What better way for Masonic brothers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emmanuel Shikaneder to disseminate Masonic virtues, than through the most popular musical entertainment of their age, a happy ending folktale that features a dragon, enchanting flutes and bells, mixed-up parentage, and a beautiful young princess in distress?
Since its first performance at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo during Venice’s 1643 Carnevale, Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea has been one of the most important milestones in the genesis of modern opera despite its 250 years of unmerited obscurity.
Though 2013 is the bicentennial of the births of Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner, the releases of Cecilia Bartoli’s recording of Bellini’s Norma on DECCA, a new studio recording of Donizetti’s Caterina Cornaro from Opera Rara, and this première recording of Saverio Mercadante’s forgotten I due Figaro, suggest that this is the start of a summer of bel canto.
Recording Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen is for a record label equivalent to a climber reaching the summit of Mount Everest: it is the zenith from which a label surveys its position among its rivals and appreciates an achievement that can define its reputation for a generation.
Few people who love opera in general and bel canto in particular have never heard the comment made by Lilli Lehmann, veteran of the inaugural Ring at Bayreuth in 1876, that singing all three of Wagner’s Brünnhildes—in Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung, respectively, all of which she sang to great acclaim—pales in comparison with singing the title rôle in Bellini’s Norma.
Paul Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, first heard in 1907, once seemed important. Arturo Toscanini conducted the Met premiere in 1911 with Farrar and later arranged some of its music for a 1947 recording with his NBC Symphony.
The economics of the recording companies dictate much that is not ideal. Wagner’s operas were not composed as they were in order to permit the extraction of bleeding chunks, even on those occasions when strophic song forms do occur.
Among the recent recordings of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, Valery Gergiev’s release on the LSO Live label is an excellent addition to the discography of this work.
While not unknown, the songs of Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942) deserve to be heard more frequently.
Recorded on 5 and 6 May 2008 and 17 and 18 January 2009 at the Lisztzentrum (Raiding, Austria), this recent Bridge release makes available the piano-vocal versions of three song cycles by Gustav Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert-Lieder, and Kindertotenlieder performed by mezzo-soprano Hermine Haselböck, accompanied by Russell Ryan.
Contraltos rarely achieve the acclaim and renown of sopranos. Assigned few leading roles in opera, they are condemned to playing the villain or the grandmother, or to stealing the castrati’s trousers in en travesti roles.
Following their 2011 Decca recording of Striggio’s Mass in 40 Parts (1566), I Fagiolini continue their quest to unearth lost treasures of the High Renaissance and early Baroque, with this collection of world-premiere recordings, ‘reconstructions’ and ‘reconstitutions’ of music by Giovanni and Andrea Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Palestrina, and their less well-known compatriots Viadana, Barbarino and Soriano.
Eternal Echoes is an album of khazones [Jewish cantorial music] for cantorial soloist, solo violin and a blended instrumental ensemble comprising a small orchestra and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.
Michael Tilson Thomas’s recording of Mahler’s Third Symphony is an outstanding contribution to the composer’s discography.
Oliver Knussen burst into British music with an unprecedented flourish. In 1967, the London Symphony Orchestra premiered Knussen’s First Symphony, with István Kertész scheduled to conduct.
Based on performances given in Summer 2010 at the Lucerne Festival, this recording of Beethoven’s Fidelio is an admirable recording that captures the vitality of the work as conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) was one of the most popular composers of his day in Poland, and of the many works he wrote for the stage, two are performed from time to time, Halka (1848) and Strazny dwór [The Haunted Manor] (1865).
The Polish alto Jadwiga Rappé is a familiar voice in various stage and concert works, and the recent release of a selection of songs by Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) is an opportunity to hear her performing artsongs.
Originally released on multiple discs in 1981 this reissue on two CDs is a comprehensive collection of art songs by Italian and French composers from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
An exciting contribution to the discography of this popular opera, the live performance of Richard Strauss’s Salome from the Festspielhaus at Baden-Baden is a compelling DVD.
In spite of the religious warfare that consumed France during the second half of the sixteenth century (which claimed the life of one eminent Catholic composer, Antoine de Bertrand, who was murdered by Protestants)*, musical life continued unabated.
Claude Le Jeune, perhaps the most important of Protestant composers, lived to see the accession of Henri IV, a Protestant who abjured his religion and returned to the Catholic Church in order to become King (1593), but who managed to achieve a cease-fire between the sides with the Edict of Nantes, which allowed freedom of religion to the Protestants (1598). Le Jeune died at about seventy in 1600, and we are fortunate that, though politics prevented his works being printed during his lifetime, they were issued posthumously. Until recently few had been issued in modern editions (though I recall being entranced as a teen by his Te Deum, recorded in the Anthologie Sonore in the fifties).
Le Jeune's output reflects a wide variety of styles — the more traditional Parisian chanson, the settings of vers mésuré by the poet Baif, Protestant psalm settings, and even a substantial number of canzonettas to Italian texts (I have yet to see these last on disc). This is the third disc by the Ensemble Clément Janequin to mine this rich vein (the two previous devoted to chansons and sacred music respectively). The ECJ is one of our treasures, resuscitating a huge and fascinating repertoire in almost four (!!) decades of recordings, and it is to be expected that this collection is first-rate. The quibbler/curmudgeon in me just sees a few mis-steps here. I can't imagine that the arrangement of Laute joun (a rustic piece in Gascon dialect) reflects the original — it's just too folk. As I don't have access to the source, I can't nail this down in chapter and verse. Povre coeur, entourné de de passions, de tant de nouveautés, de tant de fictions makes ample reference to the musical novelties and musica ficta of Le Jeune's Italian contemporaries (Marenzio, Luzzaschi, Gesualdo). Unfortunately the busy lute added here confuses rather than clarifies the musical difficulties. This should be a cappella, and much more Italian in style — flexibility of rhythm, lingering over the chromaticisms. And finally, the booklet, though it has notes in French, English and German, gives the French texts, with no translations. Shame, shame, shame! I would not like to see this continue. Even Anglophones with some French may need help once in a while.
But these niggles are not enough to detract from your enjoyment of a well-programmed and beautifully sung recording of important repertoire, a worthy addition to the oeuvre of a fundamental ensemble. Warmly recommended.
Tom Moore
* Editor's Note: The Protestant composer, Claude Goudimel, was also a victim of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in August 1572. He is best known for his contributions to the so-called Geneva Psalter. See Paul-André Gaillard/Richard Freedman: 'Goudimel, Claude: Works', Grove Music Online.