PODCAST

Countermelody

DANIEL GUNDLACH

Countermelody devoted to the glories of the human voice raised in song.

music music commentary

All Episodes

1:39:44

Episode 485. Anneliese Rothenberger singt Stolz und...

Countermelody ·

2026/08/08

The theme of today’s episode is “escapism,” a valuable and even necessary pursuit in the world in which we find ourselves currently existing. What more glorious escapism could there be then Operettenlieder by composers Robert Stolz and Franz Lehár as performed by beloved German soprano Anneliese Rothenberger (1919 – 2010). She was one of the most prominent and glamorous musical figures in Germany by virtue of her resplendent voice and splendidly vivid performances, as well as her ubiquitous presence

en-US

1:38:09

Episode 484. Bubbles on the Nile, Handel Edition

Countermelody ·

2026/08/01

Today’s episode is the second of my so-called “Bubbles on the Nile” series, performances by Beverly Sills (and a host of other divas) in unexpected roles. While the first episode drew on the contents of a 1985 release on the Legendary Recordings label with the same title, today’s episode focuses exclusively on the music of George Frideric Handel with an entirely Gundlach-generated setlist. Sills is featured not as Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, the role that made her a star, but in two other Handel

en-US

1:28:36

Episode 483. Adele Addison @ 101

Countermelody ·

2026/07/24

Today beloved African American soprano Adele Addison, still “sharp as a tack” according to one of her close friends, celebrates her 101st birthday. And today, just as I did four years ago in honor of her 97th birthday, I celebrate this trailblazing icon with a wide-ranging program which focuses on her specialties: baroque and contemporary music, with a few additional surprises along the way. Thus alongside key works by Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel, we also hear work that Addison pioneered and recorded

en-US

1:19:01

Episode 482. Georges Thill: French Twist

Countermelody ·

2026/07/21

A further celebration of great French singers today, featuring one of the greatest of them all, tenor Georges Thill (1897 – 1984). But as always with Countermelody, there’s a difference: Most of Thill’s recordings are, indeed, in French, and he is such a masterful purveyor of the language that it is always a delight to hear him sing in his native tongue. However, and here’s the “French Twist” of the episode’s title, though Thill sings entirely in French in this episode, at no point is he singing

en-US

1:29:44

Episode 481. The Young Eleanor Steber

Countermelody ·

2026/07/18

Today, July 17, 2026, is the one-hundred-and-twelfth birthday of Eleanor Steber, in the opinion of many, the finest American soprano that ever lived. Her combination of technical prowess, (which allowed her to blend vocal power with seamless coloratura facility), faultless diction, vocal beauty, musical versatility, and complete and utter sincerity of expression, were combined in one exquisite artistic entity who now is fully acknowledged and appreciated for the great artist that she was. Since I

en-US

1:43:45

Episode 480. Bacquier Encore

Countermelody ·

2026/07/14

Allons, enfants de la patrie! Let’s celeberate Bastille Day in style! And what better exemplar of the power and élan of French music than the great Gabriel Bacquier?! It was only about a year ago that I published an episode featuring Bacquier singing art song. Today’s episode combines Bacquier in his more familiar guise as an opera singer, with further (and even rarer) recordings of him singing mélodies. About a year ago I coughed up a lot of dough for a super-expensive and super-rare 2-LP set

en-US

1:31:08

Episode 479. Get to Know Alain Vanzo

Countermelody ·

2026/07/11

I return to Countermelody‘s Salut à la France miniseries with a tribute to the Monaco-born French-naturalized tenor, Alain Vanzo (1923-2002). There was simply no more elegant a tenor (or any singer!) in the French operatic repertoire (and beyond) than Vanzo in his glory days in the 1960s and 1970s. I have chosen a setlist which presents him, in his core repertoire (Gounod, Massenet, Lalo), sounding truly exquise, but I also show him in music for which he was less-celebrated, but equally

en-US

1:23:27

Episode 478. Martial Singher: Un recueil de mélodies

Countermelody ·

2026/07/07

Today is the first in a series of episodes honoring our Gallic friends, who this month also celebrate their independence day, call it what you will, Bastille Day or Le Quatorze Juillet. Our featured singer is French baritone Martial Singher (1904-1990). His career extended from opera to concert to recital and back again, but the main focus on this episode is on the wide range of French song that he performed in recital. I present in its entirety an ultra-rare 1950 recording entitled A Treasury of

en-US

1:37:48

Episode 477. American Orchestral Song [Queer Edition]

Countermelody ·

2026/07/05

I know, I know, I said that we were done with Pride for 2026. But honestly, given the tenor of the times (no pun intended), we have to continue foregrounding Pride every day we tread this increasingly precipitous path that is earth. And that is the United States of America. For as I write this. Even as our nation squeezes out what should be a momentous birthday celebration, our very queer existence is threatened. And one way of resisting the animosity and cruelty is to celebrate our history and our

en-US

1:36:59

Episode 476. Getting a Handle on Henriëtte Bosmans

Countermelody ·

2026/06/30

The final official #Pride2026 episode on Countermelody introduces the Dutch composer, pianist, and critic Henriëtte Bosmans (1895 – 1952), a fascinating figure of extraordinary contrasts and contradictions. Both of Henriëtte’s parents were professional musicians; her father, a cellist in the Concertgebouw Orchestra, died while she was in infancy. Her mother, Sarah Bosmans-Benedicts was a professional pianist and piano teacher at the Amsterdam Conservatory as well as her daughter’s piano instructor

en-US

1:40:31

Episode 475. A Queer Boy’s Favorite Pop Divas

Countermelody ·

2026/06/26

We are still in the midst of our summer holiday. And oh, what a sweltering summer it is turning out to be! Because of this, rather than producing a brand-new episode today, I’m bringing you an episode from nearly six years ago which celebrated a landmark birthday of mine, which is a playlist of a few of my favorite pop divas, my association with some of whom stretches all the way back to my childhood. But what a motley assortment it is! Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Barbara Cook,

en-US

1:33:35

Episode 474. Brigitte Fassbaender sings Brahms

Countermelody ·

2026/06/23

Pride 2026 at Countermelody continues with an episode devoted to the towering German mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender, not only one of the great opera stars of the late twentieth century (her Octavian, for instance, was, is, and remains, hors concours), but also one of the greatest Lieder singers of all time. Today I choose to focus on her performance of the songs of Johannes Brahms, whose music is ideally suited to her dark-timbred, urgently projected voice and artistry. She’s heard in these

en-US

1:16:28

Episode 473. Renata Scotto and the Opera Queens

Countermelody ·

2026/06/18

We are quickly approaching the third anniversary of the death of Renata Scotto, and that sad commemoration, combined with my desire to produce an episode celebrating Opera Queens, prompted this episode, which features a rare live LP that I once owned a few decades ago and recently returned to my collection. It features live performances of “our diva” from the stage of Carnegie Hall on two different occasions in the mid- to late-1970s: the first, a gala concert on September 12, 1975 with Eve Queler

en-US

1:54:27

Episode 472. Ben Bagley Revisited: Lies Come True

Countermelody ·

2026/06/15

A year ago I published an episode entitled “Gay Eccentrics,” which featured a number of the most delightfully peculiar personalities sprinkled across queer music history. The third of those characters, theatrical and record producer Ben Bagley, reappears on today’s episode. This time I feature selections from his record albums featuring two more gay eccenctrics, Lorenz Hart and Cole Porter! Bagley’s recordings uncovered and/or resuscitated trunk songs and other material by some of the most important

en-US

1:45:44

Episode 471. Joan Caplan In Recital

Countermelody ·

2026/06/12

Today we visit the rare recorded output my beloved teacher, Joan Caplan (15 October 1932 – 19 April 2025), live performances made during her active years as a song recitalist and as an opera and oratorio singer. We hear her complete performances of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Peggy Glanville-Hicks, the Cinco canciones negras by Xavier Montsalvatge, and the Zigeunerlieder of Johannes Brahms, as well as songs by Gustav Mahler from the German folk poetry collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn

en-US

1:36:01

Episode 470. Peter Pears Plays Around

Countermelody ·

2026/06/08

A year ago, I published as my final Pride 2025 episode, Pears Sings Not-Britten, which explored the voice and artistry of British tenor Peter Pears in repertoire other than that written for him by his partner Benjamin Britten. Today’s episode, a refurbished bonus episode originally published nearly a year ago has a new, catchy title that carries that theme even further, in that Britten is entirely absent, either as composer or as Pears’s usual accompanist. Today, I feature collections of songs by

en-US

1:23:21

Episode 469. Muriel and Angela: Together Again for...

Countermelody ·

2026/06/06

The 1950s recorded collaboration between two iconic artists: African American musical star Muriel Smith and Angela Morley: composer, conductor, arranger, and trans pioneer.

en-US

1:50:42

Episode 468. Deutsche Orchesterlieder: Beyond Mahler...

Countermelody ·

2026/06/01

Today’s lengthy episode (I probably should’ve divided it in half!) is another devoted to orchestral song, in this case Deutsche Orchesterlieder. But, in a twist, you will not be hearing any music by either Mahler or Strauss today. (Their orchestral songs have already been amply represented on Countermelody. No, today I am featuring songs ranging from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. Some of the composers presented – Alban Berg, Max Reger, Hugo Wolf, Arnold

en-US

1:10:51

Episode 467. Eidé Noréna Sings Gounod

Countermelody ·

2026/05/29

Today I revisit one of my favorite singers of all time, the extraordinary Norwegian lyric-coloratura soprano Eidé Noréna (1884-1968), whose voice and artistry hit me like a bolt out of the blue when I first discovered her recordings several decades ago. Born Karoline Hansen, she made her concert debut at the age of 19 and in 1907 began her operatic career as Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice. In 1909 she married the actor Egil Eide, through whose coaching she became celebrated for her dramatic portrayals

en-US

1:43:22

Episode 466. Baritones Both Butch and Bonnie

Countermelody ·

2026/05/25

Today’s episode features baritones of all stripes (with the occasional bass-baritone) in a program focusing primarily on song in its various manifestations. Whether that be Broadway and pop tunes (sung by Alfred Drake, Allan Evans, and Harve Presnell); Schubert (performed by Doda Conrad, Bernard Diamant, Max van Egmond, Robert Holl, and Siegfried Lorenz); other German Lieder (with Victor Braun and Heinrich Schlusnus); Russian and Nordic song (sung by Matti Lehtinen, Yuri Mazurok, Erik Sædén, Martti

en-US

487 results

Countermelody

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

Countermelody

DANIEL GUNDLACH

Fairground Sounds

Mechanical Music Radio

Pantheon - Podcasts for Music Lovers

Pantheon Media

Harold"s Old Time Radio

Harolds Old Time Radio

Beatles Radio Shows

Doug Young