Piotr Beczala

The Mariinsky label’s opera recordings have garnered acclaim and awards from around the world, most recently for Valery Gergiev’s recording of Parsifal released in 2010. For the label’s fifth opera, Gergiev conducts Donizetti’s masterpiece with a magnificent cast led by Natalie Dessay.

Natalie Dessay is one of the world’s most sought-after sopranos and an admired interpreter of lyric heroines. She is particularly renowned for her interpretation of the role of Lucia, which she has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House and the Mariinsky Theatre. Future engagements include Verdi’s La Traviata with the LSO at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July and at the Vienna State Opera in October.

Piotr Beczala is rapidly establishing a reputation as one of today’s leading lyric tenors. He has recently sung Edgardo at the Met and on tour in Japan, and this summer will perform at the Bavarian State Opera and Salzburg Festival.

Valery Gergiev recently won the Disc of the Year Award from BBC Music Magazine for his LSO Live recording of Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet. In July, Gergiev will conduct the Mariinsky Ballet at New York Metropolitan Opera and in August he conducts at the Edinburgh Festival and BBC Proms with the Mariinsky Orchestra before opening the LSO’s 2011-12 concert season.

In October he embarks on a major tour of the USA and Canada with the Mariinsky Orchestra, including residencies at Carnegie Hall and Berkeley. Forthcoming releases include the final instalment in his Mahler cycle on LSO Live featuring Symphony No 9 and the Mariinsky label’s first DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs.

Natalie Dessay appears courtesy of Virgin Classics.

Piotr Beczała has enjoyed success at all the great opera houses of the world. He also excels in the Slavic repertoire, which may be less than familiar to the box office but worthy of recognition, especially with such a voice possessed by this Polish tenor. Notable successes have been Beczała’s sell-out performances as the Prince in Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Salzburg Festival and as Lenski in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Met, Covent Garden and elsewhere. Beczała’s recital here includes highlights from the aforementioned works, but he also offers proof of the rich possibilities that this repertoire offers for a tenor to display both vocal grace and melancholy.

It was in Warsaw that many of the operas were premièred, such as The Haunted Manor, The Raftsman and Halka by Stanisław Moniuszko. He was one of the driving forces behind the patriotic opera aesthetic of the newly founded national states in 19th century Europe, an aesthetic not just restricted to Poland. These three operas offer intense scenes of reminiscence and contemplation for their tenor protagonists, and they are joined here by the later, almost verismo operas Janek and The Baltic legend. Prince Igor is more familiar in the west, so it is fitting that Beczała here reminds us once more of the qualities of Vladimir’s romance from it. The musical spectrum is completed by examples of exoticism and local colour with excerpts from Sadko (in two different orchestrations), May Night, Aleko and Arensky’s Raphael. This is a solo programme from one of the great tenors of our time, as varied as it is rich in discoveries.

When this recording was made in 1996, Piotr Beczala was beginning his career. Since then, he has become one of the world’s most sought-after lyrical tenors. This recording has been made available again at a budget price.

Acclaimed Polish-born tenor Piotr Beczala pays tribute to the Austrian singer Richard Tauber (1891–1948), one of the most widely celebrated musical celebrities of his time. Recognized by many as one of the greatest tenors in the world, Piotr is regularly praised for his artistry, immaculate musicianship, keen interpretive intelligence, and flawless, elegant delivery. A perfectly cultivated and stylish singer, he is currently at the pinnacle of his career

A prominent exponent of popular song and operetta, Tauber’s career is closely associated with operetta’s golden age in pre-war Europe

In this recording Beczala shares his deeply honed affinity for this timeless, eternally popular music – a delightful recital of operetta favourites by Lehár, Kálmán, Robert Stolz, Johann Strauss II, among others – and continues the tradition set forth by legendary predecessors like Fritz Wunderlich and Nicolai Gedda

Features special guest appearances from Anna Netrebko (“Lippen schweigen”), The Berlin Comedian Harmonists, Avi Avital, Austrian soprano Daniela Fally and a unique “duet” with Richard Tauber himself, using special 21st century technology and a recorded master from 1934.