The Eskar Trio have established themselves as one of Denmark’s leading chamber music ensembles and Cpo are proud to present their interpretation of Johann Brahms’s Piano Trios.

In addition to the three well-known trios is the Piano Trio in A major, a work whose authorship continues to be a matter of controversy. The anonymous score from a Bonn manuscript collection of the nineteenth century was discovered in 1924 (now extant), and it is thought to be a sole survivor from collection of piano trios the self-critical composer withheld from publication.

César Franck’s great Violin Sonata in A, arranged for piano by Alfred Cortot, forms the focus on our new solo album featuring the gifted and successful pianist Michael Korstick. “The version without disturbing scratching noises does indeed have its appeal,” Korstick ironically opines and then explains, “I know that I’m now making myself extremely unpopular with all violinists, but some things come across even better in the version for piano alone. One doesn’t miss the violin.” This is of course a controversial statement, especially since it refers to the embodiment of the sensuous romantic violin sonata. “The fact is that Franck almost always thinks starting from the organ,” thus Korstick’s argument continues, “and Cortot so genially distributed the voices of the octaves that the polyphonic structure becomes clearer.” The audience at its premiere in Paris in 1885 was immediately enthused, and most pianists continue to be so even today. Michael Korstick regards this work as Franck’s “most important, central solo piece,” and the Franck expert Jörg Demus views the Prélude, Aria et Final as one of the few “lucid” compositions of the late romantic period and pardons it for its difficulty in playing technique: “But what do difficulties mean when the emotional content compensates one for it in such a rich way!”

The German pianist Michael Korstick performs Liszt’s last major piano cycle, the Années de Pèlerinage – Troisième Année from 1883, written in the latter stage of his life when he visited Rome, Weimar and Budapest. Also featured on this disc is a supplement to Années de Pèlerinage II: Venezia e Napoli.

It might be easy to overlook this new CPO disc of all Weber’s overtures. But it would be a mistake to do so, for what we have here is a recording that will have you tapping your toe along to this glorious music afresh. What makes the disc so enjoyable, perhaps, is the fact that each overture feels carefully characterized.

British conductor Howard Griffiths brings thrillingly vibrant and lucid playing from Cologne’s WDR Sinfonieorchester, which is captured in brilliantly clear and realistic sound by West German Radio’s engineers.

Griffiths imbues each work with real urgency, which the orchestra match with virtuosity across the board. Nor is he ever afraid to broaden the tempo and take his time when it’s required. The wind-playing is characterful, with a twinkle in the eye of the oboe solos and a mixture of liveliness and mellifluousness from the principal clarinet. The brass-playing is also especially fine throughout.

– Gramophone

Contemporaries of Joachim Raff (1822-82) valued him as an expert in the history of music and art and as a composer who knew how to produce richly colored instrumentations. Following releases of some of his symphonies and piano trios, cpo now turns to the composer's Second, Third, Fourth and Eighth String Quartets. In his �middle quartets� the classicistic control of his music from those years makes itself manifest, i.e., interpretive markings in Italian, exposition repeats unmotivated by an increased degree of difficulty, a reduction in chromatics and a return to old dance forms.

Classical Music

Rossini’s Eduardo e Cristina was a huge success in its day, but as perhaps the last centone opera (one assembled from previously existing material) by a major composer, it became forgotten under the subsequent tide of Romantic idealism. Today we can put these prejudices aside and enjoy this masterful creation for what it is: a hugely entertaining parade of beautiful and spectacular musical ‘hits’ set to a familiar story of secret love, dramatic crisis and triumphant resolution. This 2017 Bad Wildbad revival was summed up as “an evening of pure bel canto pleasure!” by Operagazet.

A contemporary of Rossini and Donizetti, Saverio Mercadante was one of Italy’s most productive 19th-century operatic composers. Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamaccio was written during the composer’s stay in Spain, and is based on a chapter of Cervante’s Don Quixote in which the hero prevents the forced marriage of a poor farm girl to the wealthy Camacho. Magnificently entertaining and dramatically innovative, Don Chisciotte combines fashionable Neapolitan style with Spanish folk music elements in an unforgettable melodramma giocoso. It is heard on this recording in its first modern performance.

Jozef de Beenhouwer offers Clara Schumann and listening audiences a special gift on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of her birth: an album including numerous recording premieres from this famous pianist's extensive transcription oeuvre. He not only honors her compositional talent but also spotlights works with which she very deliberately and intensively occupied herself - and in the process very attractively nuances our picture of the musical Schumann family. The focus is formed by selected songs by Robert Schumann. Thirty transcriptions in all were published during Clara's lifetime, and eleven others were discovered and edited only a few years ago. de Beenhouwer's choices drawing on both sources impressively demonstrate how skillfully Clara integrated the voice part into Robert's piano parts, which often are quite complicated. Clara also transferred Robert's Studies and Sketches for the Pedal Piano to the piano. The pieces are for hands with an enormous span and flexibility- and attest to her outstanding pianistic capabilities. Johannes Brahms of course also has something to contribute to this meritorious program: the minuet from the Serenade in D major and the scherzo from the- almost unplayable- arrangement of the Serenade in A major shed light on Clara's intimate artistic friendship with this younger composer.

Pizzicato 9/12: “Venzago’s courage to interpret Bruckner more romantically than post-romantically makes sense because the 2nd symphony suddenly develops a life of its own and enthuses the listener with its own stylistic musicality. This is certainly one of the best recordings of this composition!”

The fourteen works for piano and orchestra of Ferdinand Ries stand alongside those of Hummel as the finest and most important of their kind from the early decades of the 19th century. Intensely lyrical and yet displaying at times a rugged Beethovenian grandeur, Ries’s eight concertos are works of impressive musical stature. In this fifth and final recording we encounter the first and last of his published concertos and the virtuosic Rondeau brillant, Op. 144. “Sparkling performances... the recording is first rate.” (Penguin Guide on Vol. 3, 8.570440).

This brand new album for the very first time brings together the complete songs of Clara Schumann in the original key - a long-overdue present for the two hundredth anniversary of her birth! Why is this collection so compelling and vibrant? Because all the songs are heard in the original keys and in each case fittingly performed by a female or male voice. Miriam Alexandra and Peter Gijsbertsen of course contribute their share here, while Jozef de Beenhouwer's experienced and sovereign piano accompaniment shows them in the very best light. Clara Schumann enjoyed international fame as a pianist and continued to concertize with great success throughout Europe even when she was the mother of a growing brood of children, a housewife, and her husband Robert's assistant. She revealed her compositional talent while she was still a young girl- as the twelve-year-old's "Der Wanderer" and "Der Wanderer in der Sagemuhle" demonstrate. Later Robert Schumann encouraged his beloved wife to compose new works and even published joint collections of their songs- a very unusual practice during a time when people at most turned up their noses at compositions by women. Clara reached one high point in her vocal oeuvre with the Jucunde songs. The demanding piano part reveals the keyboard virtuoso- but not without offering the singer sufficient room for the luscious design of this music radiating charm, mirth, and joie de vivre. Robert was especially fond of her last song based on Goethe's "Veilchen," even though it had to vie with Mozart's setting.

Classical Music

The only other serious competition in this repertoire, and it’s not as complete as this release (the Aida items are missing), is an old Philips Due mostly conducted by the late Antonio de Almeida. Those are good performances, but they don’t outclass these, either interpretively or sonically. You might say that it doesn’t take much interpretive insight to conduct Italian ballet music, but ultimately the goal is always the same: to avoid boredom. This may be even harder in music whose purpose is largely decorative and expressively limited. It’s to Serebrier’s (and Verdi’s) credit that there isn’t a bar here that fails to entertain, or that doesn’t make an excellent case for believing that this music is of much higher quality than its reputation suggests.

The ballet from Aida is well known, of course, but that from Otello is a minor masterpiece in a strikingly similar vein. “The Four Seasons” ballet from I vespri siciliani is Verdi’s largest, lasting a solid half an hour, and it’s wonderfully performed here. It has moments that you might mistake for Delibes or Tchaikovsky. Don Carlos is also fully mature Verdi, while the ballet in Macbeth is pretty well known as it’s often included in modern performances of the opera (the witches’ waltz at the end is particularly fun). The two big “finds” for most listeners will be the extensive ballet music from Jérusalem (a.k.a. I lombardi), and the similarly large-scale (20 minutes) dance episodes from Il trovatore. This last item quotes the “gypsy” tunes from the opera’s first act, including the Anvil Chorus, and it’s really delightful. The sonics are clear and vivid, and with a playing time of nearly two hours, this set easily becomes the modern reference for this undervalued repertoire.

-- ClassicsToday.com

This volume completes Naxos’ very enjoyable four-disc set of the complete Rossini overtures. Think about it: that’s a lot of orchestral music from a composer known almost exclusively for his vocal works–three or four Bruckner symphonies’ worth, and what would you rather listen to? This last installment includes two really popular overtures: The Barber of Seville and Il Turco in Italia, but much of the musical interest lies in the less familiar pieces.

Ricciardo e Zoraide, for example, has an unconventional form, ending quietly with a lengthy aria for solo flute, preceded by a romantic horn solo. Torvaldo e Dorliska reveals that Rossini was always ready with a new and interesting take on his signature “crescendo.” This one ends, not with the conventional climactic tutti, but with a series of more lyrical phrases for the violins. Armida’s opening march leads to another insanely difficult horn solo (the MET’s player blew it horribly at the performance of the opera that I saw). Rossini must have worked with some astoundingly fine individual players.

The performances, as with the other volumes in this series, are crisp, fleet, and shapely, with excellent solo winds nicely balanced against well-coordinated strings. Conductor Christian Benda also takes care to handle the percussion with good taste and common sense. For example, he reserves the cymbals for the very end of The Barber of Seville, an effective decision.

If you’re looking for the complete Rossini overtures, the only other option you have is Marriner’s set on Philips. These performances, on the whole, have just that much more more character and sparkle. They deserve your consideration.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

With the present release the gifted Belgian Quatuor Danel ensemble turn to two masterpieces by Cesar Franck: his passionate Piano Quintet and the String Quartet. The three-movement Quintet, like Brahms’s op. 34 an expansion of the Schumannian model, is one of Franck’s most infamous works. It immediately established itself, and a second performance with the pianist Marie Poitevin, the later dedicatee of the Prelude, Choral et Fugue, convinced the members of the Societe Nationale. Franck’s String Quartet, his last major work, was similarly acclaimed by its first listeners. After its first performance in April 1890, with tears in his eyes, Cesar Franck is said to have told his pupil Vincent d’Indy, "Now you see: at long last the public is beginning to understand me."

-----

REVIEW:

Both of these works have been admirably served on disc, but this new recording is the most gripping yet - and by a long shot. Urgently recommended.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

Over the years I and several other reviewers on this site have been bemoaning the failure of Melodiya, when reissuing their recordings of rare Russian material, to provide texts, translations or indeed adequate booklet notes of any meaningful description for their releases – a damaging omission which does little to make more accessible the excellent recordings themselves. In this selection of Rimsky-Korsakov melodies, CPO have gone to the opposite extreme. Not only do we get the full texts complete with translations, but we also are vouchsafed a lengthy essay from CPO stalwart Eckhardt van den Hoogen discoursing on the composer himself, his psychological background, his attempts to establish himself as a pedagogue, and many other peripheral issues while managing almost entirely to avoid any discussion of the music itself as featured on this disc. Now, I fully appreciate the efforts that CPO put into their booklet notes, which do indeed in many issues offer valuable insights into the music and the composers themselves. However, the turgid prose style of Professor van den Hoogen (which often seems to totally defeat Susan Marie Praeder’s attempts at English translation), are perhaps best regarded in the light of the provision of unintentional amusement. In a final footnote, the booklet essay of eight pages (in small type) notes: “The fact that the Firebird hymn is heard in the Night will be mentioned here for the sake of curiosity and registered completely free from all speculation.” If it is not the intention of the author to discuss the matter, why mention it at all? Earlier in his essay the writer attempts to turn the received opinion of the last century on its head by describing Mussorgsky in the following terms: “Ilya Repin’s famous portrait really tells us everything we need to know about the last years of this original sloth’s life: from his dishevelled hair and watery eyes to the red bulb of a nose shining like a sad lighthouse out of the rolling hills of his face.” Is this really “everything we need to know” about a composer whose output of songs has not only comprehensively outdistanced Rimsky-Korsakov’s in reputation but is also by some considerable margin the most often performed body of vocal works coming from Russia during the nineteenth century?

Still, one has to concede that Professor van den Hoogen always gives good value for money, and he clearly values Rimsky-Korsakov’s output of songs highly. And the performances here do much to justify his enthusiasm. Maria Prudenskaya has spent most of the last ten years working in German opera houses and specialising in Wagner and Verdi, and she fully comprehends the dramatic demands that high romantic music demands of its singers. She was a superbly responsive mezzo soloist in a live Bavarian Radio recording of Verdi’s Requiem under Mariss Jansons a couple of years ago, which I reviewed enthusiastically for this site. Her Waltraute in the 2016 Bayreuth Ring was a towering highlight in an admittedly generally execrable production, and her absolute steadiness of tonal production and gleaming higher register are a real pleasure to hear – not a suspicion of Slavonic wobble here. She also displays a plentiful employment of reflective half-tone, as well as an unexpected (and beautifully floated) upper range in the oriental-sounding Op.2/2 (track 30). Her accompanist Cord Garben is a stalwart contributor to many recitals of song, and as always he relishes the challenge of unfamiliar repertoire. Rimsky-Korsakov was not himself a pianist, and his writing for the instrument was condemned during his lifetime as unidiomatic; but he always gets the effects that he wants to convey. The recording was made some three years before the aforementioned Verdi Requiem – it is not clear why it has waited so long for release – and the recorded sound is fine, even if a little more reverberation might have been welcome.

The disc assembles a whole collection of ‘romances’ identified solely by opus numbers on the CD box, and by transliterated Russian titles at the front of the booklet. They vary in length from just under a minute to a maximum of four minutes; there are thirty individual items here. As might be expected they are all highly proficient settings, generally reflective rather than dramatic, and all have an immediate melodic appeal. Rimsky’s choice of poetic texts is admirable, with Tolstoy, Lermontov, Pushkin and Heine (in Russian translation) featured. They are not assembled in order of composition, which robs the listener of a chance to hear how the composer’s style developed over the years; but Rimsky’s opus numbers are often misleading, with earlier pieces subjected to later revision – it is a pity that the extensive booklet note did not find room to explore this development, including indeed references to songs not actually included on this disc! There are moments which occasion surprise: the clear echo of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata in Op.39/1 (track 5), for example, is an unusual reference to non-Russian material. The treatment of the theme quoted by Stravinsky in The Firebird at the outset of Op.8/2 (track 23) is totally different from that of Rimsky’s pupil.

The songs are generally grouped by the poet whose verses are set, although Rimsky does not seem to make any real stylistic discrimination between his lyrics. Most will I suspect be totally unfamiliar to listeners, although some may have crossed the hearer’s path in miscellaneous recitals of Russian song. But since titles (let alone translations) may differ between one recording and another, there seems to be little point in itemising them here.

So far as I can see this is the only current available single disc devoted entirely to the composer’s output in the field, although Brilliant Classics do have a three-disc compendium of his ‘complete songs’ although there appear to be some individual items omitted (77 songs are included out of some 80 apparently given in published editions), and they are distributed between a whole raft of different singers and pianists. This set suffers also from the fact that no sung texts or translations were provided, even in its original issue on Chant du Monde in 1993. Rimsky-Korsakov enthusiasts will obviously have to own the ‘complete’ set; but for lesser mortals this CD, with its judicious selection complete with transliterated text and translations into both German and English, will be more readily approachable. The music itself will certainly prove enjoyable.

– MusicWeb International (Paul Corfield Godfrey)

Undeservedly overshadowed by his two string quartets and piano trios, the small pieces for violin or cello and piano are among the best of their genre from the “Moscow School”, differing mainly by having partly salonesque titles and a more intimate expression. The Quintet in D major Op. 51 (1900) for piano, two violins, viola and cello exemplifies the 40-year-old composer’s mature style, its cyclic elements and formal density heralding a new departure. The priority given to the piano and the variation movement suggest the influence of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor Op. 50.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Featuring: Marc Clear; Gideon Singer; Evelyn Schorkhuber; Anton Steingruber; Mirjana Irosch; Wilhelm Gartner; Ingrid Habermann; Christian Baumgartel; Markus Heinrich; Christine Bath; Chor und Statisterie der Seefestspiele Morbisch; Ballett der Seefestspiele Morbisch

Live performance from 1999
Language: German
Subtitles: English
Run Time: 126 minutes

SCHUMANN, R.: Piano Trios, Vol. 2

There were 2 Herzogenbergs: the young, wild Herzogenberg of his early years, inspired by Wagner and Liszt, and the classicistic Herzogenberg of his later years, under the spell of his venerated Brahms. Signs of this duality are found in all the works for violin and piano on this release.

Jenó Jandó's Naxos survey of Beethoven's Bagatelles and dances for solo piano reaches Volume 3. Jandó's adroit and stylish readings have much to commend them, especially in their technical agility and clarity of execution. The greater part of this release is given over to the 12 Minuets--not normally the kind of music that lends itself usefully to cyclical hearing. But in these performances Jandó manages to get away from any repetitiveness and predictability, a potential danger in genre pieces, particularly when heard en masse. That he characterises each so effectively comes down to taut rhythms and clinical exactitude in matters of dynamics and articulation.



The disc opens with six more substantial items, including the two Op. 51 Rondos, the A major Rondo WoO 49, the so-called "Andante favori" (Andante in F WoO 57), and the famous "Rage over a lost penny", otherwise the Rondo a Capriccio in G Op. 129. Again, Jandó's performances are enjoyable and illuminating. Note for example how he highlights contrasts of mood and dynamics so effectively in the last of these works, sharpening the acerbity of its more fevered passages through a clarity of attack that owes more to keyboard articulation than to the pedal--commendable, given his brisk tempo. The two Op. 51 Rondos are also more tersely etched and rigorous than you'll often hear, so I'm inclined to rate Jandó's accounts more highly than Brendel's here. Another welcome addition to a useful budget series.
--Michael Jameson, ClassicsToday.com

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".

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s birth. This CD clearly shows Wagner’s ambition to vie with Beethoven, manifesting the inclination towards big and boundless writing. Tobias Koch, one of the most versatile keyboard instrumentalists of his generation, reproduces Wagner’s original sound in brilliant fashion.

This recording should allow newcomers to enjoy this most melodic and romantic of Rossini’s opera seria.

La donna del lago is the twenty-ninth in the sequential list of Rossini’s operatic titles and the fourth of the nine opera seria Rossini wrote under his contract as musical director of the Royal Theatres of Naples. It was the first opera by a noted composer to be based on any of Walter Scott’s romantic works. Whilst nowadays the most famous is Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Scott’s popularity as a source of operatic libretti expanded rapidly after Rossini’s example. It was at the San Carlo theatre, Naples, with its professional orchestra and fine soloists, that the composer could let his musical invention find its fullest expression. He did not need to resort to the more static and traditional operatic conventions that still pertained elsewhere. In no other Naples opera seria does Rossini expand his musical invention more effectively than in act one of La donna del lago.

Rossini had returned to Naples in the beginning of June 1819 after the premiere of Adelaide de Borgogna (see review) in Rome and by early September he had completed the composition of La donna del lago. Circumstances blighted the premiere on 24 September when the opera had a lukewarm reception. It was considerably more successful at subsequent performances and remained in the San Carlo repertory for a further twelve years. The Act 2 rondo, Tanti affeti, roused Naples audiences when sung by Isabella Colbran, Rossini’s mistress and in 1822 his first wife. Within five years of its composition La donna del lago was heard all over Italy as well as in Dresden, Munich, Lisbon, Vienna, Barcelona, St. Petersburg, Paris and London.

The vocal demands of Rossini’s opera seria for Naples have always been a challenge to later performances. He wrote to suit the superb company contracted by the renowned impresario Domenico Barbaja who had first tempted the composer to Naples. Alongside the vocally formidable Colbran, the roster included the tenors Giovanni David and Andrea Nozzari, both notable for their ability with stratospheric coloratura singing. Rossini’s writing for the two tenors has since proved problematic in a period when voices of the type seemed to have dried up. By 1860 La donna del lago was forgotten until its revival in Florence in 1958. It was heard at the Camden Festival, London, in 1969 and at Houston in 1983 in a production that was also seen at Covent Garden. The emergence from North and South America in the late 1970s of voices who could tackle the tenor roles written for the Naples duo stimulated the Rossini revival by the Pesaro Festival who presented La donna del lago in 1981 and 1983 and followed with other opera seria written with the duo in mind. A live recording from the Pesaro performances featuring Katia Ricciarelli as Elena, Lucia Valentini Terrani as Malcolm and Samuel Ramey as Douglas was issued by CBS on its Masterworks Label (M2K 39311 nla). An audio recording from the 1992 sequence of La Scala performances conducted by Muti appeared from Philips (PH 438 211-2 nla). A DVD version of this Werner Herzog production is available from Opus Arte (see review). The work is scheduled for a shared production by leading European opera houses in 2011.

The story of La donna del lago is set in 15th century Scotland at a time of regular border warfare and insurgency. Elena lives near the shores of Loch Katrine with her father, Douglas, who has been exiled by the King. Although her father has promised her to the rebel chief Rodrigo di Dhu, she loves the young highlander Malcolm, a ‘trousers’ role. After rowing over Loch Katrine, Elena meets and offers shelter to Uberto who had become separated from his hunting party. Uberto is in fact the King against whom Douglas and Rodrigo are in conflict. The incognito Uberto falls in love with Elena and later gives her a ring promising that if ever in difficulty or danger it will secure the help of the King. After the defeat of the rebels and the death of Rodrigo Elena seeks out Uberto and discovers his true identity. The King keeps his promise, pardons Douglas and gives Malcolm Elena’s hand in marriage. The opera concludes with much rejoicing.

La donna del lago opens without an overture, one of the few of the composer’s operatic works to do so. Instead, Rossini seeks to conjure up the atmosphere of the Scottish Highlands in sixteen bars of orchestral introduction followed by a chorus of shepherds (CD 1 tr.1). This is followed by a particularly effective reflective aria for Elena Oh mattutini albori with distant horns (tr.2) that also serve as a melodic motif for her. In the Opera Rara recording, Elena is sung by a soprano as it is on the CBS issue. In the present case we hear the experienced Rossinian mezzo Sonia Ganassi. Vitally, her more soprano-like timbre is fine for the contrast with her lover Malcolm, sung by the low mezzo Marianna Pizzolato, in their duet (CD 1 trs. 16-17) and elsewhere. I greatly admired Ganassi as a dramatic Sinaïde in Moïse et Pharaon (see review). In the role of Elena she encompasses the tessitura without difficulty whilst bringing her full range of tone to characterise the heroine’s many moods (CD 1 tr. 2 and CD 2 trs. 22-23) and particularly in her duets with Uberto (CD 1 trs 3-4 and CD 2 trs. 9-11) as well as in the ensembles. Her Tanti affetti is particularly affecting (CD 2 tr. 22). I did feel Ganassi was outgrowing the eponymous Cenerentola (see review) a fact wholly confirmed by hearing the younger, and lower-toned, Marianna Pizzolato live in the role in her British debut with Welsh National Opera (see review). Like Ganassi, Pizzolato sings with smooth, even, well articulated tone and excellent legato across her considerable vocal range. She exhibits no gear-change to the lowest notes. There are no rasping chest tones in her very musical and well-characterised interpretation (CD 1 trs 11-13 and CD 2 trs. 14-15). This duo reflects excellent casting and represents a significant strength in this performance.

As I have indicated, the casting of the tenors taking the roles written for the Naples duo of David and Nozzari is always likely to be a challenge in this and other Rossini opera seria written specifically with them in mind. In the Opera Rara recording the two roles were sung with musicality and appropriate vocal dexterity as well as allure. But nobody knows the Rossini vocal scene better than scholar and conductor Alberto Zedda, the guiding light of this venture that was recorded at Bad Wildbad, but separately from the annual summer Festival there. That he has succeeded in the tenor casting here to the extent he has is a considerable achievement even if it does not quite match the vocal mellifluousness of the Opera Rara duo. Both tenors encompass the vocal demands. I admired Russian tenor Maxim Miranov in the DVD of Dario Fo’s hyperactive staging of L’Italiana in Algeri at Pesaro in 2006. I noted how he kept good vocal form as he was required to involve himself in physical activity and whilst not being distracted from the peripheral goings-on (see review). Here he has no such distractions and is able to show off his light, highly flexible vocal skills to maximum effect (CD 1 trs. 3-10 and CD 2 trs. 8-13). His slightly dry tone lacks the vocal allure of Kenneth Tarver for Opera Rara, let alone the likes of Juan Diego Florez. However the high Cs ping out with similar security and accuracy. This is also true of the German Ferdinand von Bothmer as Rodrigo, who is required to go down to a baritonal low. He achieves this feat as well as bringing strength and appropriate vigour and characterisation to his role. If he doesn’t quite match Gregory Kunde on the Opera Rara issue in the evenness across his considerable range, that is merely to compare the excellent with the very good (CD 1 trs 18-21 and CD 2 trs. 12-13).

As Elena’s father, Wojtek Gierlach sings strongly if without much distinction (CD 1 tr. 15). In the minor tenor role of Serano the Belgian Stefan Cifolelli sings well with a good Italianate squilla that differentiates him nicely from his tenor counterparts. The soprano tones of the Russian Olga Peretyatko as Albina is likewise well sung with purity and vocal strength in the ensembles. The highest compliment I can pay the Prague Chamber Choir is that they sound Italian and sing their many contributions with vigour. It is vigour, allied with a feel for the genre of the music, brought to the proceedings by Zedda, that is perhaps an even greater recommendation for this issue than the undoubted strength of the soloists.

The booklet has an introductory essay by the conductor, a full track-listing and separate track-related synopsis, all in English and German. Also to be welcomed are the artist profiles given in English only. There is applause after individual items and scene ends and this becomes more enthusiastic as the opera proceeds. The Opera Rara issue, from live performances at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2006, eliminates the applause, whilst benefiting from the frisson of a live performance. Perhaps Naxos could investigate this procedure for their recordings at Bad Wildbad. That is as may be. The applause did not destroy my considerable enjoyment of this excellent performance that adds another Rossini opera to Naxos’s burgeoning catalogue of the composer’s works.

-- Robert J Farr, MusicWeb International