Jose Echenique wrote:Seán wrote:Thanks Pepe, yes I have the Brilliant recording and it is on license from Accent. I love the sumptuous sound of the period instruments on this performance. I am hopeless though when it comes to judging the singers, I do enjoy these discs. I may get a second recording of Cosi Fan Tutte and if I do it will definitely be the René Jacobs.
You can either invest on the Jacobs or even try some big band version like the Baremboim with the Berlin Philharmonic. Though I´m always for XVIII Century music with period instruments and manners, the Baremboim is one of the best sung ever, the women especially are just heavenly: soprano Lella Cuberli and a young, unmannered, vibrant Cecilia Bartoli make a pair of sisters to die for. The guys too are even better than in the Jacobs, young American tenor Kurt Streit is a model of Mozartian elegance and bass Ferruccio Furlanetto is both witty and very musical. Baremboim conducts a more leisure and romantic reading than Jacobs, but the care and love for the score compensate his disregard for period manners.
That is interesting, I hadn't considered the Barenboim.
Lella Cuberli was a drop dead gorgeous Texas soprano with a voice to kill for. She was also a Karajan favourite, and even though Rossini was her specialty she sings a glorious Fiordiligi that not even Veronique Gens or Solie Isokoski can match. I saw her in the Salzburg Festival singing the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro with Levine and Lord, she stopped my heart!
Tenor Kurt Streit was in huge demand in the 1990´s and there is a funny story about his ardent Ferrando. He was singing the role in the Glyndebourne Festival with a young and pretty Fiordiligi. During the rehearsal of the duet "Fra gli´amplessi" he put his hand in the girl´s bosom, and her boyfriend who was watching close by because he sang in the chorus kicked him in the face and broke his nose.
Mozart would have enjoyed that :-)
Gosh, singing Mozart can be a very risky pursuit. That is a highly informative and very amusing post Pepe, thank you.
