"There’s some question as to whether or not all of these works are by Gluck, but it doesn’t matter. The music is unfailingly enjoyable, the performances vigorous and full of life...L’Orfeo plays on period instruments with results that are well above average. The winds, horns especially, are pretty terrific, and they have some impressive solo licks. The string ensemble is clean and the tone generally attractive...This is an important addition to the Gluck discography and definitely worth the collector’s attention."

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com, [May 9, 2011]

"None of these works is ground-breaking exactly - in fact they are utterly conservative! - but they are all clearly written by a man, probably still young, who knew what he was doing, and how to achieve his desired effects with considerable imagination and audience-pleasing brio. The Overtures in particular are easy-going, but peppered throughout the programme there is some lovely writing, especially for the horn pair and, from time to time, the oboes. The two works in D - both in two movements only, incidentally - are probably the most memorable, Chen D6 for its concertante interplay, Wq 165.2 for its catchy simplicity.

Under Gaigg's assured violin-in-hand guidance, the Baroque Orchestra's playing is Classical: refined and restrained, with attention to detail, yet still light and bright. Period instruments and techniques are used to authentic effect."

-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International

Certainly the most stylistically advanced of the lot, the G-Major Symphony, points strongly to the influence of Johann Stamitz’s later symphonies of the early 1750s: great rhythmic energy, strong textural contrasts, half-cadence substitutions, orchestral intensification of short motto themes upon their immediate restatement, frequent and distinctive use of specific wind colors, cantabile themes over bass ostinatos, and that desire to avoid the expected—whose most telling monument can be found in C. P. E. Bach’s quirky later symphonies. By way of greatest contrast, there’s a D-Major Symphony (Chen D2) whose first of two movements, a complex but gracious Andante with potential operatic origins, is purest galant, as though it had stepped out of a work by Brunetti or Boccherini. Regardless of which individual or group of composers is responsible for these works, they make for fascinating and uniformly pleasurable listening.

Some of that is due, of course, to Michi Gaigg and her 22-person L’Orfeo Baroque Orchestra. The tonal bite to the strings that was present in their recording of Rebel’s Les Élémens (Phoenix Edition 110) is not as prominent, but that’s to be expected, as the music is from a different culture and period. Consistent, however, is their concern with clean articulation, firm rhythms, and a focus on instrumental tone. They are all technically expert—notably so the two hornists, Thomas Fischer and Christoph Beham, featured in the wince-inducing difficulties of the D-Major (Chen D6) Symphony’s minuet finale.

The sound is close and distinct, with none of the rich acoustical reverberance that may be meant on occasion to hide a period ensemble’s anemic string tone, but instead ends up swamping textural and rhythmic clarity. In short, whether this is Gluck or not, it’s well worth the consideration of any listener who enjoys fine examples of the mid-Classical period symphonic oeuvre.

FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

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La Nuova Musica presents a new live recording of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, with countertenor star Iestyn Davies singing the title role. Once created to reinstate the “noble simplicity and calm grandeur” of ancient Greek culture, the opera continues to delight audiences with its direct and unpretentious appeal, epitomized by the world-famous aria Che farò senza Euridice. This live recording presents the original 1762 Vienna premiere version of the opera, with Gluck’s exquisite evocation of the Elysian Fields from his 1774 Paris version as a small addition. La Nuova Musica and its artistic director David Bates are among the most exciting young Baroque ensembles of our times. For their first PENTATONE recording, they work together with three exceptional vocalists: countertenor Iestyn Davies and sopranos Sophie Bevan and Rebecca Bottone.

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REVIEW:

The chorus has much to do, and I lost count of the number of times it ravished the ear. The orchestra, too, is extremely accomplished. The soloists are magnificent. Iestyn Davies sings smoothly throughout, while Sophie Bevan comes across powerfully, getting more and more stroppy as she rails at Orfeo for not looking at her. Rebecca Bottone has a perfect voice for Amore (Cupid), light and bright. High praise, then, for David Bates and his ensemble.

– Gramophone

Bates is, like Gluck, wonderfully radical. Where other directors smooth over disjunctions, he revels in rupture. This is directorship at its most alert, and aiding Bates is an optimal cast. Davies radiates Orfeo’s impassioned tenderness, changing vocal colours as the drama demands. Sophie Bevan’s Euridice swings, with blazing bravura and increasing intensity, from anguish to narcissism. It’s the stuff of Gluck’s dreams.

– BBC Music Magazine

Demofoonte dates from the early ‘Milan years’ of Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787), long before the radical ‘reform operas’ for which he is most famous and his break with opera seria and the librettos of Pietro Metastasio. Gluck arrived in the northern Italian city in 1737 and was mentored there by composer Giovanni Battista Sammartini. Though Sammartini primarily composed symphonies and music for the church, Milan boasted a vibrant opera scene, and Gluck soon formed an association with one of the city's up-and-coming opera houses, the Teatro Regio Ducal. His first opera, Artaserse, on a libretto by Metastasio, premiered there on 26 December 1741 and opened the Milanese Carnival of 1742. Gluck went on to compose an opera for each of the next four Carnivals at Milan, Demofoonte being the second of these and his third opera overall, premiering on 6 January 1743. In celebration of Gluck’s 300th birthday, the early music scholar and harpsichordist Alan Curtis (1934–2015), founder of Il Complesso Barocco and leader of the period music ensemble for nearly four decades, prepared Demofoonte for performance. All of the arias had been preserved, but nearly all of the secco recitatives were lost. Curtis composed new recitatives in Gluck's style, using Gluck’s earliest fully extant opera, Ipermestra, written less than two years after Demofoonte, as a model. This modern revival was given its first performance on 23 November 2014 in Vienna and was recorded with the same excellent cast of singers the week before, in Northern Italy.

LA CORONA LA DANZA

LE CINESI

Vocal Music - Hauptmann, M. / Wolf, H. / Schumann, R. / Mend

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Opera Explained: GLUCK - Orfeo ed Euridice (Smillie)

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DON JUAN

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