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Mozart: Don Giovanni by Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Opera - Released January 8, 2022 | Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording
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Mozart: Don Giovanni, K. 527
Charles Mackerras
Classical - Released August 27, 1996 | Telarc
Charles Mackerras' 1995 recording of Don Giovanni with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra & Chorus is intriguing largely because it includes both the original Prague version and the revised Vienna version of the middle of the second act. The Prague version ends the second CD and the Vienna version opens the third CD, making it easy for listeners to skip over whichever version they choose, or just play the discs straight through and listen to both. The performances on the whole, though, are not consistently strong enough to make this a particularly competitive reading of the opera. Several roles are very well taken. Bo Skovhus makes a charismatic and roguish Don Giovanni, with the dramatic skills to make the complex character fully convincing. His singing is powerful, and his tone is secure and ringing throughout his range. As Zerlina, Nuccia Focile is a wide-eyed but beguiling innocent, and she acts beautifully with her expressive voice, which is consistently warm and lyrical. Their chemistry makes "Là ci darem la mano" one of the album's highlights. Felicity Lott is dramatically effective as Donna Elvira, but her voice, which sounds marvelous when it's soaring, lacks power and sounds unsupported in its lower register. Christine Brewer's Donna Anna is inconsistent; for some stretches, her voice lacks substance and has a slightly grainy sound, but she persuasively pulls off her big moments. Jerry Hadley as Don Ottavio doesn't always sound entirely in control, and his lower register is often weak, but he handles "Il mio tesoro intanto" nicely. Alessandro Corbelli brings genuine comic gifts to Leporello, but he doesn't have the power necessary and his vibrato sometimes obscures the pitch. The playing of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra is exemplary -- crisp and flexible -- and the use of natural horns and Classical-era trombones and timpani works well with the stylistically sensitive playing of the rest of the ensemble. The sound is vivid, and the discreet use of sound effects is convincing.© TiVo
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Mozart: Don Giovanni
Dimitri Mitropoulos
Opera - Released August 9, 1994 | Sony Classical
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Choc de Classica
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Mozart: Don Giovanni
Freiburger Barockorchester
Opera - Released January 1, 2007 | harmonia mundi
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Parry: Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, Blest Pair of Sirens
London Mozart Players
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released September 8, 2023 | Chandos
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Gramophone: Recording of the Month
Hubert Parry's Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, from 1880, here receives its world-recorded premiere. Perhaps recording companies thought there wouldn't be much of a market for a heavy 19th century choral work with, it must be said, a ponderous text by Percy Bysshe Shelley (Prometheus was a play intended to be read, not performed, just to give an idea). How wrong they were. This release made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023, and it is altogether enjoyable. At the time, Parry was under the spell of Wagner, whom he traveled to Bayreuth to meet. That influence certainly shows up in Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, with its basically declamatory text, partly through-composed music, wind-and-brass-heavy orchestration, and splashes of chromaticism. Yet what is remarkable is that the music does not come off as an imitation of Wagner at all. Rather, it uses elements of his style to match a specific kind of English literary text. The work gradually disappeared, but it would be surprising if Elgar, whom it clearly prefigures, did not know it well. The performances here are luminous, with William Vann using the lighter-than-expected London Mozart Players to create transparent textures against which he can set the substantial voices of Sarah Fox, Sarah Connolly, and other soloists. Parry did write some shorter pieces that remain in the repertory; one of these, Blest Pair of Sirens, is included here as a finale. However, the Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound are the main news here, and this performance, showing how this kind of thing should be done, may generate a new life for the work.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Casta Diva - Operatic arias transcribed for trumpet
Matilda Lloyd
Opera - Released April 28, 2023 | Chandos
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Five years after her solo debut recording, Direct Message, which programmed 20th and 21st century works for trumpet and piano, trumpet player Matilda Lloyd departs the traditional repertoire (aside from the two Arban arrangements from the Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet). Instead of following more well-worn routes, Lloyd elects to present a program of Romantic period opera arias, mostly in arrangements for trumpet and chamber orchestra (undertaken here by the Britten Sinfonia under Rumon Gamba) by William Foster, who worked closely with Lloyd on this project. Lloyd's skill as a musician is evident throughout, though the two Arban tracks most clearly allow her abilities to shine. The arrangements throughout are good, though how much they add to the performances rather than transcriptions and transpositions is up for debate. Lloyd notes with excitement the decision to include two pieces by Pauline Viardot, and one of the highlights here is the treatment of Viardot's Havanaise. This is certainly a trumpet release aimed at a wider audience than trumpet and brass circles, and it has already found success on the retail market. Chandos delivers just the right atmosphere from the Church of St. Augustine, Kilburn, in London. The future is bright for this trumpeter, and one looks forward to where her path may take her.
© Keith Finke /TiVo
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Ludwig van Beethoven : Complete Works for Violoncello and Piano
Jean-Guihen Queyras
Duets - Released September 22, 2014 | harmonia mundi
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Poulenc: Concertos for Piano
Edward Gardner
Concertos - Released September 18, 2015 | Chandos
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The Montreal-born pianist Louis Lortie has emerged as one of the world's top specialists in French music of the first half of the 20th century. He is capable of great subtlety, but he does not give short shrift to the pure melodic pleasures and the popular and jazz influences that are integral to the tradition. This Poulenc album is a delight, and it might be the only one you need for Poulenc's music for piano and ensemble. The Piano Concerto of 1949 is not one of Poulenc's more famous works, but the performance here by Lortie and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner is masterful, with intricate weaving of piano and orchestra balanced by melodic straightforwardness, including an intriguing quotation of "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" in a kind of Latinized version in the finale. The first movement seems to have a wash of piano sound, emerging seamlessly into melody. The more familiar Concerto for two pianos and orchestra receives a vigorous performance, with Hélène Mercier on the second piano extremely well-coordinated with Lortie, and there are several crystalline smaller pieces including Aubade, a neoclassic suite for piano and an ensemble of 18 instruments. Chandos' studio sound here is absolutely superb, and this is destined to be a cornerstone Poulenc release. It's a joy from start to finish.© TiVo
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So Romantique !
Cyrille Dubois
Classical - Released March 10, 2023 | Alpha Classics
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Mozart's Mannheim
Freiburger Barockorchester
Classical - Released May 19, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Several recordings have explored the relationship between Mozart and the city of Mannheim, which he visited several times. This Deutsche Grammophon release by the Freiburger Barockorchester and conductor/violinist Gottfried von der Golz may be the best of them. The annotations refer to how Mozart basked in the high regard in which he was held in Mannheim and to how impressed he was with the famed court orchestra there. However, after hearing this release, the listener may be tempted to go even further and assert that the music of Mannheim exerted a strong influence on Mozart in the late 1770s. The entire first half of the program here consists of world premieres, and all of them sound Mozartian. Why? Most of them point toward the big-boned movement structures Mozart loved, even if they don't expand them as far as Mozart would later in his career. Consider the first movement of Christian Cannabich's Symphony No. 55 in C major, with its long passages that move only slowly off the home key; one can hear any number of Mozart movements as proceeding from this idea, and one also wants to hear some more of the numerous and almost completely unplayed symphonies of Cannabich. Even less known are the Mannheim composers Georg Joseph Vogler, Christian Danner, and Carl Joseph Toeschi, and their contributions are eminently listenable. Mozart wraps the program up with a recitative and aria and the unnumbered Symphony in C major, K. 208, assembled by the composer from other music; it absolutely fits in here. The performances are idiomatic, and the sound is excellent. A valuable contribution from von der Goltz and company that landed on classical best-seller charts in the spring of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Beethoven: Complete Sonatas and Variations for Cello and Piano
Gary Hoffman
Chamber Music - Released September 29, 2023 | La Dolce Volta
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Fauré: Requiem - Poulenc: Figure Humaine - Debussy: 3 Chansons
Mathieu Romano
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released March 1, 2019 | Aparté
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4F de Télérama
Fauré's Requiem, “funeral lullaby” written for enjoyment as the composer put it, has a unique place in history. It's soft, simple and modest poetry conveys moments of gentle contemplation and moving expressiveness which are entrusted to both the choir and the two soloists. With his Ensemble Aedes and the orchestra Les Siècles, Mathieu Romano is committed to render a Requiem faithful to its first performance. We hear thus the score in its original 1893 orchestration, where the organ plays a great role, and where Latin is pronounced in the French way as it used to be. The clearest articulation of the Ensemble Aedes then perfectly fits Éluard’s Figure humaine set to music by Francis Poulenc. We have never heard these sublime poems sung with such intelligibility before! Finally, the three Songs by Debussy elegantly close the album. Here again, the quality and clarity of the voices are stunning. Artistic director and founder of Ensemble Aedes has established himself as a magician of voices in a cappella scores. And voices ideally melt with the strings of Les Siècles under his baton. A 100% French cast in a 100% French music disc for a triple rediscovery. Essential! © Aparté
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Psyché
Christophe Rousset
Classical - Released January 13, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles
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A Night in London
Ophélie Gaillard
Classical - Released March 4, 2022 | Aparté
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In the 1730s, many composers tried their luck in London, where many other treasures were in preparation: Geminiani revolutionized instrumental writing with his famous treatise on interpretation and presented an amazing version of La Folia; his pupil Avison orchestrated concertos by Scarlatti, and Porpora ventured away from opera to rediscover the vocality of the cello with one of the most beautiful concertos of that period. Ophélie Gaillard and Pulcinella treat us to a frenzied and poetic night in London. They meet Vivaldi, Hasse, Scottish composer James Oswald and virtuoso cellist Giovanni Battista Cirri. Guest artists Sandrine Piau and Lucile Richardot take on magnificent vocal pieces by Geminiani and Handel – Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni would have been seriously envious, that’s for sure! © Aparté
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True Genius
Ray Charles
Soul - Released September 10, 2021 | Tangerine Records
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In the year of his 90th birthday (which he would have celebrated on the 23rd of September 2020 had he not died in 2004), Ray Charles is honoured with a new 90-track compilation box set. Just another compilation like all the rest? Yes and no. Ray Charles is undoubtedly one of the most-compiled artists in the history of music. Published by Tangerine, the label that the musician set up at the end of the 50s to keep the rights to his songs, this box set starts out like all the others: with the post-Atlantic hits, Georgia On My Mind, Hit The Road Jack, One Mint Julep, Busted... These are timeless treasures of proto-soul, but there doesn't seem to be much novelty here. The rest is much more interesting, and much rarer: tracks recorded between the second half of the 1960s and the 2000s, many of which were only released on vinyl, never reissued on CD and until now unavailable on digital. This is the first time that Ray Charles' lesser-known years have been given the compilation treatment in this way, and it is a revelation. In the 90s and 2000s, the production of his songs had a synthetic feel, and they did not age too well. These rarer songs are often hidden gems of southern soul, flavoured with country and wrapped in sumptuous symphonic orchestrations. Whether he is singing the Muppets (It's Ain't Easy Being Green) or Gershwin (Summertime, a duet with Cleo Laine), Ray Charles is always deeply moving. Now, the dream is to hear reissues of all these albums in their entirety. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz
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Rameau : Zaïs
Christophe Rousset
Full Operas - Released September 3, 2015 | Aparté
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In 1745, the King of France granted Jean-Philippe Rameau the title of ‘Composer to the Court’, coupled with a healthy pension. This new period produced pieces of a much lighter character, with Rameau working alongside the librettist Louis de Cahusac, and the resulting collaborations are now counted amongst the Burgundian musician’s greatest masterpieces. Zaïs was presented on the stage of the Royal Academy of Music in 1748. This heroic ballet offers French music some of its most beautiful movements, both vocally and instrumentally. The entire work is a meditation on its famous opening chaos, and succeeds, surprisingly, through its theatrical stamp and in the audacity of the writing. The plot is, perhaps, tenuous – a lover (Zaïs) is in the throes of affection for his beloved (Zélidie), determining to cherish her – which serves as the pretext for endless entertainment, dancing, and the work’s magical character. Today, it remains surprising that a work as sumptuous as Rameau’s Zaïs is neglected in favour of the Indes Galantes or Hippolyte et Aricie. It is paradoxical, then, that in 1970 Gustav would combine the small amount of French music he truly appreciated with a reassessment of the beauties of this work. Gustav created a fascinating recording with La Petite Bande Sigiswald Kuijken (STIL), which has now become a true rarity, despite its questionable vocalists. Happily for us, Christophe Rousset, who cherishes Rameaus’s older work, has dedicated himself to it, and offers us this gorgeously captured rendition, with French singers working under the direction of his sharp and witty leadership. The opening of the Les Talens Lyriques recital is far more vivid than anything that has been achieved in over twenty years for L’Oiseau-Lyre, in which the Ouverture immediately sets the tone. Rousset completely captures the brilliance of the score, and his imagination – which here seems insatiable – liberates his singers, who are boundlessly invested in this work; complicit in a musical resurrection. An enchantment of sorts? No. A whirlwind, rather. © Qobuz
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Handel: Finest Arias for Base (Bass) Voice, Vol. 1
Christopher Purves
Classical - Released December 2, 2012 | Hyperion
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There's no shortage of Handel aria recitals these days, especially in Britain, but this one by bass baritone Christopher Purves stands out from the crowd in several respects. First of all, it is rare in collecting arias for bass voice, which was, in Handel's time as it was later on, generally associated with a few fixed and generally negative character types (tyrants, rogues, repressive patriarchs). Second, it's a very pleasantly varied collection of tunes, including displays of brilliant passagework, out-of-the-norm writing in service of characterization (Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori, from Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, track 4), and high climactic drama (the big, three-part Revenge, Timotheus cries, from Alexander's Feast, track 19, is a familiar example). Finally, Purves unearths some rarely heard pieces and programs them intelligently. When did anyone last year anything from Muzio Scevola, or Riccardo Primo, rè d'Inghilterra, which must have pleased London audiences in 1727 despite its Italian-language text. Purves does not have the biggest voice in the bass baritone universe, and there could be a bit more sound in the very low notes. But the dimensions of the music are right for the period. He's pleasingly accurate in the passagework, and he's a real actor who makes these potentially stilted characters come alive. Listeners will want to hear Purves in a small production of one of these operas after hearing this album, preferably accompanied by the strong historical-instrument group Arcangelo under Jonathan Cohen, as he is here.© TiVo
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Four pianos, Four Pieces
Alexander Melnikov
Classical - Released February 9, 2018 | harmonia mundi
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Gramophone Editor's Choice
"Four oeuvres, four pianos" might be a better way of looking at the cover of this album by Alexander Melnikov: Schubert is played on a (simply stunning) Viennese Graf fortepiano from around 1835, Chopin on an Érard grand piano from 1837, Liszt on a Bösendorfer from 1875 and Stravinsky on a modern-day Steinway - the only work which is not played on an instrument contemporary to its composition, as Petrushka dates from 1911, and most certainly not from 2014 like the Steinway in question! The differences between the four instruments are not immediately obvious, but Melnikov's project is to demonstrate just how closely art and instrument follow one another: the Wanderer Fantasy benefits from the clarity of the Graf fortepiano which, while it lacks powerful volume, offers a startling palette of different sounds for the artist to explore. Chopin's twelve Études Op. 10 on the Érard – still within a few years of the Graf – increased the power of the sound in particular, but at the cost of reducing the range of colours in the palette. With the Réminiscences de Don Juan by Liszt, the Bösendorfer unleashes real pianistic thunderbolts, which almost overshadows the content! Finally, Petrushka on the Steinway takes us back into a rather more familiar territory. This is a concept of pairing from Melnikov, whose fondness for historical instruments is well-known. © SM/Qobuz
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Handel: Amadigi di Gaula
Tim Mead
Opera - Released September 16, 2022 | Chandos
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The countertenor Tim Mead leads an all-star cast in the Early Opera Company’s recording of Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula, conducted by Christian Curnyn. The opera was first performed, in London, in 1715, in the first season under the reign of George I, at the King’s Theatre on the Haymarket. The complex, twisting plot features the lovers Amadigi and Oriana, imprisoned by the sorceress Melissa (who seeks Amadigi’s love). His ally Dardano turns against Amadigi, his former friend, when he realises that they both love Oriana and he sides with Melissa. Her plans are repeatedly foiled, and true love triumphs at the final curtain! Amadigi is considered the finest of Handel’s early London operas in terms of musical sophistication, theatrical pacing, and a perfectly balanced exploration of the interconnected relationships, motivations, and emotional divergences among just four dissimilar yet equally arresting characters. © Chandos
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Memories – The Unreleased Recordings 1970-2019
Nelson Freire
Classical - Released October 14, 2022 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
Booklet
Rare is the artist whose leftovers would end up on best-seller lists, but this one from pianist Nelson Freire did just that in the autumn of 2022. Part of the reason is that the unexpected loss of Freire the previous year is still keenly felt. Also, his recorded output was less than prolific, and many Freire fans will jump on this release sight unseen, but the biggest reason is that there are indeed some lost gems, mostly small ones. The album offers recordings in three categories. First, there is a short session recorded in Berlin in 2014, apparently part of a project that never came to fruition. These include the miniatures that Freire always did so well; the balance of voices in the Myra Hess piano transcription of Bach's Jesu, joy of man's desiring is nothing short of miraculous. The Beethoven Andante favori, WoO 57, was apparently not recorded by Freire anywhere else. Second, there are three concertos recorded during radio broadcasts in Germany in the 1970s and '80s. The sound on these is reasonable considering the limitations of the era, and the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83, especially, is a fine illustration of Freire's art, with the percussive half-steps in the first movement done in such a way that they reverberate through the whole work. Finally, there are miscellaneous short pieces that have never appeared on CD before; one can understand, with the likes of Debussy's La plus que lente, why Decca wanted to rescue these from the historical scrap heap. Freire fans will need no encouragement here, and there is a lot of pleasure for the general listener.© James Manheim /TiVo
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