What are you listening to?

[Jose Echenique]

I know almost next to nothing when it comes to religious or choir music. Even more so it this music from the
Baroque or anything pre-baroque.

Well today I discovered such a piece that I very much like. A piece entitled 'Vespro Della Beata Vergine' bu Claudio Monteverdi.
A very interesting piece in my opinion. Splendid is the word that come to my mind when I think of it.

The version that I have is conducted by Philippe Herreweghe with La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocal Gent and Les Sacqueboutiers de Toulouse. It is on the Harmonia Mundi label. In fact, it is disch 9 and 10 of this treasure box set



Matt.

Monteverdi´s Il Vespro della Beata Vergine is one of the greatest compositions of the XVII Century. Baroque Music is being born before your eyes. Monteverdi made the transition from the "Stile Antico" (the old style of Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, etc) to the "Stile Moderno" more successfully than any of his contemporaries, and set the bases of Baroque Music, that is the "stile concertato", voices and instruments playing in unison.
When I started buying records in the early 70´s there were 4 or 5 recordings of the Vespro, now there are more than 40...aren´t we lucky?

[fergus]

I know almost next to nothing when it comes to religious or choir music. Even more so it this music from the Baroque or anything pre-baroque.

Well today I discovered such a piece that I very much like. A piece entitled 'Vespro Della Beata Vergine' bu Claudio Monteverdi. A very interesting piece in my opinion. Splendid is the word that come to my mind when I think of it.




Matt.

Well you certainly picked a good one to be impressed with and intrigued by Matt. It certainly is a great work but not one that I imagine is to everyone's taste.

Just to remind you our listening project for January (not too far away now) is Monteverdi's Vespers so you have plenty of time to accumulate lots of experience with the work and blind us with your knowledge!

[fergus]

Vinyl....

[Jose Echenique]

Rossini composed Aureliano in Palmira for La Scala when he was merely 21, but with a string of successes that made him already a celebrity in Italy. He had already composed Il Signor Bruschino and La Pietra del Paragone, but most especially the enormously popular Tancredi and L´ Italiana in Argeli made him a star composer.
Aureliano should have been equally well received, because the music is extremely good, but the performance fell apart when the soprano castrato Giovan Battista Vellutti parted ways with the management and sang poorly. Rossini first heard Vellutti 4 years before singing with soprano Isabella Colbran (who was to become his wife), and liked his voice. He tailored made the role of Arsace for him, but being an impossible divo, he let Rossini down.
It´s hard to believe that this is the first major studio recording of Aureliano in Palmira, since there are dozens of recordings even of Rossini´s most obscure operas, and thankfully, it´s a good one.
Tenor Kenneth Tarver is already a well known name thanks to several opera recordings with René Jacobs. Spanish mezzo Silvia Tro Santafé (who sings the castrato role of Arsace) also has several good recordings to her credit. The newcomer is soprano Catriona Smith, and she does well, she is a stylish belcanto singer with an interesting voice, much better than many in Opera Rara recordings.
The producer of this recording is none other than Michael Haas, a former opera producer for DECCA and other major labels (he produced Abbado´s Boris Godunov for SONY). I think he has a lot to do with this recording success.
Aureliano in Palmira was recorded in 2010 still with the generous money of the Peter Moores Foundation. Now that the subsidy is gone, Opera Rara needs to learn to make commercially viable recordings, and that means better cast recordings. Let´s hope they do.

[fergus]

Another Monday Mozart vinyl session....

[Jose Echenique]

Bernard Haitink has recorded 4 times the 4th Symphony, 3 times with the Concertgebouw and once with the Berlin Philharmonic. His earliest recording, with the exquisite Elly Ameling as soloist, was well liked in the early 70´s, a sweet, discrete interpretation. His second recording with the RCO was made in the mid 80´s with Roberta Alexander as soloist. It´s a more formidable performance, with the Concertgebouw in top form displaying super-virtuoso playing in every department. I´ll say it´s my favourite of the 4.
His 3rd recording with the BPO and Sylvia McNair as soloist is much less interesting, pleasant enough in it´s own right, but with all the formidable competition maybe just not good enough.
This latest live recording, with Haitink revisiting his former orchestra, is also a sweet, pastoral affair. Haitink understands what the symphony is about and can not be faulted, but others including Reiner, Szell, Karajan, Abbado and even Maazel and Salonen have found just a little more magic in the score.

[Seán]

This latest live recording, with Haitink revisiting his former orchestra, is also a sweet, pastoral affair. Haitink understands what the symphony is about and can not be faulted, but others including Reiner, Szell, Karajan, Abbado and even Maazel and Salonen have found just a little more magic in the score.

I like that CD but I do prefer other recordings in my collection: Szell, Reiner, Solti (Concertgebouw), Horenstein, Kubelik and perhaps even Paul Kletzki and von Karajan too. Mahler's Fourth seems to bring out the best in a large number of conductors. It's a lovely work.

[Jose Echenique]

Cecilia Bartoli would like us to believe that she is resurrecting late XVII Century composer Agostino Steffani (1654-1728), but the truth is that he is hardly an unknown quantity, I have at least 10 recordings totally dedicated to his music, including 2 operas (Alarico il Baltha and Orlando Generoso) and a beautiful religious music disc with the Neue Hofkapelle München.
In this recording Bartoli sings arias and a few duets with countertenor Philippe Jaroussky from several operas, including Alarico. What a pity that she didn´t include any of his duetti da camera, one of Steffani´s specialties, but some of them have been recorded with John Elwes, Carolyn Watkinson, Daniella Mazzucato and Paul Esswood for Archiv.
Bartoli sings Steffani with care and dedication. She lavishes her machine gun coloratura with generosity and abandon. I just wonder if her peculiar way with coloratura is right for Steffani. It´s hard to believe that it was done the same in Steffani´s and Rossini´s time.
Bartoli certainly knows who to work with, and this time she chooses the brilliant Swiss ensemble I Barocchisti and their conductor Diego Fasolis, excellent partners for the Italian diva.
At over 80 minutes the disc is generous. Bartoli fans will be pleased, she still sounds fresh and vital. Her detractors will also find plenty to hate: her obsession with milking everything till the last drop, her crooning, and that alarming coloratura, but hell, that´s Cecilia, take it or leave it.

[markof]

[DaveF]