SACDs - Massenet

Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto is one of the most sought-after interpreters of French, Italian and Russian repertoire.

Here he joins Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky orchestra for a sumptuous recording of Massenet’s final great opera. Gergiev is no stranger to conducting Massenet, having recorded an outstanding performance of 'Hérodiade' in 1995 with Renée Fleming and Placido Domingo.

'Don Quichotte', Massenet’s comédie-héroïque, is a tale of heroism, adventure and unrequited love. The plot relates only indirectly to the great novel by Miguel de Cervantes and more likely refers to the play Le chevalier de la longue figure, by the poet Jacques Le Lorrain. Massenet, nearing the end of his career, probably identified with the character of Don Quichotte, and fell in love with the mezzo-soprano Lucy Arbell, who played Dulcinée in the first performance of the work.

Praised for his vast range, thundering vocal power, and exceptional acting ability, Ferruccio Furlanetto has performed at the world’s leading opera houses, including La Scala, the Royal Opera House, the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. His 2011-12 season is dominated by performances of 'Boris Godunov' with the Chicago Lyric Opera, Vienna Staatsoper and the Teatro Massimo (Palermo). Furlanetto will also sing Méphistophélès in Gounod’s 'Faust', Don Basilio in 'Il Barbiere di Siviglia' and Silva in 'Ernani' at the Met.

Mezzo-soprano Anna Kiknadze is a principal soloist of the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg. Highlights of her early career include being a finalist at the 2001 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, 2002 Placido Domingo Operalia Competition in Paris and the International Rimsky-Korsakov Competition in St. Petersburg.

The exclusive Chandos artist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is a master of this repertoire. This is his second concerto recording for the label, after his survey of the complete piano concertos by Bartók (CHAN10610) which was released in September to high acclaim and voted ‘Orchestral Choice of the Month’ by the magazine BBC Music. Bavouzet’s complete recording of the piano music by Debussy also scooped awards from BBC Music and Gramophone, which wrote: ‘This could well be the finest and most challenging of all Debussy piano cycles.’ On this new release, Bavouzet is accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Yan Pascal Tortelier, a conductor steeped in the French tradition and utterly at home in this repertoire. The result is a totally idiomatic performance of these French masterpieces for piano and orchestra.

Ravel’s light and brilliant Piano Concerto in G major is the intriguing result of a merging of classical models with the idioms and harmonies found in the popular jazz music of his day. At the time of composing this concerto, Ravel had just returned from his travels in the USA and the work is heavily influenced by the jazz music that he encountered there. However, in the second movement Mozart takes precedence, the piano’s theme closely modelled on the slow movement of his Clarinet Quintet; and Saint-Saëns’s sparkling semi-quavers fill the finale. The first performance of this work, given by Marguerite Long in Paris, was a great success, as was the European tour that followed. Another central piece is Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. The work was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, a concert pianist who had lost his right arm during the First World War. Although at first Wittgenstein did not take to its jazz-influenced rhythms and harmonies, he grew to like the piece. Speaking of the Concerto, Ravel said that he had been determined to make it sound ‘no thinner’ than one for both hands and noted that in the middle of the piece ‘innumerable rhythmic patterns are introduced which become increasingly compact’ and that ‘this pulsation increases in intensity and frequency’ before the various elements ‘contend with one another until they are brusquely interrupted by a brutal conclusion’.

Also featured on this disc is Debussy’s Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra. Debussy was a highly self-critical composer and disowned or withdrew several of his early works; this piece was one of them. It was composed in 1889 – 90, and its premiere was scheduled, under Vincent d’Indy, almost as soon as the score was completed, but withdrawn by Debussy just as it was being put into rehearsal. The first performance did not take place until after Debussy’s death in 1918. Although the Fantaisie is the lone piano concerto by a composer regarded as one of the greatest among those who wrote for the piano, it remains one of Debussy's least frequently performed works even now. The work shows the influences of Fauré and Franck, and the piano does not figure as a solo instrument in the conventional concerto sense but rather as an equal partner with the orchestra, although the conventional three movements are still present.

Completing the disc in a unique manner are six pieces for solo piano by Massenet. Most famous for his operas and suites for orchestra, Massenet wrote a quantity of very charming piano pieces, of which Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has selected some of the best. The music is typical of its composer – highly tuneful, richly textured, and utterly compelling – and conjures an atmosphere which only a Frenchman could achieve.

The music selected by Tina Chen and Hannibal for this recital is the soundtrack for a day dream, or the twilight accompaniment for a romantic dinner. The emphasis is on Melody – beautiful, finely arched musical lines that reach beyond the pressures of everyday life and transport you, to a quiet realm of song, warmly and realistically recorded in SACD, Super Audio Sound!

This recording also marks the CD debut of the charismatic, young concert violinist , Chen Yi, was the Gold Medal winner at the China International Violin competition (2008). As part of the Mendelssohn Bicentennial Celebrations, Ms. Chen was invited to perform the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in Beijing’s new National Center for the Performing Arts. In 2010 she will perform the Nielsen Violin Concerto as part of the Danish Gala Concert in EXPO in Shanghai. This major event marks artistic dialogue between Denmark and China.