Beverly Sills Recital Discs

recital discs

Discography Shortcut: Complete Operas • Recital Discs • Compilations

EMI Group

Bellini & Donizetti Heroines

Complete Album Track Listing
Conductor - Jussi Jalas
Orchestra - Orchestra of the Vienna Volksoper
Date & Location -
June 1968; Mozartsaal, Vienna, Austria
Label & Catalog numbers
CD UMD 80468 - Millinneum Classics
LP AV-34034 - Angel Records
LP WST-17143 -
ABC/Westminster Records

Beverly Sills Concert

Complete Album Track Listing
Accompanists -Paula Robinson, flute; Charles Wadsworth, piano & harpsichord; Gervase de Peyer, clarinet; Charles Treger, violin; Leslie Parnas, cello
Orchestra - Members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Date & Location -
March 1972; Rutgers Presbyterian Church, New York City
Label & Catalog numbers
CD 477-630-4 - Deutsche Grammophon (This complete album has been re-issued on the DG CD "Beverly Sills and Friends. In addition, "Ah! vous direrai-je maman" and "Lo! here the gentle lark" have been re-issued on the Decca CD "The Singers" - see our Compilations section for details.
LP AV-34036 - Angel Records
LP ATS-20011 - ABC Audio Treasury
LP WGS-8268 - ABC Westminster Gold

Beverly Sills - sings Mozart and Strauss

Beverly Sills sings Mozart & Strauss

Complete Album Track Listing
Conductor - Aldo Ceccato
Orchestra - London Philharmonic Orchestra
Date & Location -
January & August, 1970, EMI Studios, London
Label & Catalog numbers
CD CDC-7 47523 2
LP AV-34014 - Angel Records
LP AT-20004 - ABC Records

Beverly Sills Sings Verdi

Complete Album Track Listing
Conductor - Aldo Ceccato
Orchestra - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Date & Location -
Tracks 1-4: January 1970, EMI Studios
(Tracks 5-7 added from the complete EMI recordings of Rigoletto [1978] and La Traviata [1971] )
Label & Catalog numbers
CD CDC-7 47383 2
LP AV-34017 - Angel Records

Note -
The first four arias on this disc were part of a planned full Verdi recital disc. Sills became ill during the recording sessions, completing only four arias. She ended up with a temperature of 105 and was told to go home. Sills didn't remember recording them after her illness and the recordings stayed shelved in the ABC Records vault. They were discovered in the mid-1980's when MCA bought the ABC catalog and did an inventory. EMI/Angel put out the LP and the CD in 1985.

Beverly Sills - Music of Victor Herbert

Complete Album Track Listing
Conductor - Andre Kostelanetz
Orchestra - London Symphony Orchestra
Date & Location -
1975; EMI Studios, London
Label & Catalog numbers
CD CDC-7 47197 2 - EMI Angel
LP SFO-37160 - Angel Records

Scenes and Arias from French Opera

Complete Album Track Listing
Conductor - Sir Charles Mackerras
Orchestra - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Ambrosian Opera Chorus
Date & Location -
May 1969; EMI Studios, London
Label & Catalog numbers
LP AV-34035 - Angel Records
LP WST-17163 -
ABC/Westminster Records

Note -
This album has not been issued complete on CD. All numbers except the Manon have been re-issued on various compilations (see our Compilations section for details). The Manon "Je marche…" found on all compilations is from the complete 1970 EMI recording. This 1969 version has not been issued on CD.

Up in Central Park: Duets from Operetta & Musical Comedy

Complete Album Track Listing
Artists - Beverly Sills & Sherrill Milnes
Conductor - Julius Rudel
Orchestra - New York City Opera Orchestra
Date & Location -
1978; New York City
Label & Catalog numbers
CD CDC-7 47203 2 - EMI Angel
LP S-37323 - Angel Records

Welcome to Vienna

Complete Album Track Listing
Conductor - Julius Rudel
Orchestra - London Philharmonic
Date & Location -
May 1971, Fairfield Halls, Croyden, England
Label & Catalog numbers
CD CDM 0777 7 64424 2 6 - EMI Angel
LP AV-34037 - Angel Records
LP WST-20009 - ABC Records

Sony

Plaisir D'Amour

Complete Album Track Listing
Conductor - Andre Koselanetz
Orchestra - Columbia Symphony
Date & Location -
Tracks 1-9: October 1-2 & 21, 1975; Columbia 30th St. Studio, New York City
Tracks 10-13: February 8, 1961; Manhattan Center, New York City
Label & Catalog numbers
CD SMK 60576 - Sony Classical
LP M 33933 - Columbia
(did not include the four 1961 items)
LP P2S 5720 -
Columbia Musical Treasury
LP DMS 6223 -
Columbia Musical Treasury

Note -
In the Sony CD liner notes, Sills says she didn't remember recording the three Spanish numbers or for what purpose. Columbia issued only the Granados and the Ponce items in the early 1970s twice - on a 2-LP set "Romantic Music of Spain" (P2S 5720), a compilations of various orchestras and conductors; and, more strangely, on the LP "Puccini for Orchestra" (DMS 622), which had "guest artist Beverly Sills" on side one with the two Spanish numbers, and six Puccini arias for orchestra only conducted by Kostelanetz on side two.

Miscellaneous

Mozart Concert and Opera Arias

Artists - Boston Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Erich Leinsdorf
Orchestra - New York City Opera Orchestra
Date & Location -
July 6, 1968; Tanglewood Festival, Lenox, Massachusetts(live radio broadcast)
Label & Catalog numbers
Digital Media BSO Classics (no catalog # - downloadable from the BSO website shop)

Note -
This all-Mozart program included four vocal works:
Exsultate, jubilate "Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben" from Zaide
"Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle," Concert aria
"Martern aller Arten" from Die Entführung aus dem Serail
(The BSO download is only of these four and does not include the orchestra-only selections on the program)

Mozart's "Exsultate, jubilate"

Artists - Phildadelphia Orchestra
Conductor - Eugene Ormandy
Orchestra - New York City Opera Orchestra
Date & Location -
April 25, 1974; Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA (live radio broadcast)
Label & Catalog numbers
CD Philadelphia Orchestra Association (no catalog # - this selection was the only one issued from the full April 25 concert. It was included on Disc 9 of a 12-CD set issued by the orchestra called "The Centennial Collection,' available for a while directly from the orchestra).

Beverly Sills sings Songs for Christmas

Complete Album Track Listing
Organ Accompanist - Howard Kubik
Date & Location -
1955; location unknown
Label & Catalog number
LP WOR 94919 - Fordyce & Hamby

Note -
This is a 10 inch LP pressed on one side only. The architectural firm Fordyce & Hamby had this album made as a Christmas gift for clients.

Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"

Complete Album Track Listing
Artists - Beverly Sills, soprano soloist, Florence Kopleff, contralto soloist
Conductor - Maurice Abravenel
Orchestra - Utah Symphony Orchestra
Date & Location -
1967; Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah
Label & Catalog numbers
CD ATM 1212 - Artemis Classics
(issued 2003 - coupled with Sym. No. 4)
CD OVC 2030 - Vanguard Classics
(complete Mahler symphonies, 9 cds)
CD OVC 4004 - Vanguard Classics
(issued 1994)
LP VCS 10003-10004 -
Vanguard Cardinal Series
LP SRV 330-343 - Vanguard
(complete Mahler symphonies, 14-Lps)

Reviews -
...for some voice mavens, the participation of soprano Beverly Sills, however brief, always has served as an attraction for this version... Read More - David Hurwitz, Classics Today

The Sullivan Years

Artists - Beverly Sills (and Robert Merrill, Richard Tucker, Joan Sutherland, Franco Corelli, Dorothy Kirsten, Roberta Peters, Jan Peerce, Maria Callas, Marilyn Horne, Eleanor Steber), CBS Orchestra
Conductor - Ray Block
Date & Location -
May 4, 1969; Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City
Label & Catalog number
TVT 9449-2 - 1001 Sundays/TVT Records

Note -
This is a compilation of opera arias and duets from the Ed Sullivan Show on CBS-TV. Sills is represented by "O luce di quest'anima" sung without the recitative at the beginning (cut because Sullivan demanded that the opera segments be no more than 4 minutes long). This recording is the audio from the same performances on the Kultur DVD "Great Moments in Opera from the Ed Sullivan Show" (see this listing in this Discography's Video section)