Classical Music

Classical Music

• A rare and historic recording of Nabucco, captured live in 1963 in Orvieto, Italy. • Aldo Protti, was a renowned baritone who's operatic career lasted forty years following his 1948 debut. • This title role performance is otherwise unknown in Mr. Protti's performance discography. • Marcella de Osma, heard here as Abagaille, was a superb Verdian dramatic soprano, active throughout the 1950's and 1960's.

Directed by Nello Santi. Starring Angelo Nardinocchi, Giorgio Cebrian, Ezio Maria Tisi.

Starring Antonio de Gobbi, Alberto Gazale, Francesco Demuro.

Ivan Repusic, who made his debut as Principal Conductor of the Munchner Rundfunkorchester in the autumn of 2017 with Giuseppe Verdi's "Luisa Miller", now presents a further and lesser-known masterpiece by the famous Italian opera composer. The concert performance of Verdi's early stage work "I due Foscari" was recorded on November 25, 2018 at the Munich Prinzregententheater. Outstanding performers provide an authentic atmosphere and vocal magnificence, and no less a person than the multiple-award-winning Italian baritone Leo Nucci was successfully engaged for the role of the Doge of Venice. This highlight of the Munich music scene from late last year is now available from BR-KLASSIK as a double album. Verdi's early masterpiece "I due Foscari" was the first of the operas he wrote for the Teatro Argentina in Rome. He had already worked on the material (Lord Byron's drama "The Two Foscari"), and, after a first subject had been rejected by the Roman censors, Verdi returned to it and had the libretto written by Francesco Maria Piave. Although the opera's premiere on November 3, 1844 was only moderately successful and Verdi would even distance himself from it later on, the work was still frequently performed up to the 1870s. It was rediscovered during the early 1950s and has since become a fixed part of the international opera repertoire. The concert performance (sung in the Italian original) in Munich's Prinzregententheater received great acclaim from audience and critics alike, again justifying the Munchner Rundfunkorchester's strategy of successfully reviving underrated music-theatrical works by means of standard-setting performances. Ivan Repusic conducts a genuine theatrical Verdi here: vital, robust, fiery and extremely lively.

Looking back on the Verdi year of 2013, BR-Klassik has now supplemented its discography with the live recording of a concert highlight of October 2013. + With the Messa da Requiem, the conductor Mariss Jansons is now represented on the BR-Klassik label with Verdi's choral-symphonic legacy. + Together with international soloists Krassimira Stoyanova, Marina Prudenskaya, Saimir Pirgu, Orlin Anastassov and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Chorus of the Bayerischer Rundfunk is also a fundamental element of the Requiem, and its tonal versatility received special praise from the press. + Giuseppi Verdi’s Requiem, as dramatic a work as are any of his immortal operas and reproached in its day in some quarters as more theatrical than spiritual, was completed in 1874 shortly after the death of the great Italian author and patriot Alessandro Mazzoni, for whom it was performed on the first anniversary of his death.

Released in 2013 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth, “Das Wahre Erfinden” (Inventing the Truth) is the third release on the BR-Klassik Wissen (Knowledge) audiobook-music imprint. Written by Jörg Handstein and narrated by noted voiceover actor Udo Wachtveitl, Verdi’s life unfolds with the combination of spoken word and musical excerpts to reveal the many facets of his personality, work, and life sketching the arc of his fertile creativity. Annotated by classic recordings that include performers José Carreras, Montserrat Caballé, and the conductors Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado and more, “Das Wahre Erfinden” closes with a recording of the anthemic "Suona la Tromba" (The Trumpet Sounds) with the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks led by Peter Dijkstra and featuring Max Hanft on piano.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Available for the first time on Blu-ray, the lesser known Verdi opera I due Foscari is ready for appreciation by a new generation. A great cast with the likes of Leo Nucci and Roberto de Biasio is assembled at the Teatro Regio di Parma as part of the 200th anniversary series "Tutto Verdi". FAZ notes "This is how Verdi should be played".

In his 'new life' as a baritone, Pl�cido Domingo has triumphed in the role of Francesco Foscari in Los Angeles, London and Vienna. Now he takes to the role to La Scala, Milan, the theatre that is the symbol of Italian opera. I due Foscari, premiered in 1844, famously one of Verdi's darkest operas, is staged by Alvis Hermanis, who made such an impact at the Salzburg Festival with "Die Soldaten" and "Il trovatore". Domingo is joined by two of Italy's most exciting singers, the soprano Anna Pirozzi and the tenor Francesco Meli, and the acclaimed Italian conductor Michele Mariotti. The Financial Times was deeply moved by Domingo's performance, calling his interpretation of the role "sublime".

A recital of Verdian opera scenes and overtures adapted for the organ. Paolo Bottini plays the 'Serassi' organ (1861) of the chruch of St. Alessandro della Croce in Pignolo, Bergamo. Mr. Bottini hailing from Cremona, divides his professional career between playing at liturgical services. Solo concerts and providing artistic direction of organ festivals.

If tasked to rank the world most famous composers, Giuseppe Verdi would definitely be on the honorees’ dais. This CD includes the chamber works for voice and piano - Romanze da camera – used by the composer in the 1840s to open his way into Milanese high society following his arrival from his native Busseto, still unknown and eager for appreciation and recognition. For this world premiere recording utilizing historical piano, the voices of mezzo Daniela Nuzzoli and tenor Raul Hernandez, accompanied by pianist Marcello Rossi, reveal the early output of the future great opera composer.