Classical Music

"Grigolo made a triumphant Covent Garden debut...He balances Italianate ardour with style and intelligence...and his good looks and energetic acting make him an appealing stage figure." - The Daily Telegraph

"He's got everything the role demands - a voice that flows, terrific looks, an instinctive sense of theatre. He's entirely credible as a 20 year old uncontrollably in love and everything he does seems natural, from his impetuous first appearance in the Aimens courtyard, to his chilling shriek of despair at Manon's death." - The Guardian

"In his Covent Garden debut, rising star Vittorio Grigolo wins the audience's hearts with his good looks, ardent singing and an eager demeanour that takes on the full tragic dimension of Chevalier des Grieux's predicament." - The Stage

"More than matching Netrebko for passion and control was the Des Grieux of the young Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo, making his debut at Covent Garden. The thunderous ovation he received at curtain call suggested that the audience sensed the birth of a star." - The Evening Standard

"Vittorio Grigolo's dashing and thrillingly sung Chevalier des Grieux, his seductive middle voice covered to beautiful effect in the many subito shadings in mezza voce." - The Independent

"The voice was ablaze, mobile in dynamics like Des Grieux's heart, able to soar and sob alike without the slightest strain. The house loved him." - The Times

COLLECTION OF AMERICAN SONGS / VARIOUS

After 25 years of an astonishing international career, highly praised Soprano Patricia Petibon, in collaboration with Andrea Marcon and his fantastic La Cetra Barockorchester, unveils on March 18th her new album 'La Traversee', an oniric musical journey through Time, feelings and musical trends, from Mozart to Verdi, Gluck to Offenbach. A sublime Classical program, both energizing and deeply moving.

Poet E.T.A. Hoffmann (200th anniversary of death in 2022) as the protagonist of his own fantastic tales: In his encounter with three women - Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta - he searches in vain for love and for himself. Will he draw strength for art from his failure in life? Or will he fail in himself, drown in alcohol? Like in a kaleidoscope appear ever-new constellations and shimmering colours of German romanticism and French esprit. Stage director Daniele Finzi Pasca brings an enchanting, fairy-tale-like spectacle to the stage with all the colourful means of theatrical magic. French star tenor Benjamin Bernheim shines in his role debut of Hoffmann: "Benjamin Bernheim's art of orchestrating timbre will continue to cause emotional turmoil for days to come for those who were able to experience this operatic bliss" (Suddeutsche Zeitung).

SVIRIDOV: RUSSIA FLYING AWAY - BORIS TCHAIKOVSKY

Rossini's ceaseless wit and invention are best exemplified in his series of operas. His colorful orchestration and command of both comic and tragic elements can be savored in this second of four volumes of the complete symphonic overtures. Guillaume Tell, with it's overture in four movements, includes a scene for five solo cellos. La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder), one of his most popular pieces, opens with an overture of charm and elan. Volume 1 (8.570933) was described by MusicWeb Internationals "an admirable start to what looks like being a very desirable series".

Recordings of Elizabethan songs and Negro Spirituals, from scarce LPs made for the Fellowship of Reconciliation in the early 1950s by the great civil rights leader, who was also an excellent singer

Classical Music

This new Arvo Pärt choral music collection includes a significant number of works sung in English. The three-part Triodion is one of the composer's most inward, contemplative pieces, drawing heavily on early Renaissance choral style for its stark, spare harmonies. Tribute to Caesar, I am the True Vine, and The Woman with the Alabaster Box follow in this tradition, though these feature a richer harmonic palette as well as more fluid movement and brighter colors.

The remaining works include the brooding and intense Ode VII (Memento) from Kanon Pokajanen, the brief, celebratory Bogoróditse Djévo (which closes the program), Nunc dimittis, and Dopo la Vittoria. This last is one of the most beautiful compositions on the CD. Here we have the more familiar, "modern" Pärt as we hear passages that sound faintly minimalistic while always draped in luminous colors and arresting timbres. Of course, those two attributes apply to most of Pärt's moving and exquisitely rendered choral music. Exquisite also describes the performances of the Elora Festival Singers, who provide pure-toned and texturally beautiful singing under Noel Edison's direction. Naxos' recording is spacious and well-detailed, with wide dynamics. A truly enjoyable hour of music, essential for Pärt aficionados and choral enthusiasts.

--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

C Major continues it's Tutto Verdi edition with his Messa da Requiem. This film includes a 52-minute bonus documentary introducing US to Verdi's beautiful homeland, the region of Parma; from the little village where Verdi was born, to the estate close to Parma where Verdi always came back to and chose to spend most of his life.

REVIEWS:

Carole Farley, whose range is as impressive in stylistic as in purely vocal terms, shows herself here to be an ideal interpreter for Rorem, and his playing responds with hand-in-glove precision and sympathy. The voice itself, at once tensile-strong and appealingly vulnerable, seems in splendid condition.

-- Bernard Jacobson, Fanfare

The CD's first nine tracks, settings of Theodore Roethke, fairly represent the Rorem approach - conservative, elegantly crafted, subtle and flexible in expressive range. Song No. 1, "The Waking," shows his fondness, akin to that of Satie and Poulenc, for setting each syllable to a single note value, but by the second track, 'Root Cellar,' he has yielded to the occasional temptation to assign two notes to one syllable. 'Orchids' shows a pictorial gift, with music as limp as the plants described. There's Ivesian humor in 'The Serpent,' even a twisty melisma in 'Snake.'

The sequence of what follows, chosen for variety, should have something for everyone, and everything for some. Most of the songs are short, never gilding the lily. Gertrude Stein's 'I am Rose' gets just a few bars. But with a longer piece, such as Elizabeth Bishop's 'Visit to St. Elizabeth's,' the composer performs the feat of stretching out a fast tempo. Rorem finds rare magic in the monotone second verse of Tennyson's 'Ask me no more,' and broad, big-boned music in 'Youth, Day, Old Age, and Night,' first of a closing group of five devoted to Walt Whitman. Especially in the first three of these, Rorem's own poetry rises to meet Whitman's, and the cause of the American art song has been ratcheted up a peg."

-- John W Freeman, Opera News

Classical Music

Classical Music

Teresa Berganza is undoubtedly one of the greatest Spanish singers of the 20th century. She enchanted the audiences in the opera houses around the world. She was also an excellent singer with a wide repertoire of songs, even though she has become famous primarily through her operatic roles. Throughout her career, she would give recitals of song - especially the songs of her homeland. This is also reflected in the current program, recorded at the Schwetzingen Festival Songs of 1985. Her versatility as a singer can be heard in a full range of repertoire - German, Russian, French, Portuguese - and finally, with Ernesto Halffter a Spaniard. Teresa Berganza's voice spreads before the listener a rich palette of colors and emotions, always classy and bright.

Classical Music

With Maidan, Valentin Silvestrov continues his longstanding association with ECM and this time presents a programme of choir music that is as timely as it is dear to the Ukrainian composer's heart. Like the albums Sacred Songs and Sacred Works, Maidan embraces Silvestrov's composing for vocal ensemble and captures the Kyiv Chamber Choir under Mykola Hobdych in an impassioned performance at the St. Michael's Cathedral in Kyiv from 2016. The album is released as Silvestrov turns 85.

Classical Music

Recordings from 1932-1948.

Maria Cebotari was working as an actress at the Moscow artist theater before she decided in 1929 study singing in Berlin. In 1931 she got an engagement as an opera singer in Dresden and launched her very successful career. She sang in Dresden till 1943, and made frequent appearances at the Berline State Opera. Her interpretations of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss belonged to her specialties.

She made her film debut in 1929 with "Troika", but only from the middle of the 30's did she focus increasingly in this profession. Her well-known movies are "Mädchen in Weiss" (36), "Starke Herzen" (37) and "Il sogno di Butterfly - Premiere der Butterfly" (39).

Classical Music

Recorded over the course of two and a half years, this four disc set showcases a comprehensive body of esteemed countertenor Valer Sabadus's repertoire. Valer Sabadus, despite his young age, has already joined the ranks of the world's best vocalists. Sabadus's wide-ranging repertoire extends from early Baroque works by the great masters, to contemporary pieces riddled with unique harmonies and vocal techniques. The breadth of his abilities is shown through his versatility and adaptability. This CD set includes works from Johann Adolph Hasse, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Henry Purcell, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others.

Entre Elle Et Lui / Natalie Dessay, Michel Legrand - Composer: Michel Legrand Performers: Natalie Dessay, Michel Legrand, Catherine Michel, Pierre Boussaguet, After her triumphs in the world's great opera houses, Natalie Dessay crosses over. A tribute to the legendary Michel Legrand who has scored some of the most famous musical soundtracks.

Blu-ray pressing. Paul Anka is known as the last great crooner. On this live release, Anka promotes his successful Rock Swings project by performing many of the tracks live alongside his own classics including 'Diana', 'My Way', 'New York New York', 'Put Your Head on My Shoulder' and more.

Classical Music

SCHUMANN: DICHTERLIEBE OP. 48 LIEDERKREIS LO.39