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. Wuthering Heights (I was born in love with you) is a valuable song ~ part song part mood poem. Since its composition for film Wuthering Heights it has received some first division interpretations the present recording by Sarah Vaughan among them..Sarah Vaughan's reading sweeps all before it. And although it may seem a little cramped in terms of timing Vaughan's ability is not compromised as she navigates with ease the Legrand Bergman masterpiece

.How about a roll call of the orchestrations of Wuthering Heights (I was born in love with you) as part of a concert featuring contrasting singers and jazz instrumentalists in the solo parts.. Like a Scandinavian rune from climes immemorial the song's incantatory outline seems to emerge fully fledged ~a continuation of something overheard from remote anterior times. Of extant vocal recordings three lead the way. each with a different musical centre ~ jazz (Sarah Vaughan ) ~ mainstream popular (Melissa Errico) ~ popular stylist (Johnny Mathis) ~ each indispensable. One expects vocal heavyweights Mathis and Vaughan to deliver impressively. The surprise is Melissa Errico who may lack the artistic maturity of Vaughan and Mathis but here is the equal musically of that formidable duo. Melissa Errico's mannerism free, diction and pace perfect approach merits special mention and for a non specialist listener is perhaps the most satisfying A leisurely approach is ideal .Kiri Ta Kanawa and Errico satisfy that requirement but a cavil concerning Sarah Vaughan's reading.ln hindsight a rich arrangement and Vaughan's vocals together in three minutes is a tight fit. Mathis's reading of its type is spot on suffused with atmosphere.Appropriately mirrorinq Mathis's leisurely approach is Legrand's secondary hues, distantly observed arrangement, minus climactic moments. Legrand Affair is Legrand's most opulently atmospheric album and co-inspired by a remote incantatory Bergman Iyric(on Wuthering Heights) the most opulently atmospheric orchestral vocal album in yonks. Peace Diana Krall Claus Ogerman. German composer Ogerman's music is texturally refulgent . He like Johnny Mandel and the late Robert Farnon is an introspective opposite to the variety and breadth of Legrand's muse. Like Songs of the Auvergne Legrand Affair is melodious but with a mature. burnished brass sonority. Sarah Vaughan's Wuthering Heights is a special case. needing no pleading. Unlike Errico Vaughan's reading is conveyed in august operatic mode by a voice made for jousting with mere technical difficulties. Vaughan shortchanges mood and foregoes melodic detailing but unlike Jessye Norman is minus swooning and swooping Like an imposing musical conduit she allows the song come to her but the compensation is a great 20th century voice at its artistic peak. On Wuthering Heights theme Johnny Mathis finds added resonance in words and melody with piano lending momentary sylvan magic His is a poetically hushed reading~ more than Errico and Vaughan it seeks the song's spiritual interstice .. As an instrumental altoist Phll Woods longtime Legrand confrere merits mention overseen by the Legrand strings in a windswept reading .. Peace Zoot Sims in a small group with bluesy Gene Bertoncini on guitar but this song was made for Legrand's orchestra. With vestiges of Leontyne Price ( in popular song mode) Jessye Norman's sumptuous voice is compensation for a misplaced tendency to over characterise vocally disturbing song's rarefied atmosphere. Jessye Norman's reading is perhaps as much about Jessye Norman's magnificent vocal equipment as the legrand Bergman elusive masterpiece. Ideally the approach should be distantly prayerful. Though her Mozart is feted amongst classical music lovers Kiri e Kanawa doesn't make the first division .. Spontaneous flow is absent The haltinq even stiff declamation of I was born in love with you ( more threat than promise) exemplifies a style importinq a literal classical approach. In mitigation it's probably a clash of styles.. Te Kanawa's inclinations and training are for the .classical repertoire and in that she has reigned supreme. I have segued a collection of extant versions including two purely orchestral readings one from the early 1970s (Bell) The other version within the past decade 2004 Danish Radio Orchestra is in effect a tone poem of dignified rectilineal tread and bell tinkling poise Such are the diverse vocal stylings of Wuthering Heights and contrasting Legrand orchestrations, taken together the interpretations constitute ''variety unified by a melodic theme" a complete song cycle. Interestingly U tube commentary describing some as covers sees the song's vindication in the 1971 film Wuthering Heights but they are all originals enjoying the Bergman Legrand imprimatur .on a masterpiece of exquiste mood and atmosphere.