To indicate a 'word', 'subject', 'phrase' being referred to in the information. To give the 'sentence' or 'phrase' more meaning/rhythm. To highlight certain words or phrases etc., as well as their normal use, such as to show where speech or a quotations may begin and end.
The chosen formula for these posts include, using 'Single' inverted commas to highlight the 'song/music name', whilst "Double" marks are used to highlight the "opera, oratorio or from where the work originated", eg. from Schubert's "Maid of the Mill" song cycle.
Whilst you are indeed entitled to your personal opinion/s regarding the vocal attributes of the singer and the suitability or otherwise as to the singing of this aria from the "Stabat Mater", it's a nonsense to claim anything such as "Its conductor evidently shared my views" by aiding the singer and recording with a "suitably ponderous and heavy orchestral (sic) contribution".
Robmanrico - now we are getting pedantic!