It was time for Ludovic Tézier to finally provide his admirers with a recital. His performances as a Verdian baritone are impressive: Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra, Falstaff, Giorgio Germont (La Traviata), Posa (Don Carlo), Le Conte De Luna (Il Trovatore), Renato (Un ballo in maschera), Iago (Otello). And almost all of these are reprised in this solo album. To this impressive list of stage roles, Tézier brings the welcome addition of arias from Ernani, Macbeth and Nabucco all accompanied by Frédéric Chaslin at the head of the orchestra of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna. It was in 1998 in Tel Aviv that the French baritone played his first Verdian role. He was thirty years old when he was Ford in a production of Falstaff. "There is an absolutely fascinating energy in Verdi, both for the audience and for the singers", he admits. "His roles are usually very challenging, but his music acts at the same time as a fountain of youth. Verdi is brimming with vitality, which is what allowed me to return to the stage just two days after my father's death". Now with a fully-matured voice, Ludovic Tézier is in demand all over the world for his Verdi roles. He is one of the best performers of Verdi's work, standing alongside the late Piero Cappuccilli who remains his great role model. This record offers timely confirmation of his stature. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Studio recordings of full operas are not so common anymore, but among the few positive side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was that it did spawn several. This one sounds a bit buttoned-up, perhaps because of the restrictions of the time; the album was made in the summer of 2021, and the contributions of the Transylvania State Choir were downloaded from afar (actually, this would be hard to tell by listening), but there is a lot that is distinctive about the performance of this Verdi opera, whose tragicomic quality has made it a special favorite in modern times. Verdi moved the action from Sweden to Boston to circumvent a censorship restriction; nowadays, the Swedish setting is generally preferred, but the curious American colonial setting somehow seems to fit the mixture of elements in the opera, loading political intrigue onto the old comic trope of the masked ball. The biggest news is the presence of tenor Freddie De Tommaso in the lead role of Riccardo. He has been bubbling under the surface of the opera scene, and with this recording, he takes a major step into the spotlight. Consider one of his big numbers, like "Forse la soglia attinse" in Act III, for an idea of why his performance is bringing to mind some of the greats who have recorded this opera. He is ably backed by a strong cast, including the rougher but powerfully dramatic Lester Lynch as Renato, making a compelling contrast with De Tommaso and Saioa Hernández as Amelia. This vocally strong Un ballo in maschera is well worth the attention of Verdi lovers.© James Manheim /TiVo

The Naxos label had already released a DVD of a live 2008 performance at the Teatro Real in Madrid of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera under the direction of the great Spanish conductor Jesús López Cobos, who died in 2018. This release presents the audio recorded on the stage of the Vienna Opera in 2016 and marketed by the same label. This publication honours two great artists who passed away shortly after this performance: the baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Renato and Jesús López Cobos, who gives superb impetus to Verdi's masterpiece, at the helm of the Wiener Staatsoper Orchestra, a part of the Vienna Philharmonic.In April 2016, the great Russian baritone's voice was already damaged by illness, and he had to start heavy chemotherapy a few weeks after this series of performances, cancelling several of his contracts. However, he remained utterly committed to this role, in which he played a jealous man in a performance full of powerful despair. Polish tenor Piotr Beczała won great acclaim in the role of King Gustav III of Sweden, especially for his duet with Krassimira Stoyanova's splendid Amelia. As expected, Nadia Krasteva brings a visionary treatment to the spectacular role of the gypsy witch Ulrica. Israeli soprano Hila Fahima plays the charming page Oscar with an agility that is both casual and precise. An excellent reflection of what one of the world's greatest stages can offer on a daily basis. © François Hudry/Qobuz

The composition of Un ballo in maschera caused Verdi many problems. What began as an opera called "Gustavo III" was subject to censorship by the Neapolitan and Roman authorities, so its libretto, location and title all changed. The subject, however, is still the murder of Riccardo (Gustavo) at the masked ball, couched in a musical language in which the seriousness of Italian opera is infused with French vivacity. The opera’s structure is carefully symmetrical in the great terzets, and the themes of duty, pleasure, drama and humour are rendered with masterful clarity. © Dynamic

No one knows better than Rinaldo Alessandrini that Monteverdi's madrigals – to which he has dedicated a major part of his work and recordings over the past thirty years – were above all texts where the music was the servant, and not the mistress. This form of a cappella vocal polyphony, responding sensitively to the inflections of a highly expressive poetry, was born in the full flowering of Renaissance humanism and developed in the 17th century by composers such as Monteverdi, Marenzio and Gesualdo, before being supplanted by the opera. As the Italian maestro explains, in the Third Book of Madrigals, "we can already see how carefully the twenty-fiveyear-old Monteverdi chooses poetry, e.g. by Guarini and Tasso, which is capable of 'responding to the needs of the drama, of truth, humanity and emotionality, culminating at the end of his life in the lustrous triumph of his final works". This is the fifth collection of madrigals Rinaldo Alessandrini has recorded with Concerto Italiano, and it is the cornerstone of his quest for an intimate understanding of Monteverdi's repertoire – and all the music that came after it. These madrigals have "the power to allow the performers to read the human passions, perceive them empathetically, and restore them in the very finest dress" (Esteban Hernández Castelló). Their analytical yet sensitive approach leads to a precise intonation, a direct transmission of naked emotions, and the restoration of details we can only glimpse behind the words, revealing in all its beauty what lies hidden in the music: mirror images of the soul. © naive classique

Together with the Berlin-based Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester (DSO) Mari Kodama and her husband Kent Nagano have now completed the recording of all of Beethoven's piano concertos by jumping, as it were, back in time twice: the last element of this recording series that has spanned more than 13 years was Beethoven's concerto "number nought" (WoO 4) – personally edited by Mari Kodama from the autograph score. The original manuscript of this piano concerto is kept at the State Library in Berlin. This is not a completed score, because there is no orchestration. That said, Beethoven annotated the short score, especially in the first two movements, with indications as to which instrument was to play which part. The orchestra score which is available today was written in the early twentieth century based on those annotations. The only problem is: "Today, armed with the knowledge we now have acquired about the young Beethoven, we would perform this concerto quite differently in places," explain Mari Kodama and Kent Nagano in unison. They therefore present a very personal adaptation that emerged during rehearsal with the orchestra and at the recording sessions, and which reflects Kodama's and Nagano's individual image of Beethoven. They aim to make audible the exuberant freshness and urgent sense of awakening in the young, almost childlike Beethoven's writing shortly before his artistic powers were to burst forth, the joie de vivre and vital energy in a style that owes something to the playfulness of both Haydn and Mozart. That is Mari Kodama's intention, and she plays it in precisely such a versatile manner. Combined with the classical canon of the piano concertos nos. 1–5, the resulting comprehensive edition is complemented by the Triple Concerto for piano, violin and cello op. 56, the Rondo WoO 6 and the Eroica Variations op. 35, offering insight into the artist's longstanding involvement with her musical companion Ludwig van Beethoven. And the recordings of his works seem to lead the listener through the composer's life. "If you play all of them, it is like accompanying Beethoven on a journey through his life," explains Mari Kodama, and Kent Nagano adds: "You acknowledge the musical genius and at the same time you recognise the development of European music, because Beethoven was undoubtedly its pioneer." He led the way in changing the structure, form and harmony of music, just as there was an equally radical shift in the world around him; after the French Revolution society and business and the incipient industrial revolution began to alter the way people lived. "He is and remains an optimist, someone who can do no other than believe in what he wishes to communicate to us through his music," explains Kodama. She says this helps her. The fact that she herself is an optimist can partly be attributed to Beethoven. Kodama, Nagano and the DSO – one might imagine them almost as a trio where all the musicians have blind faith in each other and are therefore able to produce a degree of musical intensity that brings the young Beethoven back to life. © Berlin Classics

PentaTone Classics usually deals in high-end reissues of older recordings, particularly those drawn from the Philips catalog. However, upon encountering this recording of Stravinsky with Philippe Herreweghe, the Collegium Vocale Gent, and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, one cannot be blamed for taking pause to wonder, "Now who did Herreweghe record this for -- Erato? Harmonia Mundi?" No sir or ma'am; Herreweghe has never recorded Stravinsky's Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Mass, Chorale Variations on "Von Himmel Hoch," or the Symphony of Psalms before, nor any other Stravinsky for that matter. This is a NEW PentaTone recording, a live one made in Antwerp in 2008. Contrary to expectation, Herreweghe does not conduct the Monumentum pro Gesualdo as though it was Gesualdo, and moreover, it's a pretty straitlaced and sober performance to boot, though it's more of a bloodless coup than Stravinsky's own recording, made in 1960. The Mass is both well sung and well coordinated; a very neat and tidy performance, but too fast tempo wise; one wonders during the Sanctus "what is he trying to do, catch a bus?" The Chorale Variations on "Von Himmel Hoch" is better in terms of pacing, though there are moments of lax coordination among the winds; this is, after all, live. This issue is ironed out in the Symphony of Psalms. As in the case of the Monumentum pro Gesualdo, the Symphony of Psalms is a pretty good performance, though at times the orchestral balance seems a little off-kilter; nevertheless, the second movement packs a punch. Although this is a hybrid multichannel disc, sometimes there are little inequities of sound; the winds in the Mass have a tendency to overpower the singers, and within the Collegium Vocale Gent at times the gents seem a bit louder than the ladies.There is no questioning Herreweghe's strong showing in Baroque literature; particularly in Bach cantatas. However, Herreweghe has dipped into modern repertoire here and there and usually with the same or similar results as on this PentaTone disc. The 20th century is just not Herreweghe's strong suit, and one wonders why he keeps trying to play his hand in it, though this is not all bad; just not quite the strong showing one would hope it to be.© TiVo

Verdi's I Lombardi, here given its full title, I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata ("The Lombards in the First Crusade"), was a follow-up to Nabucco, with promoters wanting more of the ethnoreligious patriotism of the earlier opera. Verdi complied externally, with a colorful tale spanning locales from Lombardy to Antioch to Jerusalem. The romantic libretto, with the soprano lead, Giselda, taking off on a pilgrimage of her own, did not hang together so well, and more popular Verdi operas at the end of the 1840s swept the work out of the repertory. In many ways, though, I Lombardi is a more sophisticated work than Nabucco, with big choruses, recitatives, and arias flowing naturally into each other, and it is no accident that this work was chosen to be adapted for Verdi's first French grand opera, Jérusalem. The work stands or falls on its Giselda, on whom the spotlight falls squarely after the opening conflict between brothers is set up; this live Bavarian Radio concert production has a good one in Nino Machaidze, who has a high-flying international career but doesn't get quite the publicity she deserves. She is ideal in the role, inhabiting its tempestuous and helpless turns, and as her career has developed, her voice has developed some steel. At times, she lays the vibrato on pretty thick, but this is a matter of taste, and she is dramatically convincing. There are other strong singers in the highly international cast, notably the smoky-voice Réka Kristóf as Giselda's mother, Viclinda, and conductor Ivan Repušić, leading his Münchner Rundfunkorchester, understands the strides Verdi was making toward more variegated textures. There is very little noise from the well-drilled Munich audience, and the sung texts are clear. Verdi lovers are in for a treat here.© James Manheim /TiVo