Kiri Te Kanawa has to be reckoned with as one of the major singers of art music. Over the years, Decca has kept sort of a low profile in assembling greatest-hits type packages for
Te Kanawa, preferring instead to keep as many of her full-price offerings in the active catalog as possible. With Kiri Te Kanawa: A Portrait, Decca has decided to take a new approach, and the consumer comes out the winner.
Decca has dusted off a long-deleted, single-disc collection, Kiri: A Portrait, issued in 1987 as Decca/London 417645, and has generously filled it out to a two-disc set. The liner notes were written by the co-producer of this collection, Cyrus Meher-Homji (marketing and repertoire manager for Universal's classical and jazz division in Australia), and are a bit exorbitant in their unrestrained praise for
Te Kanawa, but the music isn't hype, as
Te Kanawa's best work was done for Decca. This disc covers
Te Kanawa's take on works ranging from arias from John Gay's The Beggar's Opera to a native Maori song she has known since her childhood in New Zealand. The selection is varied and well-chosen, but for the listener, what is sung becomes a second consideration to how well
Te Kanawa sings it, and hers is a silvery, beautiful voice that is heard here to its best advantage. If you are not familiar with
Kiri Te Kanawa and want to know more of her work, this is likely your best option as a place to start. Established fans of
Te Kanawa, however, may still want Kiri Te Kanawa: A Portrait for its convenience, good sound, and reasonable asking price.