412 North Chester Road, Swarthmore, PA 19081 - 610.690.1703 [voice] - 610.328.6355 [fax]
info@marstonrecords.com [e-mail]
now available!
Elsie Houston: Queen of Brazilian Song
We are tremendously excited to be issuing the first comprehensive CD of the incomparable Brazilian mezzo-soprano, Elsie Houston. Her vocal production and interpretations defy description. The intensity of her passion coupled with the raw energy of her expression make Elsie Houston impossible to forget once you have heard any one of her records. She is undoubtedly the most individual of any classically trained singer to have recorded. Having studied singing with Lilli Lehmann and Ninon Vallin, Houston took her voice and career in a completely different direction, devoting the rest of her life to the performance of Brazilian music. Her first recording, made in Paris in 1927, contained four songs by Heitor Villa-Lobos with the composer's wife accompanying her at the piano. Also among her first records was a group of Brazilian folk songs that she collected and published. These are sung to the accompaniment of guitar, clarinet, and various indigenous percussion instruments. She made many night club appearances in Paris and later in the U.S. where exoticism of things South American had become the rage.
Marston is grateful to the Estate of John Stratton (Stephen Clarke, Executor) for its continuing support.
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Norbeck, Peters & Ford: Importers of elusive historical-interest classical and personality CDs, primarily from independent producers, in business since 1972.