GEORGES BIZET: Annick Massis, soprano; Yasu Nakajima, tenor; Luca Grassi, baritone; Luigi De Donato, bass; Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenicedi Venezia/Marcello Viotti; NTSC all regions; Subititles: French, English, Italian, German, Japanese, Chinese;

Also available on Blu-ray

VICENZO BELLINI: La Sonnambula
Simone Alaimo – Il conte Rodolfo; Eglise Guttierrez – Amina; Antonio Siragusa – Lisa; Gabriella Colecchia – Teresa; Gabriele Nani – Alessio; Max René Cosotti – Un notaro
Orchestra & Chorus/ Maurizio Benini
Hugo de Ana, director
Recorded: Liege, Belgium - November, 2009
NTSC 16/9; LPCM 2.0; Running Time: 129 mins.
Subtitled in Italian, English, German & French

Unlike many Bach works adapted for guitar, the keyboard-specific intricacies of the Goldberg Variations do not easily lend themselves to six strings. In the late 1990s Kurt Rodarmer circumvented these limitations via overdubbing and using a custom-made guitar with an extended bass register. He also transposed the piece to D major, a key that lies more comfortably for guitar than the original G major. By contrast, József Eötvös’ contemporaneous solo transcription adhered to the original key and contained all of the music within a solo guitar’s six string range, albeit necessitating slower tempos, contrapuntal compromises, and frequent transpositions of lines up or down the octave.

Marco Salcito shares Eötvös’ essentially purist conception, although he is less shy to incorporate idiomatic flourishes and articulations that guitarists love, such as rolling chords, and sliding or bending into and between notes. He does this extensively when repeating each variation’s “A” and “B” sections, yet the fanciful embellishments enhance rather than obliterate Bach’s melodic lines. In addition, Salcito’s recasting of the scintillating cross-handed variations in more deliberate, guitar-oriented terms is not unlike watching rapid basketball moves played back in slow motion: you lose the dance but you gain the details.

A good example of this is Variation 26’s triplet figurations that ordinarily sprint up and down the keyboard. When slowed down, previously overlooked inner melodies emerge. Granted, the combination of the guitar’s limited dynamic range, Salcito’s leisurely pace, and his observance of all repeats save for the Aria da capo might make this nearly two-hour-long interpretation seem interminable over the course of a single hearing. Yet Salcito’s quiet, compelling mastery and eloquent musicianship, together with Dynamic’s intimate, full-bodied engineering, will win over guitar enthusiasts, and perhaps seduce a few Bach fans as well.

– Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

BACH Sonata in a, BWV 1020. Little Preludes: Excerpts. Partita No. 2 in d, BWV 1004: Chaconne. Italian Concerto, BWV 971 . Sonata No. 1 in g, BWV 1001: Presto. Sonata No. 1 in C, BWV 1033 • Dorina Frati (man); Piera Dadomo (gtr) • DYNAMIC 514 (74:09)


This is a lovely disc. The combination of mandolin and guitar brings a sparkling vivacity to the faster movements and a delicate charm to the slower ones. The mandolin is not able to sustain long melodies and so must fall back on tremolos to prolong the notes: it can’t compete with the flute or the violin’s abilities in this regard. However, if the listener accepts this limitation, the music is still well served. The silvery sound of the mandolin contrasts nicely with the more resonant guitar: imagine a harpsichord’s lute stop but with added piquancy in the upper register. Bach’s works have probably been transcribed for more instruments and ensembles than any other composer’s, and they fare well here. And of course, one doesn’t have to look too far to justify transcription, as Bach was so fond of it himself. The musicians also perform as soloists. Piera Dadomo’s Chaconne may be less forceful than some, but I found its gentle, intimate approach most persuasive: it’s an alternate view of a familiar masterpiece. Dorina Frati plays the Presto with engaging virtuosity, and left me eager to hear more solo Bach on the mandolin. There’s often a festive quality to this recording, joyful and spontaneous, and I found it a pleasing alternative to the original versions.


Just in case you haven’t memorized all the BWV numbers, 1020 and 1033 are for flute and harpsichord, 1001 is for the violin, as is the famous Chaconne from 1004, and the Italian Concerto is a perennial favorite with harpsichordists and pianists. Seven of the Little Preludes are included, short but “expressive little masterpieces” (Forkel). If you think you would enjoy hearing Bach expertly played by this musical duo, then don’t have any qualms about acquiring this CD.


FANFARE: Robert Schulslaper

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Franco Alfano’s opera Risurrezione draws its inspiration from Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection and was the work that ensured Alfano’s considerable success as a composer. The plot narrates the story of Katiusha and her tragic love for prince Dimitri who seduces and abandons her, condemning her to a life of sacrifice and desperation. Seen here in Fancesco Lanzillotta’s acclaimed Florence production, Risurrezione recalls Richard Strauss and Puccini – the drama evolving in an uninterrupted flow with moments of soaring lyricism alongside striking and evocative orchestration. The work gives voice to an idea that Alfano left in his memoirs: ‘Recoiling from catastrophes, I believed and still believe in the renovation, regeneration, and final purification of human passions from evil to goodness.’

Also available on Blu-ray

Franco Alfano’s opera Risurrezione draws its inspiration from Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection and was the work that ensured Alfano’s considerable success as a composer. The plot narrates the story of Katiusha and her tragic love for prince Dimitri who seduces and abandons her, condemning her to a life of sacrifice and desperation. Seen here in Fancesco Lanzillotta’s acclaimed Florence production, Risurrezione recalls Richard Strauss and Puccini – the drama evolving in an uninterrupted flow with moments of soaring lyricism alongside striking and evocative orchestration. The work gives voice to an idea that Alfano left in his memoirs: ‘Recoiling from catastrophes, I believed and still believe in the renovation, regeneration, and final purification of human passions from evil to goodness.’

Franco Alfano’s opera Risurrezione draws its inspiration from Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection and was the work that ensured Alfano’s considerable success as a composer. The plot narrates the story of Katiusha and her tragic love for prince Dimitri who seduces and abandons her, condemning her to a life of sacrifice and desperation. Seen here in Fancesco Lanzillotta’s acclaimed Florence production, Risurrezione recalls Richard Strauss and Puccini – the drama evolving in an uninterrupted flow with moments of soaring lyricism alongside striking and evocative orchestration. The work gives voice to an idea that Alfano left in his memoirs: ‘Recoiling from catastrophes, I believed and still believe in the renovation, regeneration, and final purification of human passions from evil to goodness.’

Fanfoni is a very impressive technician. His tempi of choice remind us that this is music and not just technical exercises.

Pietro Antonio Locatelli was one of the most admired and influential violinist-composers of the 18th century. The summit of his achievement is L’arte del violino, Op. 3, twelve concertos for violin, strings and continuo, each of which contains two sizeable cadenzas that Locatelli called Capricci – bravura pieces independent of their concerto context. Greatly developing chord and arpeggio techniques and full of double-stops and string crossings, they are the most demanding violin works ever composed before Paganini’s own Capricci, which may well have been influenced by Locatelli’s example.

REVIEW:

These Caprices are actually cadenzas from the 12 violin concertos in his massive Opus 3, L’Arte del Violino, published in 1733. The teenaged Nicolo Paganini studied these Caprices in the 1790s, and you hear echoes of them everywhere in his own 24 Caprices published in 1820. It is remarkable how advanced they are and how little technical advancement Paganini’s own Caprices make over these. They are not as musical as Paganini’s, but they are as exciting and very impressive. I have heard one other complete recording of them by Emmanuele Baldini (Nov/Dec 2012). I was greatly impressed by his playing and find it remarkable that he managed to fit them onto a single disc. He can certainly play fast! But overall I prefer the present set. Fanfoni is a very impressive technician too, and his slower tempos remind us that this is music and not just technical exercises. He brings out their drama better than Baldini. The recorded sound is also fuller and more impressive.

Fanfoni plays a violin made by Gioffredo Cappa in Saluzzo, Italy, in 1690.

-- American Record Guide

Camille Saint-Saëns was 17 years of age when he composed his first printed work, the Trois Morceaux, which blends charming melodic creativity with a spiritual character. Louis Vierne’s 24 Pièces en style libre are unquestionably some of this composer’s most successful and popular works. Divided into two collections, these pieces are impressive for their great expressive quality, being evocative of places and people known to Vierne, alluding to musical forms both antique and impressionistic, and ranging in mood from the fiery to the serene. Born in Saronno, Italy, Giulio Mercati began studying music at the age of six under the tutelage of his grandfather, Maestro Lamberto Torrebruno, a representative of an important family of musicians: he then completed his musical studies in organ, composition, and harpsichord under such distinguished musicians as Luigi Toja, Jean Boyer, Olivier Latry, Massimo Berzolla, Bruno Bettinelli, Emilia Fadini and Danilo Costantini. A musician of great versatility, Giulio Mercati is extremely active as a concert performer in Italy and abroad, primarily as an organ and harpsichord soloist, and as a continuo player in many important ensembles.

Gabriel Faurè considered Umberto Giordano’s Siberia to be one of the most interesting and singular works of the early 20th century. The opera’s tragic narrative follows Prince Alexis’s courtesan Stephana. She falls in love with an innocent soldier, Vassili, who is sent to Siberia for killing the Prince. Stephana gives up her life of luxury to follow him but cannot escape her past. With its intensely Russian atmosphere and passionately soaring melodies, Siberia was Giordano’s favorite among his operas. This acclaimed Fiorentino production was greeted with multiple ovations.

REVIEW:

It’s the artistry with which the piece is tackled that convinces one that Siberia is unfairly neglected: the richness of tone, expressive subtlety and sense of style that Sonya Yoncheva (Stephana), Giorgi Sturua (Vassili), and George Petean (Gleby) lavsh on the piece is just what is needed.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Baldassare Galuppi was an influential and prolific composer of opera and sacred works who maintains a prominent place in the history of 18th-century Venetian music. He was renowned as a keyboard virtuoso, and the sonatas he wrote throughout his life met with appreciable success – the imaginative and improvisatory Sonata in D being one of the most famous in its day. These works – played here in world premiere recordings on harpsichord and organ by acclaimed soloist Luigi Chiarizia – present shining examples of Galuppi’s art from a splendid and arguably unequalled period of Italian instrumental music.

The world premiere of the previously unrecorded French version of Macbeth! Verdi considered Shakespeare’s tragedy to be ‘one of the greatest creations of man’. The opera’s unbroken dramatic line, incisive libretto and range of expression from the comic to the sublime, made it a work that was way ahead of its time. Verdi explores unusual theatrical characters with Macbeth, the darkness of which resonated with his desire to convey Shakespeare’s brutal realism in a visionary masterpiece that would not be fully appreciated until the mid-1900s. Macbeth is performed here in its rarely heard 1865 French language version.

Gino Marinuzzi was a great conductor and composer whose operatic experience made his own theatrical work extremely effective. Composed in Marinuzzi’s signature post-Romantic ‘grand style’, Palla de’ Mozzi was hugely successful in its day and is considered a masterpiece of 20th-century Italian opera. Making ample use of symphonic writing and rich characterization, the opera tells the dramatic and ultimately apocalyptic story of Giovanni de’ Medici’s militia, the ‘Black Bands’, commanded by the imaginary figure of Palla de’ Mozzi. This acclaimed Cagliari production was summed up in Libero as ‘something rarely heard … a synthesis of the entire history of music’. This release from Dynamic is the work's world premiere recording.

The Paduan composer Giovanni Battista Bassani, a contemporary of Corelli, was a fine string player and organist. An important element in his compositional output is the cantate amorose (‘love songs’). His 1684 collection Affetti canori cantate et ariette is the expressive masterpiece of his maturity in which he explores love as a source of suffering. His musical palette is rich and full of variety, with an artful use of chromaticism. The recitatives and arias in this work chart a detailed evolution of moods, exemplifying a true marriage of words and music.

Linda di Chamounix is a pretty country girl who is in love with Carlo, who she believes is a penniless artist. Her honor is threatened by the local squire and she escapes to Paris in search of fortune. This is a tale of courage and madness, in which we discover and experience the strength and suffering of a woman torn apart by estrangement from family and love. Donizetti reaped full and long-lasting success with Linda di Chamounix, and it became one of his most modern, appreciated and long-lived works. Jessica Pratt leads an all-star cast in this acclaimed production from the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.