Presto Editor's Choices,
Presto Editor's Choices - October 2017
It’s been an embarrassment of riches this month, but I’ve found myself returning time and again to two very different recitals from high tenors to dispel the October gloom – Juan Diego Flórez’s long-awaited Mozart album on Sony and Daniel Behle’s quirky and uninhibited Nostalgia, which pays tribute to the great German tenors of the 1950s and 60s who frequently ‘crossed over’ into operetta and other light music. There’s also a tense, thrillingly sung contemporary staging of Norma from Covent Garden (a welcome busman’s holiday for the Presto team, several of whom have been involved in a production of the work this month!) and a luminous collection of English part-songs from the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh which has been serving me as an aural comfort-blanket as the nights draw in…
Flórez has bided his time before tackling Mozart’s operatic heroes, and his awe and affection for them is palpable in every bar. His firm, bright tone shines especially brightly as Tito and Idomeneo (the latter’s Fuor del mar ornamented upward to incorporate a ringing top D!), and La Scintilla’s sparky and incisive playing is a constant delight.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Elgar: Falstaff, Orchestral Songs; Grania and Diarmid
Roderick Williams (baritone), BBC Philharmonic, Sir Andrew Davis
In the hands of Andrew Davis, the ‘fat knight’ springs to life in glorious technicolour. The spirit (and at times the melodies themselves!) of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches are firmly to the fore in the Funeral March from Grania and Diarmid and The King’s Way; Roderick Williams (always at his finest in English song) is on characteristically engaging and classy form in the latter.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 & Piano Concerto
Kirill Gerstein (piano), Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko
Both pianist and conductor are passionate advocates for Scriabin’s music, and their evident shared enthusiasm and chemistry is infectious. The final movement of the Symphony (which I’d have sworn was Elgar or Walton on listening ‘blind’!) is especially memorable, and the Oslo woodwinds in particular acquit themselves eloquently in both works.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Paganini 1 & Wolf–Ferrari Violin Concertos
Francesca Dego (violin), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Daniele Rustioni
Rachel Barton Pine’s recent collection of solo works was subtitled ‘Bel Canto Paganini’, and the moniker could just as easily be applied to the first work on this disc – Rustioni has impressive form in Italian opera, and it shows in the singing lines which he and his wife Francesca Dego sculpt from the First Concerto. The Wolf-Ferrari (captured here at its UK premiere) is a hugely attractive discovery.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This is a real box of delights: McCreesh and the Gabrielis neither short-change nor overegg the lavish bill of fare on offer, and the folkish charm of MacMillan’s The Gallant Weaver and Brigg Fair are especially well judged. Were there so much as a hint of cobwebs (there isn’t), the virtuoso performance of Who killed Cock-Robin would blow them away.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
There’s no danger of autopilot (from performers and listeners alike) right from the opening bars of this razor-sharp, high-energy Messiah, and not just because Niquet presents the 1754 revision of the score, with the allocation of arias differing from the standard version. Of the five soloists, tenor Rupert Charlesworth stands out with a vigorous, textually-alert account of ‘Comfort ye…Every Valley’.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
I can’t stop smiling at this slightly off-the-wall tribute to Fritz Wunderlich from a singer who shares his affinity for the elegance and sweep of Viennese operetta; the repertoire showcases Behle’s effortless high register and (in the aria from Lehár’s Giuditta) the more dramatic colours that have recently made him welcome at Bayreuth. The riotous ‘Chianti-Lied’ and Behle’s own witty pastiche ‘In Köln’ are a madcap delight.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Bellini: Norma (DVD)
Sonya Yoncheva (Norma), Joseph Calleja (Pollione), Sonia Ganassi (Adalgisa), Brindley Sherratt (Oroveso); Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano, Àlex Ollé (director)
The contemporary setting might strain at the edges in one or two places, but this 2016 production from Covent Garden crackles with musical and dramatic energy, thanks in no small part to the fearlessly committed performance of Sonya Yoncheva in the title-role and Antonio Pappano’s vigorous reading of the score. Joseph Calleja is magnetically odious as the Roman love-rat Pollione, and the zealous fervour of the ROH chorus is hair-raising.
Available Format: DVD Video
Bellini: Norma (Blu-ray)
Sonya Yoncheva (Norma), Joseph Calleja (Pollione), Sonia Ganassi (Adalgisa), Brindley Sherratt (Oroveso); Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano, Àlex Ollé (director)
The contemporary setting might strain at the edges in one or two places, but this 2016 production from Covent Garden crackles with musical and dramatic energy, thanks in no small part to the fearlessly committed performance of Sonya Yoncheva in the title-role and Antonio Pappano’s vigorous reading of the score. Joseph Calleja is magnetically odious as the Roman love-rat Pollione, and the zealous fervour of the ROH chorus is hair-raising.
Available Format: Blu-ray
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
