Conductor Alberto Veronesi’s inspiration to celebrate Leoncavallo’s work results in a revelatory recording by uniting Plácido Domingo, the world’s most celebrated living tenor, with virtuoso pianist Lang Lang.
A relatively unknown masterwork recounting the passionate vis-à-vis of a poet with his muse, La Nuit de Mai is a romantic symphonic piece for tenor based on Musset’s poem of the same name. Plácido Domingo’s emotion laden tenor negotiates La Nuit’s lyric and dramatic demands with characteristic impact and bravura.
Suavely accompanying Plácido Domingo in a selection of short songs, Lang Lang concludes this novel album with two dazzling solo piano pieces.
“Domingo, still amazingly ringing, sings French more naturally than some languages...while Lang Lang's fluent touch makes the piano solos and accompaniments very pleasant...Orchestra and conductor are suitably idiomatic.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2010 ****
“We owe [La Nuit de Mai's] rediscovery, one suspects, to Plácido Domingo's willingness to sing it, which he does with intensity and with a voice that is still in terrific shape. The real heroes, however, are Alberto Veronesi and his virtuoso Bologna-based orchestra, who have the lion's share of the proceedings.” The Guardian, 13th May 2010 ***
“Relatively old Domingo sings with the voice of the young poet and really does love it! This is an astonishing performance, even for him...He can still sing with the fervour of youth but also with its flexibility, its ease and grace of movement. And, typically, he demonstrates all of this in something new.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010
Gramophone Magazine