LHL’s farewell

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The tenth anniversary of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's death arrives in July. The supreme mezzo-soprano, whom I described in a memorial article as the "most remarkable singer I ever heard" (nothing has changed in the interim), made her final public appearance ten years ago today, in a Chicago Symphony performance of Mahler's Second Symphony. Marc Geelhoed, the manager of audio media at the Chicago Symphony (and the former classical critic of Time Out Chicago), has arranged to stream the "Urlicht" movement from those performances. Frank Villella, the CSO's archivist and a member of the CSO Chorus, remembers her beautifully in a commentary on the CSO site. In the recording, she gives the impression that she intends to go on singing forever, as indeed she will.