When the ORFEO label was established in Munich forty years ago, surely no one with the music scene back then would have predicted that the record company would develop into a firmly established player on the classical music market. One of the label’s main priorities in the early years was vocal music, with opera rarities top of the list and since the mid 1980s the re-use of historic tape recordings. Big names featured on the label’s own productions, while ORFEO also developed into a talent factory by discovering and nurturing young artist. This “Legendary Voices” 10 album set for the anniversary of 40 years of ORFEO label history features eleven singers, who at their times upheld the art of opera singing and still uphold it in the best interpretation of nostalgia.

Meyerbeer was a precocious composer and this album traces some of his very earliest works. Der Fischer und das Milchmädchen was his first stage work, a charming rural vignette that contains all the essential features of a ballet-divertissement couched in writing that enchantingly evokes the 18thcentury. Collaborating with his teacher, the Abbé Georg Vogler, Meyerbeer composed DerAdmiralin1811. The following year saw Wirt und Gast with the vivid Oriental exoticism of its Janissary music, while Romildae Constanza, his first Italian opera, shows his complete assimilation of Rossinian models.

REVIEWS:

Convincing performances of some delightful, largely unknown, scores.

I have had cause to praise the players of the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice on this website before...On this occasion their skilled sensitivity to the demands of the music is again well to the fore and they give us completely idiomatic accounts that are characterised, as appropriate, by delicacy or finely controlled energy. Several passages, especially in the earliest works, offer considerable opportunities for solo woodwind players and, whether from the flautist, oboist or clarinettist, those are invariably finely delivered. To employ a well-worn but nonetheless very useful cliché, all 34 musicians perform as real chamber players who are constantly listening intently to each other – as well as taking their musical lead from their conductor. Dario Salvi is, of course, something of a specialist explorer of the lesser-known byways of music composed in the second and third quarters of the 19th century and, by skilful control of orchestral colour, orchestral balance and dynamics he creates performances that could hardly, I think, be more idiomatic.

-- MusicWeb International

Orfeo honors Júlia Várady as one of the most important sopranos of the second half of the 20th century with the release of this 10 album boxed set ‘The Orfeo Recordings’ on the occasion of her 80th Anniversary on 1st September 2021.

A significant number of opera lovers and connoisseurs maintain that Maria Callas’ mantle ought to have passed to Júlia Várady, and that the (now eighty-year-old) Romanian-Hungarian-German soprano actually should, in her day, have ascended the international throne of the prima donna assoluta. But as it is said, her loyalty to her two musical homes, the Bavarian State Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, prevented this. Nonetheless, she made guest appearances at all the world’s major opera theaters – but she was apparently not available to the market as unrestrictedly and ubiquitously as would have been necessary for her image, in order for her to be enthroned as the Várady (as the legitimate successor of the Callas). In addition to her loyalty to the two aforementioned opera houses, another reason seemed to be a natural modesty that prevented her from constantly drawing attention to herself (with a reputation, for example, of being the “difficult one,“ or even with scandals). Her marriage to the titan Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in 1977 may also have played a role, as she often and willingly stepped into his shadow.

Escerpts from reviews of previously released volumes included in this set:

Julia Varady sings Wagner

Varady's reading of the Wesendonck Lieder is remarkable, enthralling. There's nothing here of the slow, wallowing approach often favoured today. The feeling of the words is one of very present emotions. And transfiguration is a feature of Varady's concentrated, urgent Liebestod, her complete absorption with the text as much as with the music an object-lesson in great Wagner singing. The players of Fischer-Dieskau's Berlin orchestra cover themselves in glory. The recording is exemplary.

– Gramophone

Julia Varady sings Richard Strauss

The final scene of Salome, under the watchful eye of Varady's husband, Fischer-Dieskau, has the perfection of pitch and phrase one expects of this singer, as well as an expected acuity for the meaning of the text.

– Gramophone

Julia Varady - Puccini Arias

A lovely and somewhat surprising record by the most fascinating and patrician lyric soprano of the present age: 'surprising' because, though Varady is associated closely enough with Verdi, the Puccini connection is less readily made, 'lovely' because the voice is still so pure, the style so musical and the response so intelligent, immediate and full-hearted. She adjusts wonderfully well to the Italian idiom, lightening the vowels, freeing the upper range, allowing more portamento than she would probably do in other music, yet employing in its use the finest technical skill and artistic judgement.

– Gramophone

Harpist to Queen Victoria, the Welsh composer John Thomas (1826–1913) also wrote prolifically for his own instrument, both for solo harp and for duos of two harps or harp and piano – a combination where the different sounds of the two instruments enhance the clarity of the texture. Thomas’ original works use the elegant Romantic style of his own day, but he often drew on Welsh folksong for his inspiration and also left a generous legacy of transcriptions, especially of operatic favourites. Although some of his music was intended for the Victorian drawing room, other pieces require a virtuoso technique – and all of it has a thoroughly engaging melodic appeal.

This double album brings together 38 songs by Giacomo Meyerbeer, making it the most comprehensive collection of such recordings to date. Best known for his operas, Giacomo Meyerbeer is remembered as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century. His grand opera style was achieved by merging German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. Besides his operas, he wrote around 50 other songs, many of which are gathered on this release. Performing these works are soprano Andrea Chudak, tenor Julian Rohde, and bass Tobias Hagge, joined by pianist Alexandra Rossman.

This album brings together a selection of religious compositions by Giacomo Meyerbeer, including several works presumed lost until their recent discovery. These rediscovered pieces stand out for their masterful quality and highly individual style, such as the Hymne An Gott, which demonstrates Meyerbeer’s sensitivity and skill with text. Other gems include the luminous Pater Noster and the melancholy Prelude et Cantique, which draws on the spirituality of the late Middle Ages and was of great significance to the composer. The soprano Andrea Chudak studied at the Hochschule fur Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ in Berlin as well as the Institute Musiktheater of the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik in Karlsruhe, and attended masterclasses with Peter Schreier and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, among others. She has won many prizes in national and international competitions, and has sung as a soloist at the opera houses in Karlsruhe, Kaiserslautern, Stuttgart, at the Staatsoper Berlin, and the Theater an der Wien since 2001.

The Prince Regent's band, featuring noted brass players, make their recording debut on Resonous Classics with a celebration of the legendary Distin Family. During the mid-nineteenth century the Distin Family blazed a traila cross Europe and North America performing countless concerts and promoting new and exciting designs of brass instruments. The Distins originally performed on a mixture of natural and keyed brass instruments but halfway through their career, thanks to a chance meeting with Adolphe Sax in Paris in 1844, they adopted the new valved brass instruments, and in particular the new "saxhorn", with which their names became synonymous. In "The Celebrated Distin Family", period brass specialists The Prince Regent's Band have recreated the lost Distin Family repertoire, performing on their unique collection of original saxhorns and other fascinating brass instruments of the period.

The story takes place in Baghdad at the time of the reign of Caliph Harun-al-Rashid, which is best imagined at the distance of a fairy tale. It is about two young people, the rich merchant’s son Alimelek and Irene, the caliph’s niece. Both grow up in prosperity and idleness. After the death of her parents, Irene was received by the caliph and brought up with paternal love and an uncommon freedom. Eventually she also takes the liberty to refuse Prince Selim, the caliph’s choice of husband, which considerably troubles her relationship with the caliph. She is considering fleeing the palace. The opportunity comes when a pleasure boat gets into a storm and capsizes. Only Irene is rescued from the tragedy, by the hand of Alimelek, who, wanting for anything better to do, happens to be at sea. When Irene opens her eyes, it is love at first sight and the two decide to live together as man and wife in Alimelek’s grandiose home. Of course, Alimelek must hide his young wife, because the caliph has people all over the town looking for her. His previous drinking companions – on whom he has already wasted half of the fortune he inherited from his father, and whom he less and less regards as his friends – he quite easily breaks with, in favour of a more secluded life. His hospitality is only shown to strangers, for whom he does not have to fear that Irene’s identity will be recognized.

Meyerbeer, long considered one of the greatest of operatic composers, is being rediscovered. His first music drama was Jephtas Gelübde, based on the biblical story of Jephta and his rash vow of sacrifice. The musical language is varied in expression, with an exceptionally advanced use of leitmotif and a subtle depiction of psychological process, all revealing a powerful command of material. Marches and dances of radically different moods, allied to choruses of folk-like simplicity and grandiose power, are part of a mature score in which intense monologues and gripping ensembles embody music of lyricism, drama and rapture.

A New Yorker Notable Recording of 2022!

French grand-opéra specialist Marc Minkowski has at last recorded Robert le Diable, a jewel of the genre. A triumph at its premiere in November 1831, it captivated contemporaries, and its influence stretched as far as Verdi and Wagner. An imposing international cast brings this repertory cornerstone to life: John Osborn portrays a Robert at once valiant and tender, Amina Edris reveals her full resources in the perilous role of Alice, while idiomatic performances by Nicolas Courjal, Erin Morley and Nico Darmanin complete a line-up offering the most vivid contrasts of tessitura. Against the backdrop of a medieval legend, this fantastical work depicts a confrontation between Good and Evil, pitting against each other a group of protagonists torn between desire and duty. A foundational score of musical Romanticism – performed more than 750 times in the nineteenth century at the Paris Opéra alone – is now gradually emerging from oblivion.

REVIEWS:

In these days of cash-strapped opera houses and risk-averse labels, recordings of the grander grand operas are rarities. Flawless ones are even rarer, making this breathtaking and ground-breaking new Palazzetto Bru Zane recording of Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable a cause for celebration. In Marc Minkowski’s experienced hands, Meyerbeer’s gothic saga fairly flies off the page, every bar fizzing with energy and with set pieces that burst over our heads like fireworks. Add an outstandingly talented cast, headed by John Osborn as Robert and Erin Morley as Isabelle, and you have a set with award-winner written all over it.

-- Limelight

Music and lyrics by women and men. It is only natural that the spirit of the Romantic era should embrace, envelop and encircle the male and female composers and lyricists on this album in their depiction of wistful longing – the omnipresent theme of the era. But this is not the only point of reference behind this concept. The deeper one delves into the life stories and works of these artists, the more complex and far-reaching the network of associations proves to be.

“In Relation” is an invitation to plunge into the associative field of 19th-century words and music and it shows that the connexions between the two arts and their male and female practitioners were more extensive than one might imagine.

Meyerbeer completed L’Africaine on the day he died and after he had changed its title to Vasco da Gama. A performing version was prepared for the premiere under its original title after the composer’s death but the new critical edition of the score recorded here reflects Meyerbeer’s original intentions. This Oper Frankfurt production features tenor Michael Spyres in the principal role, conducted by Antonello Manacorda.