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Presto News - 11th July 2011Rossini’s William Tell |
 The 2011 BBC Proms get under way this Friday and one of the early season highlights for me is a concert performance of Rossini’s William Tell with Antonio Pappano and his Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Rome. By strange coincidence (actually clever timing from EMI), a CD taken from the live performances in Rome last autumn is being released today, and with Canadian baritone Gerald Finley leading a stellar international cast it looks set to put Rossini’s grandest opera firmly back on the map.  Antonio Pappano The Overture is of course well known, and even prompted CBS News anchor Dan Rather to use it to identify an intellectual snob – “someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger”! But beyond the Overture, the rest of the opera is very rarely performed, and compared to other operas there are relatively few recordings in the catalogue. This new one then is particularly welcome. Composed in 1829, William Tell is hugely important both historically and musicologically speaking as it really established the structure of grand opera, and with extravagant vocal demands and its epic scale, its influence can be clearly seen in the works of Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Meyerbeer and numerous others. The original French libretto is derived from Schiller’s verse drama Wilhelm Tell, and depicts the eponymous 13th-century folk hero whose courage and brave deeds (the most famous of which was shooting an apple off his son’s head with a bow and arrow) influenced an uprising that brought the Swiss independence from the Hapsburg dynasty. One of the main challenges of this opera is casting it. As Pappano notes in the booklet: “William Tell has a famously impossible tenor part”. The role of Arnold is incredibly high and there are very few singers who can even get near it. Here, American tenor John Osborne reaches the stratospheric top notes with apparent ease and his voice has a natural bloom and sweetness which suits this music very well. The role of the heroine Mathilde is almost as taxing, with the coloratura, lyrical and dramatic demands all considerable. Swedish soprano Malin Byström sings the role beautifully with a rich and expressive tone. Meanwhile Gerald Finley brings his imperious baritone voice to the title role. As usual he sings with total commitment and along with the rest of the cast presents a compelling case for this opera. Antonio Pappano says he agreed to conduct William Tell without really knowing it, and initially wondered what he might have had got himself into, but he has clearly been completely won over by the very high quality of this neglected opera. Dramatically it is quite slow moving, but he keeps the tension high throughout. As the Financial Times noted after the live performance: ”The orchestra is fleet and wonderfully together, with crunch, buoyancy, a keen sense of collective phrasing, and its own very distinctive sound.” I would add that the chorus are equally impressive with some really powerful and telling contributions. I found it completely absorbing from beginning to end and thoroughly recommend it. There is a very short video trailer as well as the now customary sound samples via the links below, and do look out for the Proms broadcast on Radio 3 on Saturday with an almost identical cast to this recording. A couple of other things worth mentioning this week: Firstly we have our usual Proms page now live on the website. Here you can easily find and browse recordings of the works being played at this year’s festival and see any specific discs which either through the artists, the repertoire or both are particularly relevant to each concert; and secondly if you like your opera we have recently launched our Summer Opera Sale which with nearly 1,000 discs included is by some distance the biggest opera sale we’ve ever run. Enjoy!
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 Rossini: Guillaume Tell (William Tell)Gerald Finley (Guillaume Tell), John Osborn (Arnaud), Malin Byström (Mathilde), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Hedwige), Matthew Rose (Walter Furst), Orchestra e coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano |
Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
Watch: A short video trailer
Listen - sound samples available for this itemNew Releases11th July 2011 |
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. |
 Martinu: Symphonies Nos. 1-6BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiří BělohlávekRecorded live at the Barbican in London, these recordings represent the first complete CD cycle of Martinu’s symphonies conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek. The critically acclaimed concerts were given to mark the 50th anniversary of Martinu’s death in 1959. |
 Czech Music for StringsJanáček Chamber OrchestraThis recording presents music by the Czech composers Janáček, Martinů, and Haas, all of whom were prominent figures in their country’s musical history during the early twentieth century. The works are performed by the Janáček Chamber Orchestra, which has won awards for their interpretations of Czech music. |
 Beyond all mortal dreamsTrinity College Choir Cambridge, Stephen LaytonRecently named in Gramophone as the ‘fifth best choir in the world’, Stephen Layton and his acclaimed Trinity College Choir perform a stunning disc of American a cappella choral works. The recording is a showcase of little-known American composers unearthed by Layton during his travels. These distinctive and luminous compositions illustrate the context in which better-known composers such as Lauridsen and Whitacre – already championed by Layton – learned their craft. |
 Rautavaara: Works for Violin and PianoPekka Kuusisto (violin) & Paavali Jumppanen (piano)This new recording features the complete works for violin and piano by iconic Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautaavara (b. 1928), including world premières. This CD also includes Rautavaara's opus 1, the piano suite Pelimannit (The Fiddlers), which is based on traditional polska tunes for the fiddle. Following Pekka Kuusisto's concept, this recording presents the original violin tunes, alternating with the respective movements from Rautavaara's piano suite. |
 Zemlinsky: Early Chamber MusicZemlinsky Quartet & Prazak QuartetInfluenced by Brahms, as were Korngold and the young Schoenberg, Zemlinsky’s early works include this short (unfinished?) and stunning masterpiece of chamber music with voice on the first twenty lines of a morbid, mystical poem by Richard Dehmel. It was probably written shortly before Transfigured Night, Schoenberg's famous sextet, and in less than eight minutes reaches emotional incandescence… We owe the resurrection of these youthful scores by Zemlinsky, to musicologist Antony Beaumont. |
 Borodin: Symphonies Nos. 1-3Seattle Symphony, Gerard SchwarzA new recording of key Russian Romantic repertoire, Borodin’s symphonies exude lyricism and panache. The First took five years to complete but is a work of seamless melodic invention owing something to Mendelssohn, whose influence infuses it with delicious lightness. The Second Symphony is a more explicitly Russian work, pulsing with festive and march-like elements, high-spirited and boldly nationalistic. The Third was left incomplete, and was reconstructed and orchestrated by Glazunov with considerable facility and imagination. |
 Telemann: Quatuors Parisiens Volumes 2 & 3John Holloway (violin), Linde Brunmayr (transverse flute), Lorenz Duftschmid (viola da gamba), Ulrike Becker (violoncello) & Lars-Ulrik Mortensen (harpsichord)Telemann wrote the twelve Paris Quartets whilst living in the eponymous city in the winter of 1737-38. These quartets represent the very best of Telemann’s chamber music: refined, richly varied and full of imagination. |
 Vivaldi: Motezuma - DVDVito Priante (Motezuma), Mary-Ellen Nesi (Mitrena), Laura Cherici (Teutile), Franziska Gottwald (Fernando Cortés), Theodora Baka (Ramiro) & Gemma Bertagnolli (Asprano), Il Complesso Barocco, Alan Curtis (conductor) & Stefano Vizioli (director)Motezuma is Vivaldi’s only opera set in the New World. The manuscripts for this rarely performed and rarely heard opera were only rediscovered in 2002 and currently only one CD version exists recorded by Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco. Of the CD recording, BBC Music Magazine wrote: “The instrumentalists of Il Complesso Barocco are on excellent form as indeed is Vivaldi himself in a rewarding score”. Alan Curtis, one of the leading experts of Baroque music, returns again with the same orchestra, renowned Baroque specialist Vito Priante and another expert cast for the World Premiere Recording on DVD. |
 BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 9th July 2011 |
Building a Library - Bizet: L’Arlesienne Suites 1 & 2 |
 First ChoiceLondon Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado |
Disc of the Week |
 Schubert: Symphony No. 9Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer |
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