What are you listening to?

[Seán]

Today I played one of those extremely rare and hard to get recordings that I treasure: Donizetti´s La Favorite in the original French. It´s a live recording from the Donizetti Bergamo Festival issued on the Ricordi label. It is so rare that I couldn´t find a single cover picture, so you see tenor Luca Canonici. This tenor had a truly lovely voice, but suffered paralyzing stage fright that prevented him from having the huge international career that he deserved. Some of you may remember him as the tenor in Gardiner´s glorious Verdi Requiem.

Pepe, it had never occurred to me that a singer could suffer so severely from stage fright that it would actually blight his career, that is terrible, Canonici is blessed with a pleasant appearance too, what a great pity!

[Jose Echenique]

Oh yes, and unfortunately it´s not uncommon. The great Franco Corelli also suffered from that and cut his career short when he still had an amazing voice. The same happened to Giacomo Aragall, a contemporary of Pavarotti who also had a God given voice. He can be heard in Sutherland´s recording of Lucrezia Borgia. But Canonici had the shortest career of all. As I write I´m listening to him sing the big aria "Ange si pur" and he receives a hysterical ovation, much deserved of course. If he had the voice, the looks, and the adoring fans, it´s hard to understand WHY he was so insecure, but if I have learned anything in life is just how fragile we are...

[Jose Echenique]

Oh, and I just remembered that Canonici can be seen but not heard in Luigi Comencini´s mid 80´s film of Puccini´s La Boheme. What happened was that Jose Carreras was scheduled to play Rodolfo, but fell ill with leukemia and had to cancel. It was agreed that they would keep his voice in the soundtrack which had already been recorded and another tenor was hired to mimic the part on screen. The young Luca Canonici got the job.

[jaybee]

I don't know how good a version this is, but the music is wonderful....

[Jared]

Beethoven:
Symph No.6
Boult/ BBC Symph
Live (Proms 1972)

[Jared]

I don't know how good a version this is, but the music is wonderful....

JB, both Bruch and Brahms VCs are so well loved and frequently recorded that if everyone were to chip in, you'd get easily get 15-20 'must-have' recommendations, so I will resist the urge.

What I would say is that Bruch wrote 3 VCs, of which only his 1st (along perhaps with his Scottish Fantasy) are usually played, primarily because 2 and 3 aren't considered to be enough of a technical challenge to the soloist. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be heard, because I think they are both beautiful works in their own right; especially No.3.

On that basis, I would recommend that you owned the very servicable disks by Accardo of his complete works for violin & orchestra:

[Jared]

Beethoven:
Violin Concerto
Yehudi Menuhin
BBC Scottish Orch
Ian Whyte
(Edinburgh Festival, 1948)

[fergus]

I don't know how good a version this is, but the music is wonderful....

That is the most important point Johnny!

[Jose Echenique]

Today is Mozart´s birthday, and what better way to celebrate than with Joyce DiDonato and Frans Brüggen.

[Jared]

Beethoven:
Piano Trio op.1 no.2
Gould Piano Trio