The Bjorling Sound

A half century after his death in 1960 Swedish tenor Jussi Björling remains one of the most beloved singers in the world. He spent forty-five of his forty-nine years performing in public rapidly conquering opera-house and concert stages on both sides of the Atlantic. Along the way he left a vast recorded legacy that continues to enchant lovers of vocal music and inspire young singers. In this ground-breaking book Stephen Hastings analyzes more than four hundred of the great tenor's recordings comparing them with the output of a hundred other tenors from Caruso to Alagna. The repertoire ranges from brief art songs by Schubert and Sibelius to entire opera recordings--some made in the studio others captured live. What emerges is a richly layered portrait of this most musical of singers. As Hastings's comparisons demonstrate Björling left his unique imprint on all the scores he sang combining a perennial freshness of approach with the richly inflected phrasing made possible by a perfectly honed technique.