Presto Editor's Choices,
Presto Editor's Choices - September 2023
Offenbach: La princesse de Trébizonde
Anne-Catherine Gillet (Zanetta), Virginie Verrez (Le Prince Raphael), Antoinette Dennefeld (Régina), Josh Lovell (Le Prince Casimir); London Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera Rara Chorus, Paul Daniel
Daniels and Co. really do capture all the fun of the fair on this irresistible opéra bouffe in which a disaffected prince apparently falls in love with a waxwork (an idea which the composer would revisit in Les contes d'Hoffmann) and a troop of entertainers discover that winning the lottery isn't all it's cracked up to be. Earworms abound, not least a galop barely less infectious than the Can-Can, a quintet celebrating the joys of plate-spinning, and a melancholy little waltz-aria lamenting the agony of tooth-ache.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The two concerti grossi crackle with energy, but it's in the solo concertos that the advertised virtuosity and poetry are really delivered with bells on: in the first movement of the eleventh concerto from L'Arte del Violino in particular, Faust serves up an array of stratospheric pyrotechnics that should by rights be unplayable as if they were the most natural thing in the world...and then repeats the feat in immaculate octaves. Astonishing stuff.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Weird, wonderful and often jaw-droppingly virtuosic, this collection of works commissioned and premiered by The King's Singers over the past five decades testifies to the group's versatility, sense of camaraderie and sheer technical panache: Ligeti's zany Nonsense Madrigals (setting excerpts of Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) are a particular joy, with other highlights including Malcolm Williamson's characterful setting of The Musicians of Bremen and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers’ dynamic, affecting Alive.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This is one of those special recordings where every single element just seems to align perfectly: Aimard is dazzling, energetic and rhythmically incisive without ever short-changing the lyricism of Bartók's music, and the San Francisco low brass and woodwind are on especially rip-roaring form. And the sound-quality is top-notch, too - a library choice, I reckon, for die-hard Bartók fans and newcomers alike.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Hough writes so idiomatically for voices, and Waldron's crack team of singers (the clear-toned but full-bodied sopranos on particularly impressive form) are evidently in their element throughout this lovely programme of sacred music, centring on the Missa Mirabilis which was completed in the aftermath of a serious car-accident involving the composer. And the fresh-sounding settings of Ding Dong Merrily on High, Silent Night and Hark, the Herald Angels Sing are well worth investigating for any choirs looking for a new twist on the familiar this Christmas...
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Menezes's deftly-arranged suite from Villa-Lobos's Amazônia (itself an expansion of his score for the film Green Mansions) shaves thirty minutes off the 80-minute original, but without compromising the epic sweep of a piece which depicts the Amazon rainforest in all its vibrant glory, with echoes of The Rite of Spring and Golden-Age Hollywood along the way; Provenzale is beguiling in the 'Veleros', which harks back to the popular fifth movement of the composer's Bachianas Brasileiras.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Ethel Smyth: Der Wald
Natalya Romaniw (Röschen), Claire Barnett-Jones (Iolanthe), Robert Murray (Heinrich), Andrew Shore (A Peddler), Morgan Pearse (Count Rudolf), Matthew Brook (Peter); BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, John Andrews
Andrews and a fearlessly committed cast make a great case for Smyth's dark and intensely dramatic one-act opera, premiered in Berlin in 1902 and subsequently performed at the Met and Covent Garden: there's plenty to appeal to fans of Rusalka, Hänsel und Gretel and Lohengrin, but Smyth's own distinctive voice shines through and the impetus never flags. Barnett-Jones and Romaniw rise to the considerable challenges of their roles with real firepower and immaculate diction, even in the most taxing passages.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Purcell: Dido & Aeneas
Fleur Barron (Dido), Matthew Brook (Aeneas), Giulia Semenzato (Belinda), Avery Amereau (Sorceress), Tim Mead (Spirit), Nicky Spence (Sailor), Hilary Cronin (Second Woman), Helen Charlston, Martha McLorinan (Witches); La Nuova Musica, David Bates
Full-fat voices and a richly varied continuo team bring Purcell's opera vividly to life, with Barron and Brook (both darker of voice than one usually hears in these roles) really striking sparks off one another, and the young American contralto Avery Amereau unleashing her formidable chest-voice to lacerating effect as their supernatural antagonist. The supporting roles are all brilliantly taken, with Nicky Spence having a ball as a properly lusty Sailor, and Tim Mead making much of the Spirit's ethereal summons.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
