SACDs - Donizetti

“The recording is worth owning for Beczala’s classy singing as Edgardo, the only paragon here. The Polish tenor’s gleaming, if not Italianate, tone, superb diction and shapely phrasing are the set’s most consistent pleasures.” Sunday Times, 17th July 2011 **

“Here’s a Valery Gergiev recording in which, for once, the febrile maestro isn’t centre stage. This is all about Natalie Dessay’s performance as poor deluded Lucy. And if you thrill to the French soprano’s hypercharged, histrionic and occasionally wayward delivery of Donizetti’s mad scene, you will forgive the ebullient but sometimes rough-edged playing of the Mariinsky Orchestra...Top singing from Vladislav Sulimsky as Enrico.” The Times, 16th July 2011 ****

“there is something distinctively Russian about this Lammermoor. All those Italian melodies flow beautifully...But there is a sense of drive and purpose about this performance that seems, to me at least, distinctively Slavic...Dessay structures [the Mad Scene] well, always saving something in reserve for the build-ups and outbursts. Some excellent glass harmonica playing from Sascha Reckert...An intense but satisfying experience.” Classical Review, July 2011

“Here is a Lucia to match Callas or Sutherland. Natalie Dessay’s light soprano gives a vivid impression of Lucia’s vulnerable personality. The Mad Scene is enthralling. Piotr Beczala is a gloriously virile Edgardo, and the Italian style of the Russian cast more than acceptable. With Valery Gergiev a surprisingly sensitive conductor, this is a top-rank recording of a marvellous opera.” The Telegraph, 4th August 2011 *****

“Gergiev drives it hard, admirably sustaining an atmosphere of tremendous neurotic tension throughout...Piotr Beczala's Edgardo is stylish and impulsive, if occasionally effortful.” The Guardian, 11th August 2011 ***

“how authentic a Donizettian can [Gergiev] be? The basic answer is that the tinta he establishes for the work - a dark sound with good forward winds and present brass...creates real atmosphere...this is a neurotic, depressed Donizetti, surely right for this story. If this is not always Italian slancio, it certainly has its own mood and lift...It is also sensitive to dynamic markings: this is rarely a loud experience.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2011

“Everything Dessay does is lovely, but there is a lack of the desperation which should pervade the role...[Beczala is] actually more moving and Italianate than Dessay. Still, as post-Maria Callas Lucias go, this is one of the best.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 ****

“we can once again relish Dessay's extraordinary command of staccatos, her flexibility (the rapid scales in the Mad Scene cabaletta are stunning) and that uniquely pearly timbre...Finally, and most importantly, she phrases at all times with the sensitivity we have come to expect of her...Beczala, with his gleaming, immaculately centred tone and unfailing sincerity of address, stands comparison with any other recorded Edgardo.” International Record Review, September 2011

“[This recording's] strengths lie in powerhouse performances from James Westman as Bonifacio and Massimo Giordano as Imelda's appalling brother Lamberto. Nicole Cabell's Imelda, though exquisite, seems disengaged in comparison. Mark Elder's conducting is wonderfully insistent, while the dark, period sound of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment adds immeasurably to the oppressive atmosphere of it all.” The Guardian, 18th April 2008 ****

“Few sopranos sing bel canto with the natural beauty she supplies.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2006

“A delightful disc from one of the most stylish of today's crop of tenors.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2005

“The most charismatic and technically accomplished tenor of our time” Sunday Times