Classical Music

S. WAGNER Der Kobold • Frank Strobel, cond; Rebecca Broberg ( Verena ); Regina Mauel ( Gertrud ); Andreas Mitschke ( Ekhart ); Achim Hoffmann ( Trutz ); Johannes Föttinger ( Fink ); Philipp Meierhöfer ( Kümmel ); Volker Horn ( Friedrich ); Nicholas Isherwood ( Der Graf ); Martina Borst ( Die Gräfin ); Ksenija Lukic ( Jeannette ); Marco Bappert ( Jean ); Joachim Höchbauer ( Knorz ); Heike Kohler ( Käthe ); Young Jae Park ( Seelchen ); PPP Music Theatre Ens; Nuremberg SO • Marco Polo 8.225329 (3 CDs: 195:27)


Each time I listen to this recording of The Goblin , I am utterly unnerved—do not be fooled by the descending flute figures that cue the overture, like Pan himself coming down to bless the land. Obviously, there is no shortage of warped and twisted librettos, which tend to serve as jumping off points for music yet more warped and twisted, but my goodness, our man Siegfried was exorcising some personal demons with this work—ironically, by enlivening some.


The first “sung” note, once the gentle, autumnal instrumental opening has concluded, is a scream, one that comes through on the recording like a spike—no reverb, no vibrato, just fear, hammered home. We are dealing with a dramatis personae of goblins (including one whose entrance into the world comes courtesy of a mixture of a hanged man’s seed and the yellow grass below), a wizard, some assassins, night phantoms, a few satyrs, a circus collective, a rapist, and such cheery pursuits as infanticide, abortion, flesh trading, and prestidigitation for, shall we say, less than salubrious ends. Good luck sorting out the plot, which is about as close to postmodernism as Siegfried ever got, and features an opera within the opera, and a climax not dissimilar to F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu , which had the subtitle, intriguingly enough, of “A Symphony of Horrors.”


The quality of the recording itself will jar you, but that’s part of its effectiveness—weapons crash to the ground as though they’ve landed on microphones, or like something is kicking inside the speakers and trying to get out. It’s a fascinating, weird kind of audio-vérité, that further unsettles the nerves; but distortion was Siegfried’s ally in the creation of this work, and some passages even appear, at first, to be atonal. Rebecca Broberg as Verena, the opera’s heroine—a default designation, really, in this case, given her successive and ultimately defeating tragedies—is really stretched on the rack in her exceedingly taxing role, and it is through her vocal lines that we experience whatever empathy—which often takes the forms of anxiety and fear—the opera has to offer. It’s been remarked that for all of its fantastical elements, Der Kobold is something of a gangster story, but the noir -ish element becomes almost hallucinatory in the constant churn of crises, a vortex of demonism, you might say—of both the supernatural and human variety, the latter, of course, always being worse. Cpo has a Siegfried Wagner sampler disc with the West German Radio Symphony Orchestra and Roman Trekel handling an excerpt, but for the whole, vivid nightmare, you’ll need this set to be properly shocked and disturbed. And for those who cherish their illusions of childhood, there is perhaps no 20th-century opera that poses such a menacing threat to any and all forms of latency.


FANFARE: Colin Fleming

One of Germany's most prominent pianists, Alexander Krichel from Hamburg, has brought together a couple of heavyweights for his first album with Berlin Classics. He combines the "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Modest Mussorgsky, a central work of the piano literature, with a rarely heard gem by the Romanian composer George Enescu. Enescu's Second Piano Suite enhances the formal language of the Baroque with Romantic and Impressionist timbres, and entrances the listener with a rich palette of tone colors. To round off the program, Alexander Krichel plays another work by a composer from Russia's "mighty handful", the Nocturne from the Petite Suite by Alexander Borodin. There's no denying it: born in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, Krichel feels himself strongly drawn to the Russian repertoire. He studied with two of the greatest Russian pianists of modern times. "I've long had Modest Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' in my repertoire, but now, this piano suite is exactly right with it's strong sense of dedication," says Krichel. "It would be hard to find another piano cycle that has such variety and places such comprehensive demands. Mussorgsky captures a whole cosmos in his 'Pictures'. That links him with George Enescu, who in writing his Second Suite actually composed a tribute as well. ECHO Klassik prizewinner Alexander Krichel also made his presence felt on the music scene with unusual activities during the long Corona lockdown. In May 2020, he initiated the first drive-in concert, which was broadcast by WDR. Soon after that, his audience was following him on a video diary from a Hong Kong hotel suite, in which he had to observe a 14-day period of quarantine before a concert. All the greater, then, the relief felt by Alexander Krichel that like other artists, he can again communicate live with his audience.

With this release, distinguished Korean pianist Klara Min brings her special touch a seventeen-piece survey of her favorite Mazurkas - a unique “composer genre” from Frédéric Chopin. Widely regarded as the most intimate, heartfelt, emotional, and personal music that the “poet of the piano” composed, the mazurkas fairly shine under Min’s fingers. Her tone has been called “ravishing” and “out of this world” (American Record Guide), and her rare interpretive acumen, technical wizardry, and intuitive musicianship make Chopin’s music a perfect fit.

It is not by chance that luminous textures and sensual orchestral colors are considered essential features of French music. Its history features great names renowned for their art of instrumentation and sensitive use of timbres, who include the composers of the cello concertos on this recording: Camille Saint-Saëns, whose instrumentation technique always combines color with transparency, Édouard Lalo, who was highly esteemed by Claude Debussy for the wealth of color in his works, and Arthur Honegger, who painted striking soundscapes not only in his Cello Concerto but in his works without a large orchestra as well. Often it is the fine shadings and delicate transitions that characterize the tone colors of French music and are responsible for its delightful charm. Daniel Müller-Schott – Opus Klassik award winner 2019 – appealingly combines five works from the French sound kaleidoscope on his newest album with the DSO Berlin and Alexandre Bloch 'Four Visions of France’.

REVIEWS:

In every way, this is an impressive CD. It contains first-rate performances in excellent sound and has a most appealing programme. Included is a handsome booklet with photos and more than adequate notes on the works and artists. There is simply no reason to hesitate in adding this to your collection, if you are a cello aficionado.

-- MusicWeb International

After more than two decades in the spotlight, a still boyishly handsome Daniel Müller-Schott rightly remains one of the world’s foremost cellists, and a personal favorite of mine. He turns his attention here to chestnuts of the French repertoire, with most felicitous results.

The Saint-Saëns is of course the heavyweight entry in terms of standard repertoire status. Müller-Schott is on a plane with the work's finest exponents, giving a brisk and authentically French rendition, light and yet with dramatic flair. Equal credit in this regard is due to conductor Alexandre Bloch, who elicits an echt Gallic sound from the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Much the same can be said of the other works featured here.

The recorded sound is excellent, the booklet notes (supplemented by artist bios) brief and to the point. This is a well thought out and beautifully realized release; strongly recommended.

-- Fanfare (James A. Altena)

Müller-Schott plays Saint-Saëns’ bravura test piece broadly in the opening Allegro, playfully in the Allegretto, and energetically in the closing Allegro. Later the Romance in F Major is tenderly executed by Müller-Schott. By contrast, the cellist’s take on the Élégie of Gabriel Fauré is all gentleness. His mining of the early 20h century sound in Arthur Honegger’s Cello Concerto bespeaks boldness and incisiveness.

When it comes to Édouard Lalo’s less-French than most work among those of his contemporaries: the Cello Concerto in D Minor, Müller-Schott embraces the grandiose, quasi-Wagnerian music with no small measure of impassioned fervor. Throughout all of the works featured in this interesting album, the soloist and his colleagues from the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin play with commitment and unimpeachable style.

–Rafael's Music Notes

Christian Gottlob Neefe flourished as the Baroque was giving way to the Classical period. These Twelve Sonatas represent important steps in this transition, each having a uniquely individual character and showing a mixture of styles. Neefe is remembered today as Beethoven's first main teacher in Bonn, the Dressler Variations being young Ludwig's first published composition. Susan Kagan, a pianist, author, and educator, has explored the music of composers associated with Beethoven and his Milieu.

The present release is the most comprehensive Bruckner Symphonies cycle, including all 19 available versions. Anton Bruckner burst out of the confines of the cathedral using that most secular of musical forms, the symphony. The creator of some of the 19th century’s greatest orchestral music, Bruckner cut a singular figure among his contemporaries. This new complete Bruckner Symphonies edition from Capriccio reassesses these enduringly enigmatic and complex works. Presented by the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and featuring all 19 available versions, the cycle is scheduled for completion in 2024, Bruckner’s 200th birthday. The second release, of Symphony No. 8 (1890 version) is performed by Bruckner Orchestra Linz conducted by Markus Poschner.

For the last seventeen years of his life – from 2003 to 2019 – Mariss Jansons was chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus. Both ensembles and their conductor appreciated each other deeply on an artistic as well as a human level, and this resulted in numerous unforgettable concerts. Jansons’ unrelenting demands on himself and his musicians, his always respectful treatment of his colleagues, and his great devotion to music all played a lead role in their work together. Mariss Jansons occupies a place of honor in the orchestra’s history, and its players will always revere and cherish his memory. With the death of Mariss Jansons one year ago, the music world lost one of its greatest artistic personalities.

Born the son of conductor Arvids Jansons in Riga in 1943, the young Mariss studied at the Leningrad Conservatory before completing his studies with Hans Swarowsky in Vienna and Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. In 1971 he was a prizewinner at the Karajan Conducting Competition and began his close collaboration with today's St. Petersburg Philharmonic. From 1979 to 2000, Jansons was Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic; from 1997 to 2004 he conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; and in the 2003/04 season he became Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus. The 2004/05 season marked the start of his tenure at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, which ended in 2015. As a guest conductor, he worked with all the leading orchestras of Europe and the USA, and his discography includes many award-winning recordings.

Classical Music

Rivka Golani’s portrait album invites listeners on a musical journey spanning the 1820s to the late 1940s; its style ranges from early romanticism to post romanticism. Another of the music peculiarities is that it shows how the millennial heritage of Jewish culture enriched European art music. Rivka Golani is recognized as one of the outstanding modern violists. More than 300 works have so far been composed for her, including 77 concertos: a record matched by no other violist in history.

The recording captures the quartet as if they were in your living room... This is the kind of album that makes record reviewing the best job in the world. (Gramophone Awards) "These performances set a new standard and reveal so much of what makes these quartets unique." (BBC Music Magazine) "This is extraordinarily bold playing - and they truly capture the sense that Smetana is writing symphonic quartet music." (Gramophone) "In their native repertoire they are well-nigh incomparable." (The Sunday Times) When the most prominent critics across the board concur in the opinion that an album is extraordinary, it certainly deserves to be released on vinyl. Although Smetana's chamber pieces are few in number, each of them - personal, many a time harboring a bold autobiographical statement - constitutes one of the cornerstones of Czech chamber music. Smetana wrote his two quartets in the twilight of his life, when he was afflicted by deafness. String Quartet No. 1, "From My Life", is a programme work: "My aim was to depict in tones the course of my life... The piece is of an intimate nature; therefore I deliberately wrote it for 4 instruments, which should converse as though within a close circle of friends..." Owing to it's being composed in an unconventional manner, String Quartet No. 2 comes across as a 20th-century work. The Pavel Haas Quartet's award-winning album has been released by Supraphon for vinyl fans and lovers of perfect sound on a top-quality LP, supplemented by a Hi-Res digital version. Smetana's intimate and timeless music, as performed by the Pavel Haas Quartet - for the first time on vinyl

The Swiss Piano Trio's sixth and final release featuring works for piano trio by Ludwig van Beethoven presents two early masterworks and real rarities: adaptations for piano trio of Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 and his String Quintet Op. 4, based on his Octet Op. 103 and reworked by the composer himself (this piano trio is therefore a double adaptation of the octet). Both piano trio adaptations were published by Artaria in Vienna in 1806. Whilst it is not documented who arranged the string quintet for piano trio, the Second Symphony was adapted by Beethoven's pupil Ferdinand Ries in collaboration with Carl Czerny and under the supervision of the composer. The result is a resplendent realization of an ingenious orchestral work which greatly astonished contemporary audiences. The magnificent version for piano trio facilitates a renewed encounter with a work which is still unjustly overshadowed by the Eroica Symphony.

Classical Music

Volume 7 of Rossini’s complete piano music, Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age), ranges across six of the fourteen albums to include works for both solo piano and for piano and voices. Two of the pieces – Andantino mosso (track 3), recently discovered in manuscript, and La notte di Santo Natale (track 5) receive their first recording. ‘Alessandro Marangoni sounds completely at home… and he presents the music with style, good humour and no mean virtuosity’ (MusicWeb International on 8.573107 / Volume 6).

'This is the story of a dying woman. It is written as such. This is what it tells. During the performance, this woman dies before your eyes, in what is practically a live event. There is no way to conjure the fact away. The main subject of this opera is death and there is no way to avoid that. Death with love. Love with death. One and the other, one in the other.' - Peter Mussbach A production by Festival d'Aix en Provence 2003.

As is well known, Liszt wrote transcriptions of all nine Beethoven Symphonies. Here Frederic Chiu gives brilliant performances of Nos. 5 and 7. With a vibrant concert schedule, a legacy of 27 albums, and a stream of accolades from around the globe, pianist Frederic Chiu occupies a special place in the world of classical music. His non-traditional approach including interdisciplinary collaborations, integration of new technologies and emphasis on audience engagement distinguish Mr. Chiu as a maverick and innovator, a 21st Century artist.

1839 was Schumann’s most productive year of writing for solo piano, and the last year he wrote a major work for piano solo. The following year, Schumann wrote no works for solo piano, focusing a new energy in writing songs. 1840 is famously known as his ‘Year of Song’ (Liederjahr), hence our coined title ‘Year of Piano’ with all the works on this album, apart from 3 Stücklein, written in 1838. This is Papastefanou’s third album for FHR. Alexandra Papstefanou graduated from Athens Conservatoire, where she studied piano under Aliki Vatikioti. She followed her studies with Olga Zhukova at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, with Peter Solymos, at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and, on a scholarship from the Alexander Onassis Foundati on, at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, USA, with the highly infl uencial teacher György Seb?k. She has also taken lessons from Alfred Brendel.

Classical Music

After the critically acclaimed recording of Beethoven's nine symphonies, the Wiener Symphoniker present now under the direction of their outgoing Music Director Philippe Jordan another cyclical recording: The Symphonies by Johannes Brahms. It had taken 14 years of preparatory work before Brahms ventured to complete his First Symphony in 1876. The four symphonies that emerged in the following decade are not only touching measurements of the human soul's landscape but also the central creative legacy of the great romantic composer. All four symphonies were recorded live in the Golden Hall of the Wiener Musikverein in autumn 2019 – a hall that arguably meets the tonal requirements of the works like no other. After all two of the four symphonies had been premiered here while the other two had been performed here for the first time in Austria. This latest production by the Wiener Symphoniker marks the end of Philippe Jordan's tenure as Music Director of the traditional Viennese orchestra but also represents the culmination of their internationally celebrated artistic collaboration. With the new publication, the Wiener Symphoniker are presenting the twenty-first release on their eponymous label founded in 2012.

A new treasure from the archives of the Southwest German Radio! Hänssler Classic is proud to present a rare historical recording of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra with Lorin Maazel from 1958. Lorin Maazel is one of the most famous conductors in the world. Born in 1930, he received early lessons on the piano and violin at the age of seven and soon thereafter began to conduct. His program includes Beethoven's often neglected Second Symphony, which has always been in the shadow of it's "bigger brothers", especially the "Eroica" Symphony. Also included is the Coriolan Overture and Bartók's "Concerto for Orchestra". It is an extraordinary experience to hear how Maazel builds the suspense and consistency in these interpretations from early in his career. An important recording both for Maazel fans and those who want to become one. - Hanssler Classic

Quatuor Schumann and Gyula Stuller propose a truly fresh and transparent reading of these two masterpieces of Robert Schumann's literature for piano and strings. Unanimously celebrated by the critics for their first Chausson-Fauré record, published under the Aeon label, this young ensemble of Swiss musicians shows perfect delicacy and clarity, as well as hypersensitive romanticism. Indeed, one can hardly wish for a more appropriate or more complete vision of what constitutes the true spirit of chamber music, where each individual surpasses himself without ever losing the unity of the group.

In 1984, just as the long-playing gramophone record was supposedly fading into the sunset, the British record company EMI issued an 8-LP box in green livery compiled by Keith Hardwick and entitled “Schumann & Brahms Lieder on Record 1901-1952”. That was the year after the introduction of the Compact Disc, which was expected to deliver the coup de grâce to the vinyl record introduced in 1948. Fast forward to today: LPs are still around, so are CDs, but EMI as the world’s oldest and once greatest recorded music organization is no more – its heirs and successors are the majors Warner and Universal. Be that as it may, the English company has won eternal honor for its invaluable service to music in preserving historic vocal documents in such painstakingly edited sets as “The Record of Singing” or indeed “… Lieder on Record” (RLS 1547003). However, the Schumann-Brahms box was not available “overseas” – in countries outside Great Britain, that is – save for brief periods and in homeopathic quantities, and then only as an import. Hänssler Classic and editor Dieter Fuoss are now closing the gap, initially with the part devoted to Robert Schumann (born June 8, 1810, Zwickau – died July 29, 1856, Endenich on the outskirts of Bonn). He fills the first three albums with “Lieder in historic recordings”. A fourth album completes the set with three song cycles by Schumann in legendary interpretations.

REVIEWS:

The Profil series Lieder on Record has had a new addition. Volume 2 with songs by Robert Schumann has been released. If you want to find out how important Schumann interpreters have performed his songs, you can’t miss this box. The songs are heard in historic recordings made between 1901 and 1951. The performers include Lotte and Lili Lehmann, Friedrich Schorr, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Victoria de los Angeles, Leo Slezak, Feodor Schaljapin, Richard Tauber, Elisabeth Schumann, Karl Erb, Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender, Frida Leider, Hans Hotter, Elisabeth Höngen, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and many others.  

-- Pizzicato

This set is a treasure trove for anyone who would like to hear dozens of singers from the first half of the 20th Century sing songs of Robert Schumann. It shows how performance style evolved in that time, including interpretive liberties taken. It offers a chance to hear dozens of voices, many I’ve never heard—or even heard of—before. You get to hear how different singers perform some of the same songs.

This set will appeal mainly to people interested in hearing how people of the first half of last century approached lieder. Some of them are very good, others are terrible. Many of the singers are hardly remembered today, and the liner notes tell us little about them. The liner notes give only general background information. As you would expect, texts and translations are not supplied.

-- American Record Guide

Classical Music

The Schubert Impromptus Op. 90 and Sonata in B-flat Major are two of the greatest of Schubert's piano works. Winner of major competitions, Alexander Kobrin gives magisterial performances of these great works. Called the "Van Cliburn of today" by the BBC, pianist Alexander Kobrin has placed himself at the forefront of today's performing musicians. His prize-winning performances have been praised for their brilliant technique, musicality, and emotional engagement with the audience. The New York Times has written that Mr. Kobrin was a "fastidious guide" to Schumann's "otherworldly visions, pointing out hunters, flowers, haunted corners and friendly bowers, all captured in richly characterized vignettes." "This was a performance that will be revered and remembered as a landmark of the regeneration of exceptional classical music in Central New York."-critic wrote after Mr. Kobrin's performance of Second Piano Concerto by Johannes Brahms with Syracuse Symphony in Syracuse, NY.

"A commanding vocal and stage presence, bass-baritone George London, heard here in his only Elias recording, leads a noteworthy quartet of vocal soloists. Conductor Christopf von Dohnányi is best-known for his near twenty-year tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra. Completed in 1846 after extensive revising, Elias proved to be Mendelssohn's last completed work of this scale and scope. Newly remastered."

In a series of 3 albums, the Beethoven Trio Bonn explores the confrontation between one of Beethoven’s standard works for piano trio with a further “house music” arrangement of one of his orchestral works. More than providing an interesting pairing, the Beethoven Trio Bonn was keen on interpreting an original work for piano trio alongside an arrangement of an orchestral work “downsized” to piano trio format. Here the very well-known Piano Trio No. 4 (Gassenhauer) with his enormous witty playfulness (we listen to the version with the violin instead of the clarinet) and his three (!) movements is partnered with the Symphony No. 6, in an arrangement of the Brahms friend Christian Gottlieb Belcke.

Start of the most comprehensive Bruckner Symphonies Edition incl. all available 19 versions. Bruckner burst out of the confines of the cathedral using that most secular of musical forms: the symphony. It is with reflexive reoccurrence in music history that supposed performance traditions burn themselves into a score as if they were a given… and the more so, the further we get from the work’s creation. So many clichés and truths about his person and his work are at last being questioned or, if they aren’t yet, are overdue some scrutiny. It is an essential aspect of this album edition to read and understand the text fresh and anew. Whence does Bruckner’s music come and whereunto does it point? With the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra Capriccio could engage two of the best Austrian orchestras for this in total 19 versions counting cycle. With about 1065 minutes of music this complete symphonic edition will be finished in 2024, when we will celebrate Bruckner’s 200th Birthday.

REVIEW:

This is the first release in what promises to be a complete cycle of all of the Bruckner symphonies in all of their various versions. It would be more exciting if the industry hadn’t already been spitting out Bruckner symphony recordings like a baseball dugout chewing tobacco, but perhaps when this series concludes, in 2024, the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth, the mania will subside for a while and we can move on to other things. Of course, this assumes that the moronic apparatus known as Bruckner “scholarship” stops issuing new editions of the symphonies.

Markus Poschner’s view of the Sixth reminds me of Jochum’s. It’s a lively, rhythmically alert interpretation that permits a welcome flexibility of pulse, reserving the moments of gravity for the Adagio and such intimate passages as those in the finale’s second subject. Poschner’s careful attention to rhythm pays big dividends in the first movement’s development section, and especially in the scherzo, which is unquestionably one of the finest on disc. I do wish he had made a bit more out of the finale’s closing pages. He just plows straight through them, accepting the slight feeling of anticlimax that results; but then, that’s really Bruckner’s fault.

Of course, the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz knows the music as well as any group in existence, but what impresses most is its ability to keep it sounding so fresh. I mean, imagine growing up on a diet of Bruckner and Philip Glass symphonies. Kill me now. So good job all around, including the clean and clear engineering. Up next: the 1890 Eighth in Nowak’s edition. Keep your fingers crossed.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

The arpeggione, invented in 1823 by the Viennese luthier Johann Georg Stauffer, had a curious destiny. As it's alternative names 'guitar violoncello' and 'guitare d'amour' suggest, it is in fact a guitar fitted with a bridge, held between the knees like a cello and played with a bow. The instrument enjoyed some success for around a decade, but, oddly enough, almost nothing has survived from it's specific repertory except one supreme masterpiece: the sonata Franz Schubert wrote for it in 1824. The guitar was very popular in Vienna at that time, and Schubert was also fond of it; the original version of Die schöne Müllerin was published with guitar accompaniment! Guido Balestracci and the musicians of L'Amoroso have built a delightful Schubertiad around this famous sonata, combining the arpeggione and the piano with voice and guitars to appropriate a rich selection of the Viennese composer's lieder.

This collection of Gabriel Fauré’s mélodies is the first recording to be conceived for a bass voice. It juxtaposes some of the composer’s best-loved songs with some of his lesser-known works. This recital program draws out connections of poets and poetic themes, some of which restore the composer’s own original groupings. This is also the first recording to be based on the new Peters Edition, which eliminates countless errors in older publications. The young American bass Jared Schwartz received the 2013 ‘People’s Choice’ Award in the American Traditions Vocal Competition.

REVIEW:

There are a total of 25 songs on this disc and each of them has been recorded with care and affection for the music of this wonderful French songwriter. Schwartz’s excellent new recording on Toccata gives us pristine sound; it is a recording that should be in the collection of everyone who loves French song.

-- Fanfare

I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata is an operatic drama in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The work is based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi, which was “very much a child of its age; a grand historical novel with a patriotic slant.” Verdi dedicated the score to Maria Luigia, the Habsburg Duchess of Parma, who died a few weeks after the premiere. "I Lombardi best encapsulates the spirit of the Italian people’s desire for nationhood. One would be pleasantly surprised, full as it is, of rousing choruses and musical numbers of great beauty, with music wonderfully expressive and perfectly in accord with drama at times. Visually and musically a sumptuous staging, full of contrasting colors and glorious singing for this young Verdi's rare work." (review by Alan Nelson / Operawire). American soprano Angela Meade and the Italian tenor Francesco Meli star in the main roles of this production, which is conducted by Michele Mariotti and was recorded in April 2018.