*The* Formidable SALOME Schlußszene 🌹 Cheryl Studer

Arguably (but inarguably to me), this may be the finest Salome on record. To be sure, the famous 1962 Birgit Nilsson recording is not chopped liver either, not least due to Solti's coaxing a splendid response from the orchestra, the tip-top shape of the orchestra's personnel at the time, and the engineering team's capturing of the distinct and luminous Vienna sound par excellence; as we know, a manner now sadly extinct. So, for orchestral performance alone, the hat tips in Solti's favor. For vocals and characterization, however, the hat tips in this direction. And yet, Sinopoli leads with such detail and tautness that the result is equally staggering in impact and chilling in beauty. More hats off, then. And not to be ignored, of the various Ljuba Welitsch versions available, I highly recommend this one from Vienna, recorded in 1944 (or 1945) in which she was at her finest.    • Ljuba Welitsch - Final scene of Salom...  

Meanwhile, we keep reading uninformed comments such as “… she [Studer] never sang [Salome] live and couldn’t have.” But that is categorically false because: 1. she sang the Schlußszene in Salzburg with Mo. Sinopoli and the Dresden, on 3 August 1991: https://archive.salzburgerfestspiele.... and, 2. she sang the role in a series of concert performances of the work with Riccardo Chailly in February of ‘97, in Zürich. Read about it (in Dutch): https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/balans-tu...

Then there is this, published April 2022:
http://www.musicweb-international.com...
“In 1991 she [Studer] gave a concert performance of this very piece in Dresden [in Salzburg, actually, and here is a recording of it:    • Cheryl Studer Strauss Salomé Ah du wo...  ] with Sinopoli that was just outrageous – Sinopoli pushed Studer with such power and force she ended up giving a vision of Salome that was more chilling and more decadent and terrifying than any I have heard; by the end of it her voice was all but shattered. Perhaps this is exactly the kind of cruelty that Strauss expected of his Salome – but which no soprano dares to give. It is certainly not the one that Jessye Norman dares to give here. As impressive as the voice is, her vocal cords do not sound that stretched – the performance could be considered just a little safe.
Norman doesn’t fall into the Studer category in any sense, and nor give us what Strauss really intended. But what we do get is a performance of such power and virtuosity it delivers a real punch. In a sense this is not uncomplicated music; it is a straightforward narrative and Norman doesn’t make life difficult for herself. You’ll be swept away by it, but it isn’t blood-curdling, it isn’t decadent and nor is it chilling. One could imagine Studer entirely embracing the head of John the Baptist to kiss his lips; I think Norman probably recoiled at the prospect of doing so. Where Studer might almost spit her words out towards the latter half of this long monologue, Norman is more modest. Only one of these two great sopranos drips in the blood of her venom and poison.”