From the lyricism of Bloch's Schelomo to the modernity of Lutoslawski's Cello Concerto, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Gustavo Gimeno explore the cello's lyrical side, revealing itself as prayer, lament, or murmur. In contrast, the Polish composer's Concerto for Orchestra celebrates vitality and collective energy. This program is a journey from inner song to orchestral power.

I Carry Your Heart is an album with love at it's heart; a luminous new recording from the VOCES8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra featuring the music of VOCES8's new Composer-in-Residence, Taylor Scott Davis. Released on 27 March 2026 on VOCES8 Records / Decca Classics and conducted by Barnaby Smith, the album is centred on Davis's powerful new six-movement Requiem, commissioned for VOCES8's 20th anniversary. Exploring hope through love's journey across life and death, this compelling programme offers a kaleidoscope of sublime melodies and richly interwoven choral and orchestral textures. Davis brings a distinctive contemporary voice to a work conceived as a Requiem for our times, open to listeners of all faiths or none. With exceptional artistry and emotional depth, i carry your heart is an essential new addition to the choral catalogue

This recording presents a performance of H.C. Robbins Landon's edition of Mozart's Requiem, a product of modern scholarship, sound musicological argument, and learned intuition. It comprises Mozart's original fragment along with completions by the familiar Süssmayr, as well as Mozart's other students, Eybler and Freystädtler. The CD booklet gives details on who added what, and makes for interesting reading. But, the real concern here is the performance itself, and it is truly captivating. Bruno Weil's quick tempos bring fresh air and sunlight into the mausoleum some have made of this work. There is a compelling urgency that carries over from one movement to the next. The "Rex tremendae" here sounds chilling, its defiant anger fully embodied by the Tölzer Boys Choir, which sings with all the range and beauty of a traditional choir but with more clarity and poignancy. The four soloists are beautifully devotional, though bass Harry van der Kamp has some slight intonation problems in the "Tuba mirum". Tafelmusik's vividly colorful playing clarifies the musical lines with naturalness and subtlety, while the recorded sound marvelously balances reverberation and clarity. An outstanding release. --Victor Carr, ClassicsToday.com

Over the last two centuries and in today's churches, hymns may be referred to as songs, prayers, or even spirituals, but the need for them remains the same. These pieces are written as instruments of praise and worship to God, as prayers in time of need, and as reflections in expression of joy, sorrow, or thanksgiving. On this recording, there are inspirational words written to a Gaelic melody of unknown date and origin ("Morning Has Broken"), a song written by a grieving father after the loss of all five of his children to tragedy ("It Is Well with My Soul"), and a hymn assembled gradually by three people over 150 years in three countries ("Be Still My Soul"). The words and melodies may mean something different to everyone who sings them, but the intention of them has been the same for hundred of years - to worship, praise, and thank God.

Songs of Madeleine Dring

Complete Crumb Edition, Volume 7
Unto the Hills
Black Angels
Ann Crumb, soprano
Marcantonio Barone, piano
Orchestra 2001
James Freeman, conductor
The Miró Quartet

Volume Seven of Bridge's Complete Crumb Edition features the world premiere recording of Crumb's new Appalachian folk song cycle, "Unto the Hills". Performed by Crumb's daughter, soprano Ann Crumb, and an ensemble of percussion quartet and amplified piano, the thirty-six minute cycle features spectacularly colorful (more than 75 percussion instruments) and moving renditions of such classic folk tunes as "Black, Black, Black is the Color", "Poor Wayfaring Stranger"," The Riddle", and "All the Pretty Little Horses". Also included on this CD is a stunning new reading of Crumb's classic "Black Angels" for Electric String Quartet. Performed by the brilliant, young Miró Quartet, this performance, supervised by the composer, features a combination of early 21st Century virtuosity and state of the art recording technology.

DOMINGO - OPERA DUETS WITH MIL

Classical Music

HALLELUJAH! AND OTHER GREAT SACRED CHORUSES

The great soprano Ileana Cotrubas is featured on this disc singing arias from many of her signature roles. Always an effervescent and engaging performer, Cotrubas became known for her portrayals of lyric soprano roles such as Susanna, Pamina, Gilda, Liú, and Adina , all of which are represented here.
She also tests more foreign waters in arias from Charpentier's 'Louise' and Verdi's 'La Forza del Destino,' with excellent results. For example, in contrast to the Gilda aria "Caro nome" from 'Rigoletto,' the Leonora aria "Pace, pace, mi Dio," displays the darker, more brooding side to Cotrubas that she did not often employ. Sitting lower in her vocal register, Cotrubas renders this wrenching aria with unwavering intensity that one wishes she had used more often. A wonderful highlight of the disc has Placido Domingo joining Cotrubas in selections from Donizetti's 'L'elisir d'amore," which is a sheer delight and familiar turf to Cotrubas. The well-known "O mio babbino caro," warmly sung by Cotrubas, ends this wonderful collection.

Emma Kirkby, internationally renowned for her interpretations of early music, joins Canadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc, Peter Harvey, Clare Salaman, and The Purcell Quartet in this disc of sacred music by Buxtehude. This is the only available reecording of many of the works on this disc. Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 14-16 February 2002 Producer(s) Rachel Smith Sound Engineer(s) Jonathan Cooper Michael Common

This CD contains both ADD and DDD recordings.
To know a piece of music, to truly understand the depth of its meaning, requires intense study. Once written, a great work takes on a life of its own, its full potential beyond even what its composer anticipates. This album, an exploration of Rachmaninov's 'Vocalise,' takes 13 interpretations and, by laying them side by side, shows how rich such a simple melody can be.
Each interpretation brings out something new in this beautiful, wordless song. Transcriptions for solo piano, solo flute, piano duet, soprano, full choir, and full orchestra show how flexibly the music accepts different ideas and instrumentation. The deep melancholy of Vladimir Spivakov's violin, accompanied by Sergei Bezrodny's piano, stands in stark contrast with the angelic transcendence found in countertenor Brian Asawa's performance.
Every listener will find his or her favorite performance here, but it is impossible to select a definitive interpretation. However, the Philadelphia Orchestra's version, conducted by Rachmaninov himself, has an air of authority. After all, who better to interpret the intentions of the composer than the composer himself?

MAHLER Des Knaben Wunderhorn • Markus Stenz, cond; Christiane Oelze (sop); Michael Volle (bar); Cologne Gürzenich O • OEHMS OC 657 (SACD: 61:28 & no trans)


This recording of the Wunderhorn songs was made simultaneously with that of Symphony No. 4 (reviewed last issue), which not coincidentally features Christiane Oelze as soloist. The song that constitutes the symphony’s finale, “Das himmlische Leben,” is also included in this program, placed last and, appropriately enough, after its earthly predecessor, “Das irdische Leben.” The two performances are so similar that one would assume them to be the same, but there are subtle differences in timing and execution that prove them to be different. It is evidence of the care invested in this project that this extra effort was expended; Stenz’s symphony cycle is thus both extended and enriched.


As in the classic set on EMI featuring Schwartzkopf and Fischer-Dieskau, several of the songs here are presented as duets, a practice condemned by Donald Mitchell: “Mahler, I am sure, did not have this possibility in mind. He would have expected a capable singer to have been able to characterize each role sufficiently, without recourse to a partner.” ( The Wunderhorn Years, p. 260 n. 34). Be that as it may, the device can be justified from a dramatic standpoint, and I find the added variety refreshing. The pairing is only applied to three songs—“Trost im Unglück,” “Lied des Verfolgten im Turm,” and “Verlor’ne Müh”—and each one consists of pure dialogue (the last stanza of “Trost im Unglück” is written for both protagonists) so it hardly seems far-fetched to characterize the songs through the use of two voices. The voices of these particular singers, youthful and unaffected, produce versions of the songs that should please all but the Mitchellian purist.


Volle and Stenz give “Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt” a somewhat slow and dark reading, which adds just the right touch of irony to this familiar piece. The two later songs, “Revelge” and “Der Tamboursg’sell,” find Volle in martial mode, his delivery falling somewhere between the declamatory and lyric, but always dramatically true. “Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen,” sung by Oelze alone, is quite moving, her pure tone adding the appropriate touch of pathos.


Oelze offers a moving “Urlicht,” for which she manages the darker mezzo timbre very convincingly (she recorded the soprano part of the “Resurrection” Symphony with Fabio Luisi, reviewed in Fanfare 31: 5). The song is given a very close audio perspective—this is almost an intimate setting, highlighting the simple sincerity of the words and setting it apart from the lighter vein or martial theme of the preceding songs. Another notable vocal achievement occurs with “Das irdische Leben,” which is sung by Volle—if not actually unique, certainly exceptionally rare. One might have expected Oelze to take this song, thus providing the finale of a mini-drama with “Das himmlische Leben.” Volle also begins the program with a charming “Rheinlegendchen,” another song more characteristically taken by the soprano when the vocal duties are shared by two singers.


Two classics, the EMI previously alluded to and the more recent DG set featuring Thomas Quasthoff and Anne Sofie von Otter, accompanied by Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic, provide stiff competition for any newcomer. I have no qualms about placing this new set in such august company. Stenz and his Cologne orchestra produce accompaniment of subtlety, humor, and power by turns, never content to simply play along. The sound production is spacious, detailed, and grounded with solid lows. I recommend this inspired set to Mahlerites and Lieder-lovers without reservation. (There is one minor blemish: The songs come with no translations.)


FANFARE: Christopher Abbot

Music by Grammy Nominee & Primetime Emmy WinnerJeff Russo (Fargo)Starring Mark Wahlberg & John MalkovichIn a visceral modern thriller from the director of Lone Survivor, Mark Wahlberg stars as James Silva, an operative of the CIA’s most highly-prized and least understood unit. Aided by a top-secret tactical command team, Silva must retrieve and transport an asset who holds life-threatening information to Mile 22 for extraction before the enemy closes in.ABOUT THE COMPOSERTwo-time Grammy®-nominated and three-time Emmy®-nominated musician Jeff Russo has become a prominent composer, songwriter and arranger in the film and television industry. Jeff also composed the score for Starz’s original drama, Power, from executive producer, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, and completed co-composing the WGN America drama, Manhattan with cellist Zoë Keating.In addition to composing music for film and television, Russo still plays music with his rock band. He is a founding member, lead guitarist and co-songwriter of two-time Grammy® nominated, multi-platinum selling rock band, TONIC. Their debut album, “Lemon Parade,” posted three singles in the U.S. Mainstream rock Charts’ Top 10, with “If You Could Only See,” rocketing to number one. In 2003, the band received two Grammy®-nominations, one for “Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal” for “Take Me As I Am,” and one for “Best Rock Album.”Russo composed the score for Spike’s television mini-series drama, Tut, starring Ben Kingsley, and co-wrote the original score for A&E Network’s The Returned, again, teaming with Zoë Keating. In 2013, he also worked on several feature films, including Shoreline Entertainment’s Watercolor Postcards, starring Laura Bell Bundy, and the independent feature, Free Ride, starring Anna Paquin, Cam Gigandet and Drea de Mateo. Russo’s work can also be heard in films and television shows such as Marvista Entertainment’s film Bad Behavior; the independent feature About Cherry; Lifetime’s Meet Jane; the pilot for ABC’s Charlie’s Angels; Showtime’s Shameless episode, “It’s Time to Kill the Turtle”; ABC’sMy Generation and The Unusuals; a documentary featuring interviews of the original students and teachers of the 1967 “Third Wave Experiment,” Lesson Plan; and ABC/Bad Robot’s main title song for What About Brian with Low Stars. Russo has also contributed to the score for Showtime’s Weeds; a rap song for ABC’s hit-series Castle; score for NBC’s Smash; and NBC’s final season of Crossing Jordanand debut season of The Bionic Woman, both under renowned composers, Wendy & Lisa. Tonic’s music has also been featured in films such as, Universal Pictures’ American Pie and Dimension Films’ Scream 2.In addition to scoring film and television, Russo has composed music for the New York Ballet Company Cedarlake Ensemble.Tracklisting:1. Mile 22 (Main Title) 2. Overwatch 3. Li Noor 4. Silva 5. Overwatch Variation 6. Alice 7. Sweet Brutal Suite8. Russian Safehouse 9. Crew Meeting 10. Li Fight 11. The Drive 12. Street War 13. Bakery 14. Bakery Fight 15. Dougie 16. Fight in Apartment 17. Car Standoff 18. Final Moves 19. Bishop in the Square 20. Mile 22 (End Titles Suite)

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Tudor Choir. Conductor: Doug Fullington.

Choral enthusiasts, arise! Here is a new recording that you can really get excited about. A dozen or so miles north of the twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, lies the village of Elora. And there, at St. John's Anglican Church, is a choir that stands among the best in North America. Its director, Noel Edison, also is the founder of the acclaimed Elora Festival and its Elora Festival Singers, another world-class professional ensemble. The singing on this disc, which includes Psalm settings for the Anglican service, a couple of anthems with Psalm texts, and service music for Good Friday known as The Reproaches, gives further confirmation of Canada's second-to-none stature in the world of choral singing. During the six years that I lived in Kitchener (in the pre-Elora Festival days) I discovered and participated in a choral music tradition that's not widely known or appreciated outside of Canada. Mostly centered in the Anglican churches, it breeds generations of singers who not only are rooted in English church music but also, because of the country's relatively small population and brief musical history, are open to all the world's music, and especially to contemporary works. Luckily for us, Naxos has found this outstanding St. John's choir and I hope we can look forward to many more recordings.


Of course, this program is of a fairly specialized nature. Anglican chant--a stylized singing of liturgical texts, in this case the psalms, to an original, fully harmonized tune--is not for everyone. But over the centuries many of the world's finest composers have lent this form their interest and inspiration--and many lesser-known but highly competent organists and choir directors have contributed their own often strikingly imaginative efforts. If sung properly, as they are here, and if the musical settings are well chosen--also the case on this recording--then listeners are in for a treat. There are too many highlights to single them all out, from Charles Hylton Stewart's Psalms 23 and 103, to David Willcocks' Psalm 131, Hubert Parry's Psalm 84, Ivor Atkins' Psalm 149, Edison's own Psalm 121, and the resounding closer, Stanford's Psalm 150. More famously represented are Edward Bairstow's luscious Lamentations, and the anthems by Herbert Sumsion (They that go down to the sea in ships) and Herbert Howells (Like as the hart, in a lovely, highly romantic rendition with triplets stretched to the limit and beyond). Lennox Berkeley's wonderful The Lord is my Shepherd, so simple and perfect in its expression of the text, deserves wide recognition, and former Gloucester Cathedral organist John Sanders' sensational setting of The Reproaches alone gives reason to own this disc. The well-balanced, luminous sound gives all the immediacy and presence the music requires.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

VIOLIN LULLABIES • Rachel Barton Pine (vn); Matthew Hagle (pn) • ÇEDILLE 90000 139 (68:35)

BRAHMS Wiegenlied. YSAŸE Rêve d’enfant. REBIKOV Berceuse. BEACH Berceuse No 2. SCHWAB Berceuse Ecossaise. RESPIGHI Berceuse. GERSHWIN Summertime. FALLA Nana. FAURÉ Berceuse. SIBELIUS Berceuse No. 6. VIARDOT-GARCIA Berceuse No. 3. HOVHANNES Oror. STRAVINSKY Firebird: Berceuse. RAVEL Berceuse sur le Nom de Fauré. CLARKE Lullaby. SCHUBERT Wiegenlied. SCHUMANN Cradle Song. DUROSOIR Berceuse No. 4. GRIEG Berceuse. ANTSEV Au Berceau. R. STRAUSS Wiegenlied. SIVORI Berceuse. BERAUD Petite Reine Berceuse. STILL Mother and Child. REGER Wiegenlied

What a beautiful recording this is! It fills a real need as well. A mother or father can put this recording on and relax listening to its clear and present sound while feeding and bonding with the baby. This album also gives us a chance to see how composers from different cultures and different eras handled this particular type of composition. The CD opens with the universally loved Brahms Lullaby , which Rachel Barton Pine says her mother sang to her. You may have had the same experience. Mine sang it to me in German. Johannes Brahms wrote his Wiegenlied or Cradle Song in 1868 to celebrate the birth of a second son to his Viennese friends Arthur and Bertha Faber. Eugène Ysaÿe wrote his Rêve d’Enfant for his own son, Antoine, who would later be his father’s biographer and publisher. In 1913, he actually recorded it, too, at a very slow tempo. Pine and Hagle play the Ysaÿe and Brahms pieces at moderate tempos and with great delicacy of tone. Their notes fall as gently as rose petals. Vladimir Rebikov is a little known composer whose music leads into the compositions of Debussy, Scriabin, and even Stravinsky. Pine plays Amy Beach’s Berceuse (lullaby) using a warm toned mute that evokes daydreams. Listening to her play it is a calming antidote to everyday stress. Ludwig Schwab’s lullaby clothes the baby in an aural tartan coverlet as Pine and Hagle play the composer’s version of a Scottish tune. Pine also renders Respighi’s long-lined melody with a warm-toned mute while Hagle plays the piano part with the fleetest of fingers. We all know the tune of George Gershwin’s Summertime, but Pine gives us her own fascinating take on it. Pine uses a mute with a rather mysterious tone for Manuel de Falla’s Spanish Nana. Its words, “Sleep little star of the morning,” might hit a familiar note with parents! Gabriel Fauré’s pastel tones and Jean Sibelius’s charming melody bring us back to cooler lands and sweet invitations to slumber. Research shows that neither Rebecca Clarke nor Amy Beach had children, so of the women composers represented here only the famous singer and pianist Pauline Viardot-Garcia could have sung her lullaby to her own baby. The music of Alan Hovhaness always had a hint of mystery and this early lullaby is no exception. Pine and Hagle play it smoothly, so that its inventive harmonies fascinate the ear. The Firebird is a ballet based on a folk tale about a magical creature that sings at night and pecks at golden fruit. Its eloquent music spices up the middle of this disc with its unique harmonies.

Maurice Ravel’s music envelopes the listener in its gossamer fabric and its colors dance in the air. Rebecca Clarke was a violist and her contribution makes use of the violin’s lower strings. The delicate radiance of Pine’s rendition holds the listener in thrall. Like the Brahms, Schubert’s Cradle Song is a familiar tune. Here it is rendered in flawless form complete with gorgeous double-stopping. The Schumann Slumber Song is one of his lesser-known pieces. Like the Durosoir that follows, it massages the ears. So do the charming Grieg and Antsev pieces. I hope we get to hear more of the latter’s music. Pine and Hagle’s version of Richard Strauss’s Cradle Song strikes a delicate balance between lullaby and concert aria. Like Respighi, Camillo Sivori wrote his music with the long lines of bel canto and topped it off with a challenging finale that Pine tosses off with ease. Victor Beraud is the pen name of British composer G. Frank Blackbourne. He wrote his Lullaby for a Little Queen for piano. Edward Elgar then arranged it for violin and piano. African-American composer William Grant Still wrote his warm toned and inviting yet intense Mother and Child in 1943. Max Reger’s Cradle Song , a dreamy invitation to sleep, shows a very different side of his creativity. In addition to the music on this CD, there is a download available with three more lullabies: Alexander Iljinsky’s Berceuse No. 7 from the opera Noure and Anitra, Xavier Montsalvatge’s Nana, and Betty King Jackson’s Lullaby. These three show the variety of cultures that lullabies cover. Pine and Hagle play each of them idiomatically with great attention to detail and the ultimate in musical values. This is a truly beautiful disc and I think it will have great appeal to our readers.

FANFARE: Maria Nockin

This is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording

MEXICO LINDO

Includes work(s) by Thomas Tallis. Ensemble: Oxford Camerata. Conductor: Jeremy Summerly.

"...chamber music-making of high seriousness and high integrity that allows Bach's timeless music to speak for itself."

- BBC Music Magazine, [October 2008]

"...eloquently thought through and beautifully sung with the perfect sense of dramatic character:.. Sung with peerless vocal beauty and remarkably sensitive ornaments."

- Gramophone Magazine (About the Canadian counter tenor, Daniel Taylor.)

"...This is the all-male version of Cappella Romana, and Alexander Lingas has his Portland-based ensemble going from strength to strength, perfectly judged balances among the melodists and those singing the ison, or lower drone notes, and executing these sometimes hugely challenging chants with razor-sharp precision and flawless unanimity. But what strikes me the most is the superb tonal quality of the group, rich, full, and velvety smooth in a genre that too often gives way to acerbic sonic ineptitude and soloistic grandstanding which gives chant a bad name. The resonance of the Stanford Memorial Church in California is expertly caught, though you might want to boost the volume a little. This disc is, simply, irresistible." — Steven Ritter, Audiophile Audition

FAURÈ: PIANO WORKS VOL 1 KATH

1. Erlkönig, Op. 1 Quasthoff, Thomas 4:00
2. Prometheus, Nachlaß, Lfg. 47 Quasthoff, Thomas 5:29
3. Winterreise, D. 911; Der Lindenbaum Quasthoff, Thomas; Spencer, Charles 5:01
4. Winterreise, D. 911; Der Leiermann Quasthoff, Thomas; Spencer, Charles 3:26
5. Der Musensohn, Op. 92/1, D. 764: Durch Feld und Wald zu schweifen Quasthoff, Thomas 1:56
6. Liederkreis, Op. 39; Waldesgespräch, Op. 39/3: Es ist schon spät, es wird schon kalt Quasthoff, Thomas 2:03
7. Liederkreis, Op. 39; Mondnacht, Op. 39/5: Es war, als hätt' der Himmel Quasthoff, Thomas 3:43
8. Dichterliebe, Op. 48; Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, Op. 48/1 Quasthoff, Thomas 1:24
9. Dichterliebe, Op. 48; Allnächtlich im Traume seh ich dich, Op. 48/14 Quasthoff, Thomas 1:22
10. Belsazar, Op. 57: Die Mitternacht zog näher schon Quasthoff, Thomas 4:02
11. Johannespassion, BWV 245; Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen Guttenberg, Enoch zu 4:26
12. Johannespassion, BWV 245; Betrachte, meine Seele, mit ängstlichem Vergnügen Guttenberg, Enoch zu 2:06
13. Johannespassion, BWV 245; Mein teurer Heiland, laß dich fragen Guttenberg, Enoch zu 4:07
14. Mentre ti lascio, o figlia - Aria for Bass, K. 513 Quasthoff, Thomas 7:13
15. Don Giovanni, K. 527; Deh, vieni alla finestra Quasthoff, Thomas 2:03
16. Don Giovanni, K. 527; Madamina Quasthoff, Thomas 5:48
17. Die Zauberflöte, K. 620; Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja Quasthoff, Thomas 2:55
18. Die Zauberflöte, K. 620; Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen Quasthoff, Thomas 4:15
19. Die Zauberflöte, K. 620; In diesen heil'gen Hallen Quasthoff, Thomas 4:42
20. Die Zauberflöte; Duet Papageno & Papagena: Pa-pa-pa... Caballé, Montserrat; Quasthoff, Thomas 2:39

This is not an opera program, nor is it a classical vocal recital or typical mix of traditional songs and arias, although this new recording from tenor Vittorio Grigolo has elements of all three. Rather, it is a celebration of the true Italian singer, Italian music, and whatever innate spirit and style embodied in both makes them inseparable and unique. And if you’ve any doubt that Grigolo is the real thing, “The Ital- ian tenor” as claimed on his debut recording, skip for the moment the superbly sung disc-opening opera arias (Rigoletto, Tosca, Martha, La?traviata, Così, and listen to “Non ti scordar di me” and “O paese d’ ’o sole.” Here is the passion, the joy, the truth of a master singer connecting with his listeners — and what a voice!

Grigolo has been said by some to be the heir of Pavarotti — fine. But Grigolo’s voice has purityand innate beauty along with the passion; a ringing, golden top; a centered, solidly secure placement across his range; and none of the spread, forced, hard-edged upper- register tone of his predecessor. Grigolo is young and talented, with natural gifts and a devotion to his art that bodes well for his future. He seems to understand that this is a long-term proposi- tion; that there is a difference between selling your talent and building a career; that to be a great singer, to sustain a career, to make music that is memorable and meaningful across years of performances and all manner of audiences takes time and care and patience, that a deep respect for the craft of singing is at least as important as an appreciation for one’s natural ability. Grigolo is not immune from a little over-the-top indulgence (Enrico Cannio’s “O surdata ‘nnammurato”), but you won’t mind because at the same time you will be savoring the memory of his meltingly affecting “Un’ aura amorosa” (Cosi) and powerful “Recondita armonia” (Tosca) and “È la solita storia” (L’arlesiana). The sound, recorded in Parma’s Auditorium Niccoló Paganini and London’s Wathen Hall, is ideal; the orchestral playing and direction is spot on.

—?David?Vernier, Listen: Life With Classical Music