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Presto News - 26th November 2007Pacini and the importance of first performances |
 I have been doing some research this week into the performance history of Pacini's Alesandro nell'Indie - the reason being a new recording out in December on Opera Rara. Pacini was a composer of the Bel canto era (which I talked about last week in connection with Maria Malibran). Astonishingly it is believed that he wrote over 70 operas. Only a handful have ever been recorded so the appearance of a new one is something to shout about.  Pacini Furthermore, Alessandro nell'Indie was an important work for Pacini as it marked a turning point in his career. It was the first commission he received from the influential Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and the premiere in 1824 brought Pacini one of the most anxious evenings of his career. The audience sat on its hands, unwilling to approve or disapprove until it had heard the music a second time. Indeed, at the end of the evening the balance appeared to be dipping in the composer’s disfavour, for ill-suppressed hissing circulated around the auditorium. The eventual success was owing to the personal intervention of King Ferdinand IV at the second performance. He led the applause, so ensuring a triumph that led to a run of 70 consecutive performances and established Pacini as one of the city’s favourite composers. It seems amazing that Pacini's success was so dependent on the approval of just one man, and although he is not regarded in the top league of opera composers these days his influence on his contemporaries and those that followed him cannot be underestimated. Bellini for one described him as 'the composer with the most genius in Italy'. Of course a negative reaction at a premiere doesn't always spell disaster - Stravinsky's 1913 Rite of Spring premiere being the most famous example to contradict this - but equally there must be similar examples from other composers where a negative reaction at the premiere resulted in the work (and maybe also the composer) being long forgotten, and in some cases that initial reaction might now be considered incorrect. Those works might now be completely lost, or sitting in a library archive somewhere still waiting for re-discovery. The label Opera Rara does some remarkable work in this area, unearthing a series of treasures long since forgotten. In this case it was in the years after the premiere that the work was forgotten, but it is still fantastic to have the opportunity to hear it again. While it is not going to return to the repertoire in the same way that operas like Bellini’s Il pirata or Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda did when they were rediscovered in the 1950s and 60s it is still very enjoyable listening, particularly because of the very string cast superbly led by Bruce Ford and Jennifer Larmore.
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 Pacini: Alessandro nell’IndieBruce Ford, Jennifer Larmore, Laura Claycomb, Dean Robinson & Mark Wilde, London Philharmonic Orchestra & Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, David Parry |
Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
New Releases26th November 2007 |
This is just the pick of the recent releases. The New Releases and Future Releases pages are always available for browsing all the new and forthcoming releases. |
 Mieczyslaw Weinberg - Cello SonatasAlexander Chaushian (cello) & Yevgeny Sudbin (piano)Weinberg left an imposing body of symphonies and string quartets, as well as a number of sonatas. Three of these are recorded here, by young, award-winning cellist Alexander Chaushian, joined in the two accompanied sonatas by Yevgeny Sudbin at the piano. |
 Bach - Cantatas Volume 37Robin Blaze (counter-tenor), Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki SuzukiAmong some 200 extant cantatas by Bach's hand, there are only a few solo cantatas, written for one singer and orchestra. Gathered on this disc are three of these, all of them for alto, together with the aria Bekennen will ich seinen Namen (BWV 200), Robin Blaze’s performance of which together with the BCJ and Suzuki won much acclaim at the BBC Proms this year: 'The discovery of the evening was Blaze’s perfect little fragment of a solo cantata' The Times |
 Tanguy - Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2Anne Gastinel (cello), Orchestre National de France, Alain AltinogluÉric Tanguy (born in 1968) is a new name to me, but he was held in high esteem by Mstislav Rostropovich who, in 2001, gave the first performance of his Second Cello Concerto at the Flâneries Musicales in Rheims, and the following year took the same work to Boston and New York (Carnegie Hall), where he performed it with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa. |
 Monteverdi: Quinto libro dei madrigaliLa Venexiana, Claudio Cavina (director)According to Stefano Russomanno in his excellent notes for this collection, "Monteverdi's Fifth Book of Madrigals is a pivotal work.The door leading to drama and the representative style was now open. Monteverdi would not be long in crossing it: two years later, L'Orfeo would come to light." There is nobody better than La Venexiana to uncover the fascinating evolution of Italian music at one of its greatest moments. |
 La Pellegrina - Intermedii 1589By Luca Marenzio, Cristofano Malvezzi, Giulio Caccini, Jacopo Peri, Antonio Archilei, Emilio De' Cavalieri & Giovanni di BardiFlorence, 19 October 1587: Francesco de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany dies with his wife under suspicious circumstances. His brother Ferdinando inherits the title, leaves the monkhood for worldly aspirations including finding a wife. On 2 May 1589, he married Christine of Lorraine, granddaughter of Catherine de Medici, mother of the King of France. As was the custom at European courts, the wedding was accompanied with splendid festivities, each one outshining the last, to convey the image of the new monarchy. The highlight of the 1589 Medici festivities was the wedding-day performance of La Pellegrina. |
 Beethoven: String Quartets No. 1-6, Op. 18Tokyo String QuartetFreshly arrived in Vienna, Beethoven began systematically revisiting the current musical genres, starting with chamber music. The string quartet was naturally the keystone of this edifice. His first published works in the genre, the six Quartets Op. 18, confirmed his position as a powerful presence on the Viennese musical scene. Presented here as 2 CDs for the price of 1, this internationally renowned quartet provide a good value option to those without these works already in their collection. |
 Jan Lundgren - Magnum MysteriumJan Lundgren (keyboards) & Lars Danielsson (bass, cello), The Gustaf Sjökvist Chamber ChoirJan Lundgren explored the roots of Scandinavia’s rich folk heritage, the standards of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s music, before he assigned himself lessons in chamber-jazz. Magnum Mysterium, possibly his most ambitious project to date, is the 41 year-old’s take on classical music. European Renaissance sacred music by Orlando di Lassus and Claudio Monteverdi through to Cristobal de Morales and William Byrd supply the template for an impressive collaboration with Gustaf Sjökvist and his chamber choir – suitably recorded in the 'Storkyrkan', Stockholm’s cathedral during its unique evening mood. |
 Teresa Stich-RandallLive Recordings 1953-1959A very timely re-issue following the American Soprano's death earlier this year. Her legendary status dates back to Toscanini’s years with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, when the singer, still in her early twenties, began to conquer the world of opera. Throughout the '50s and '60s she was one of the world’s leading Mozartians, appearing in venues as diverse at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. In Vienna, where she was the first American singer to be awarded the title of Kammersängerin, she was not only a welcome guest singer on the stage of the State Opera, she also made regular recordings for Austrian Radio between 1953 and 1959 and it is those that appear here. |
 Maria Callas - The Complete Studio Recordings (1949-1969) DELUXE EDITIONA 70 CD set featuring everything Maria Callas ever recorded in the studio, including licensed and newly-remastered material.This is the ultimate Maria Callas box set. All of her studio recordings are lovingly presented in a beautiful Art Deco style wooden box containing glossy art prints, a comprehensive book guiding you through the EMI / Callas story and a numbered certificate of authenticity. Including rare and unseen pictures of Callas in the studio plus letters and documents following her recordings with EMI and her relationship with the company - particularly the long-suffering Walter Legge! Completely new notes have been provided by EMI’s Callas expert, Tony Locantro. A CDROM is included of all opera libretti. |
 BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 24th November 2007 |
Building a Library - Respighi: Pines of Rome |
 First Choicealso includes Roman Festivals and Fountains of RomeBoston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa |
CD of the Week |
 Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in Eb Major 'Romantic'Version 2, 1878-80Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado |
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