Paul Robeson At Carnegie Hall

180g High Quality Pressing!
Re-mastering by Ray Staff at Air Mastering!
A singer and actor, Paul Robeson was also a football player at Rutgers College. His involvement in politics led to his being blacklisted during the McCarthy era.
Robeson had an international music career, singing with a distinctive and powerful deep bass voice. For this concert recording, he is accompanied by pianist Alan Booth.
When Paul Robeson performed at Carnegie Hall in May 1958, eleven years had passed since he had last performed in the United States without restrictions. In his own country on the entertainment industry's blacklist, and given that the State Department denied him the issuance of a passport, he had disappeared from the public eye as a singer and actor during the previous eight years. This concert recording, one of two from Carnegie Hall in May 1958, was the step back into the limelight. The recordings on this record were also to remain his only stereo recordings – of course, they were all the work of Vanguard Records, the record company from New York that also supervised The Weavers, who were also blacklisted.
The legendary singer is consistently vocal, his full-toned bass-baritone revels in interpretations of a repertoire that includes Bach, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Dvorák, Beethoven, traditional gospel pieces, Russian and Chinese folk songs as well as "Old Man River" from "Show Boat", monologues by Shakespeare and parts of the opera Boris Godunov. Accompanied at the piano by Alan Booth, Robeson moved through much of the repertoire of his entire artistic career. Despite a decade of artificially forced inactivity, the sixty-year-old singer's vocal power was still largely as intact as his dramatic instincts; every moment counts in his performance, he invests immense power in every note and nuance.
Sadly, these Recordings by Vanguard are the only ones captured with modern recording technology – because of the blacklist, everything else was before the time of tapes and LPs. But this concert, like Vanguard's "The Essential Paul Robeson," features a man who is still capable of moving a large audience through his voice – and, equally importantly, who, even at this late stage, had not yet lost the gift of leading this large audience through a wide-ranging and difficult repertoire; even after ten years of professional exile, his performances were learning experiences and lessons of awareness, one of the reasons why the reactionaries in the States had always feared him so much. None of this has lost its power in the fifty years since this event took place.
"This is a classic album, offering a measured, sometimes repressed emotional performance that is all the more powerful because of that. It is well mastered too while providing the only time that Robeson appears in stereo and recorded with more modern equipment." - Hi-Fi World, June 2016
"The singing legend is in excellent voice throughout, his rich bass-baritone reveling in performances of a repertory that encompassed Bach, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Dvorák, Beethoven, traditional gospel, Russian and Chinese folk songs, "Old Man River" from Show Boat, and monologues from Shakespeare and the opera Boris Godunov. With a piano accompaniment by Alan Booth, Robeson ranged across a huge part of his own performing history. The 60-year-old singer, despite the decade of artificially imposed inactivity, still had much of his vocal power intact and all his dramatic instincts, and makes every moment count in his performance, investing immense power in every note and nuance." - Bruce Eder, allmusic.com

Features:

• 180g Vinyl Record
• High Quality Pressing
• Re-mastering by Ray Staff at Air Mastering at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

Musicians:

• Paul Robeson, vocals
• Alan Booth, piano

Selections:

Side A
1. Every Time I Feel the Spirit
2. Balm In Gilead
3. Volga Boat Song
4. Monologue From Othello (Shakespeare)
5. O Thou Silent Night (Alexadnrov)
6. Chinese Children's Song
7. My Curly Headed Baby (G.H. Clutsam)
8. Old Man River
9. Going Home (Dvorak, arr. Fisher)
Side B
1. Monologue from Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky)
2. The Orphan (Mussorgsky)
3. Christ lag in Todesbanden (J.S. Bach)
4. Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel
5. Lullaby (Franz Schubert)
6. O No John
7. Joe Hill
8. Jacob's Ladder