Mstation Classical Reviews

Age of the Diva Albinoni Almost Christmas Arias, Hampson, Harnoncourt Bach Keyboard Concertos Bach Viola Bach, Barenboim Bach, Cantatas Bach, Concertos Bach, JS, Keyboard Works Bach, Mass in B Minor Bach, Mutter Bach, trio-sonatas Baroque Christmas Album Baroque Trumpet Bartok, Concertos Bartoli Bartoli, Opera Proibita Bax, Baroque Beethoven Piano Beethoven String Quartets Beethoven and Brahms Beethoven, piano Bella Donna: Courtly Love Belle Epoque Melodies Berlioz, Les Troyens Binchois, Dufay Boccherini, Cello Concertos Boxed Baroque Boyce, Eight Symphonies British Light Classics British Piano Concertos Brubeck, The Gates of Justice Bruch, Violin Concerto Callas Canteloube, Chants d'Auvergne Carols Chanticleer, Sound in Spirit Charpentier Charpentier, Lebegue Christmas 04 Christmas Vespers Contemporary and Medieval Copland Delius Der Rosenkavalier Dukachev - Beethoven, Prokofiev, Rachminov Elgar Elgar, Marches Elgar, The Enigma Variations Faure songs French Medieval Songs Fux Gounod, Faust Graham: Causon, Ravel, Debussy Great Ballets Grieg, Franck Handel Arias Handel, Deborah Handel, Messiah Handel, The Triumph ... Handel, Water Music DVD Hapsburg Music Haydn Haydn, Handel DVD's Herz Piano Jane Austen's Songbook Josefowicz Recital King's Singers La Fille Mal Gardee Lang Lang and Yo Yo Ma: Farewell Isabella and Chinese things Lauridsen Llibre Vermell Luci, Bartoli, and a dead diva Lully, Comedies-ballets, Phaeton Maerzmusik sampler Mahler Symphony No 7 Mahler, Berg Mantovani Matsudaira Medieval French Songs Mendelssohn Sacred Mendelssohn, Dvorak Messa di Gloria Michael Haydn Miles Davis ... sorta Monterverdi, Orfeo Monteverdi Vespers Monteverdi, Poppea Monteverdi, The Sacred Music 3 Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Handel Montiverdi Vespers Morricone Mozart Symphonies Mozart, Cosi fan tutte Mozart, Exsultate Jubilate Mozart, Mass in C Minor Mozart, symphonies 40, 41 Mozart: Die Zauberflote Mozart: the string quartets Mozrt Requiem Mutter Mozart New English Hymnal New RSS system and Feeds Nikolay Roslavets Peerson, Latin Motets Penguins March Pergolesi, La Serva Padrona Philip Glass, Symphonies 2 and 3 Poulenc concerto Proms Purcell - Dido and Aeneas Purcell Sonatas Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Rachmaninov, Piano Ramallah - Beethoven No. 5 Rameau, Les Paladins Reger, Bach and Telemann Variations Renaissance Organ Music Romantic Cello Concertos Romantic Violin Russian Album -Anna Netrebko Rutter Mass Sanctuary, the heart has its reasons Scarlatti, The complete Keyboard Sonatas Schubert and Mozart piano Schubert Ð Death and the Maiden Shostakovich Shostakovich and Schnittke, Cello Shostakovich/Josefowicz Sibelius String Quartets Sixteen: Ikon South American Baroque Stainer, The Crucifiction Sting does Dowland Strauss tone poem Takemitsu Tallis Tchaikovsky, Symphony No 5, Verdi, Sibelius The Kirov celebrates Nijinsky Toshiro Mayazumi Vaughan Williams Verdi View from a dark tunnel Virginal -Susann van Soldt Vivaldi Cello Vivaldi, Motezuma Vivaldi, Sacred Music Vivaldi: Dixit Dominus Von Otter Wagner, Das Rheingold Wagner, Gotterdammerung DVD Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks Weir, Gillian Weiss / Lindberg Lute Whitacre, Cloudburst Williams, Bingham: Mass von Weber, Chamber Music

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Handel Sara Mingardo with Concerto Italiano directed by Rinaldo Alessandrini With Monica Bacelli (mezzosoprano) Tarquinio Merula (c.1595-1665) Hor ch'e tempo di morire Giovanni Salvatore (1600-c.1688) Allor che Tirsi udia Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674) Deh, memoria, e che piu chiedi Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) Vorrei baciarti Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676) Erme e solighe cime Claudio Monteverdi Se i languidi miei sguardi Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690) Costei ch'in mezzo al volto scritt'ha il mio cor Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759) Lungi da me pensier tiranno Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Pianti, sospiri e dimandar mercede Recorded in the Sala Accademica del PIMS, Rome, Italy in January 2004 NAIVE OPUS111 OP 30395 [71.37] A pretty standard recital programme of Italian 17th and 18th century music accompanied by a highly polished small band of period instruments. So what's unusual about it? Legrenzi, Cavalli, Monteverdi, and the ubiquitous bit of Vivaldi. Nothing strange there. The striking thing about this recital is that it is sung by a woman. Early music may be full of famous pure-voiced women, but this programme is the repertoire of the countertenor, a voice that has become so ubiquitous as to be almost the defining characteristic of the "period instrument" school of performance. Sara Mingardo, however, is one of the very few true contraltos around these days and is reclaiming this repertoire from the Andreas Scholls, Robin Blazes and Rene Jacobses of the early music world. So does it work? Well, given that the texts being sung are all in Italian and of that manner of fairly execrable baroque love poetry of the "I die, I die, Amantis and Thyrsis in the meadows, Oh, love I am wounded by your dart" kind, an assessment can be made purely on the instrumental sound of Mingardo's voice. In which case the result is superlative. The reason Andreas Scholl became so popular was that he is a countertenor who avoids the grating or the hooty that afflicts that voice-type so readily. None of that in Mingardo who has real warmth and colour across her whole vocal range and a low register that is almost tenor-esque, with no apparent loss of control or power. Quite incredible really, and very much putting one in mind of the vocal quality of Kathleen Ferrier, but without the lack of control that singers explain away as being bel canto. Interesting repertoire throughout, with a particularly arresting opening track in which Merula weaves a good six minutes of gorgeous melody over a bass line that constantly repeats just two rising notes. This is positively hypnotic minimalism, and Mingardo wrings every drop of passion out of it. The one duet track, Vorrei baciarti by Monteverdi, with the mezzo Monica Bacelli provides a welcome variation in the texture, as does the superb violin playing of Concerto Italiano, judiciously used in a couple of tracks. One wonders slightly about the decision to add the cantatas by Handel and Vivaldi as the last 20 minutes. These are both fine works and show off Mingardo's ability with later Baroque repertoire, but the contrast of styles between the 17th and 18th centuries is not inconsiderable. From a programming point of view, there was a lot to be said for making the whole disc a collection of 17th century music. Certainly, anybody hearing this and then being given the opportunity to buy a follow-up disc of 18th century cantatas would be foolish to pass on the opportunity. Further, the 18th century repertoire is so vast and interesting that the inclusion of only two works does not scratch the surface. One would love to hear Mingardo in a disc of more Vivaldi, but paired with his contemporaries rather than his precursors. Vivaldi and Scarlatti make a disc on their own. Handel demands a disc of his own and this would be wonderful given performances like that here. The chosen format gives a bit the feel of a sampler disc, which was probably not the intended impression. Nonetheless, if you have not yet heard Sara Mingardo in early Italian repertoire now is your chance, and there is a strong recommendation to be made. Her voice reminds us of just how much we have begun to miss from the demise of the contralto voice. (c) 2005 Peter Wells [] permanent link