Search
Special Offers
Awards
Online Payment
Visit us
Presto News - 10th September 2012Mozart’s Don Giovanni |
 Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s Mozart series certainly starts with a bang! From the searing, blunt opening chords of the overture (the allegro taken at a breathtaking lick), it’s clear that we’ll be meeting a libertine whose appeal centres on primal vitality rather than on suave charm – and when he eventually appears, Ildebrando d’Arcangelo’s virile, attractively rough-round-the-edges bass-baritone sounds better than ever before on disc.  It says much that he’s not upstaged by his very classy sidekick here: Luca Pisaroni’s recent Leporello at Glyndebourne was so effortlessly charismatic that he eclipsed even Gerald Finley as his master. Next to d’Arcangelo, he sounds like a younger and more vulnerable ‘wing-man’, but every scrap of humour, resentment, grudging admiration and fear comes across just as powerfully as before. (He also does such a convincing job of imitating Giovanni’s voice when seducing Donna Elvira that I had to check the booklet to make sure that it wasn’t actually d’Arcangelo singing!) The opera’s not short on terror even before the supernatural rears its head, and this has to be one of the most frightening Giovannis I’ve ever heard. The Commendatore’s death is shockingly, audibly brutal, with the horrified aftermath suggesting that both master and servant are aghast at what’s happened, and both Anna’s narration of her assault and Zerlina’s screams as she’s molested at the party are bone-chilling. Both the ‘Donnas’ are thrillingly sung, full of nuance and vocal drama that leaps out of the speakers: Joyce DiDonato conveys both Elvira’s fury and her fragility within the first minute of her music, whilst Diana Damrau’s Anna manages to sound both tangibly traumatised and technically impeccable throughout. She has a slimmer sound than many of her predecessors, but manages the relentlessly high tessitura without the slightest strain, even ornamenting up to a high D at the end of Or sai che l’onore where many other Annas begin to flag! She’s well contrasted with Elvira’s tart mezzo, and they blend beautifully in the ensembles (try the sublime ‘Mask-Trio’): again, the upper reaches of what’s usually considered a soprano role hold no terrors for DiDonato and as Nézet-Séguin includes the two arias written for the Vienna premiere we get to hear her in Mi tradi (taken down a semitone, as with many other mezzo Elviras). Reservations? Mojca Erdmann’s sweet-toned Zerlina sounds rather bland next to the crackling theatricality of the other two ladies (though the booklet informs us that she portrays the peasant-girl as a ‘thoroughly knowing young woman with no illusions’ this doesn’t exactly jump out from the recording), but for many the deciding factor will be Rolando Villazon’s Don Ottavio. The Mexican tenor is relatively new to Mozart and perhaps not everyone will take to his grainy, occasionally pressured timbre, but it’s an impassioned and red-blooded reading of a role that often goes for little and the two arias are wonderfully done. The series will feature him in all seven operas: I look forward to his Tito and Idomeneo immensely. This fabulous set isn’t the only Giovanni that’ll be coming our way this autumn. If you’re amenable to updated opera in translation (and reasonably broad-minded!) then you might want to look out for Juan, a 2010 film by Kaspar Holten, the new director of opera at Covent Garden. Christopher Maltman plays the anti-hero as a hedonistic experimental artist, with Holten taking inspiration from films such as The Bourne Trilogy and Traffic. And for Mozart-lovers with no room for another Giovanni in their collection, René Jacobs’s La Finta Giardiniera will be out on 1st October, presenting the ‘Prague’ version of the score from 1796. Re-orchestrated ‘to a very high standard’ (Jacobs) by an unknown hand to sound more like late Mozart, this is its first outing on disc and the recording boasts a stellar cast of Jacobs stalwarts. You can pre-order both these products via the links below: we have a video-trailer for Juan and sound-samples for Finta.
|
Share
|
 Mozart: Don Giovanni, K527Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Don Giovanni), Luca Pisaroni (Leporello), Diana Damrau (Donna Anna), Joyce DiDonato (Donna Elvira), Rolando Villazón (Don Ottavio), Mojca Erdmann (Zerlina), Konstantin Wolff (Masetto), Vitalij Kowaljow (Il Commendatore), Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin |
 Don Giovanni: A Film by Kaspar HoltenChristopher Maltman (Giovanni, aka Juan), Mikhail Petrenko (Leporello), Maria Bengtsson (Anna), Elizabeth Futral (Elvira), Katija Dragojevic (Zerlina), Peter Lodahl (Ottavio), Ludwig Bengtson Lindström (Masetto), Eric Halfvarson (Commendatore), Concerto Copenhagen, Lars Ulrik Mortensen (conductor) & Kaspar Holten (director) |
 Mozart: La finta giardiniera, K196Sophie Karthäuser (Sandrina/Violante), Jeremy Ovenden (Il Contino Belfiore), Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Arminda), Marie-Claude Chappuis (Ramiro), Sunhae Im (Serpetta), Michael Nagy (Nardo/Roberto), Freiburger Barockorchester, René Jacobs |
Katherine Cooper - katherine@prestoclassical.co.uk |
Listen - sound samples available for this item
Watch: A short video trailerNew Releases10th September 2012 |
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. |
 J S Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 & 2András Schiff (piano)As a young pianist, András Schiff earned wide esteem for his 1980s recordings of the major keyboard works of J S Bach; in recent years, as part of his long-term relationship with ECM, he has gone back to Bach as a sage veteran, earning more acclaim for his New Series recordings of the Goldberg Variations (2003) and the six Partitas (2009). Now, using his own Steinway, Schiff turns his focus to the 48 preludes and fugues of The Well-Tempered Clavier, making studio recordings in Lugano of both books for this 4-CD set. |
 The Romantic Violin Concerto 13 - SchumannAnthony Marwood (violin), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Douglas BoydHyperion is pleased to present a thirteenth volume of the Romantic Violin Concerto. Although frequently featuring virtuoso showpieces by the composer–violinists of the nineteenth century, this series also includes works of great musical interest which for one reason or another have not entered the repertoire. The performance history of all three pieces recorded here is indissolubly linked with the turmoil of Schumann’s last years. |
 Handel: Alessandro, HWV21Maxim Emmanuel Cencic (Alessandro), Karina Gauvin (Lisaura), Julia Lezhneva (Roxana), Xavier Sabata (Tassile), Juan Sancho (Leonato), Armonia Atenea, George PetrouHandel’s ninth major opera for London, Alessandro was written as a showcase for the ‘Rival Queens’, the two famous Italian sopranos – Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni – whose supposed enmity, both personal and professional, not only generated good publicity for Handel’s latest opera but also added extra dramatic frisson to the two divas’ jealous clashes on stage. |
 J S Bach: Organ Trio Sonatas (arranged for multiple instruments)Florilegium"The wealth of secular and sacred music Bach produced in his lifetime belies the fact that very few bona fide works for chamber ensemble exist (or survive). This prompted us, with a great sense of humility and deference towards the master, to increase our chamber repertoire with these beguiling gems." - Florilegium |
 Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir JurowskiThroughout his life, Tchaikovsky was preoccupied with the idea of Fate, describing it as ‘that fatal power which prevents one from attaining the goal of happiness’. This dark force haunts both the Fourth and Fifth symphonies, which each juxtapose some of Tchaikovsky’s most beautiful and graceful melodies with music of intense power and dark despair. Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski continues his journey through the composer’s six symphonies, leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra in these live concert recordings.
|
 Catel: SémiramisMaria Riccarda Wesseling (mezzo-soprano), Gabrielle Philiponet (soprano), Mathias Vidal (tenor), Nicolas Courjal (bass), Andrew Foster-Williams (bass) & Nicolas Maire (tenor), Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé NiquetFirst performed at the Paris Opéra in 1802, Sémiramis by Charles-Simon Catel is an example of the revival at that time of the tragédie lyrique inherited from Gluck. A work with a touch of exoticism (Babylon), expressing the pathos of isolation, but also with pomp in its ambitious finales, the work bade farewell to the ‘Louis-XVI style’ and announced, in a neo-Classical style, the grand opéra of the Romantic period.
|
 Josef Suk: Orchestral WorksBBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiří BělohlávekTwo symphonic poems by Suk are performed here by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Jiří Bělohlávek, who also brought us the highly acclaimed recording of the composer’s First Symphony and Ripening, which was Disc of the Month in the magazine BBC Music.
|
 Schubert: String Quintet in C major, D956Arcanto Quartet, Olivier Marron (2nd cello)The process of creating a quintet by adding a cello to the standard string quartet is always an act of some significance, whether the composer is Boccherini, Onslow, or Schubert. This is particularly true of Schubert’s Quintet op. posth. 163, for to the specific characteristics of an instrumental medium subtly weighted towards the bass it adds such mastery of form, so evident an orchestral element, such an overwhelming metaphysical dimension that it is now recognised as one of the supreme peaks of chamber music. |
Download - download options available for this itemYour details will be used only in accordance with our Privacy Policy. |
Copyright © 2002-13 Presto Classical Limited, all rights reserved.