musicfreelance

Prima donna Giulia Frasi (1740-74) was well known to London’s concertgoers. 

Northern Irish mezzo-soprano Carolyn Dobbin has set herself the task of collecting and performing art song from her homeland, and here – aided and abetted by one of the most enthusiastically knowledgeable of today’s accompanists – presents a first selection on disc. 

Black is only one of the myriad colours on this inventive and absorbing collection. 

Victoria seems to have composed these works in Rome since they were published in 1585, two years before he returned to his native Spain. The texts come from services commemorating the dramatic events of Holy Week including that ‘dark’ (‘tenebrae’) period when Christ was ‘out of action’ between his crucifixion and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

The late 15th century musical scene on the continent was dominated by Josquin des Prez, Johannes Ockeghem and Jacob Obrecht (1457/8-1505). We hear quite a lot about the first two, but Obrecht seems to have had a problematic life and ended up dying of plague in Ferrara. Only a handful of his splendid works have been recorded before – and most on this disc are new to CD.

Hyperion added a ‘Bach in B minor’ to its catalogue as recently as 2014, and now here comes another – like Arcangelo’s, recorded after the experience of performing the work in concert. There the similarities end. Jonathan Cohen mustered a choir of 20.

Listening to the three cantatas on this disc, we are, as so often, almost overwhelmed by the diverse and colourful means by which Bach harnessed and deployed his compositional genius.

Although he met Michael, the most famous Praetorius of the age, Hieronymous was no relation, and worked for the most part in his home city of Hamburg where, in 1586, he eventually succeeded his father as organist of the illustrious Jacobikirche. Among

Hyperion added a ‘Bach in B minor’ to its catalogue as recently as 2014, and now here comes another – like Arcangelo’s, recorded after the experience of performing the work in concert. There the similarities end. Jonathan Cohen mustered a choir of 20.

Listening to the three cantatas on this disc, we are, as so often, almost overwhelmed by the diverse and colourful means by which Bach harnessed and deployed his compositional genius.

This is boys having fun. And the CD is at its best when the composer is having fun too. So Rolando Villazón and Ildar Abdrazakov make the most of Donizetti’s Act I duet from L’eslisir d’amore, with Villazón a plaintive love-sick Nemorino and Abdrazakov a snake-like Dulcamara.

Adriano Morselli’s tangled operatic plot knots together the passions, jealousies and cut-throat ambitions of three rivals with their sights on the Persian princess Statira – or, rather, on her dowry: the throne of Persia.

With a handful of exceptions, the operetta repertoire is eschewed by the bigger UK companies. This new recording of Lehár’s The Count of Luxembourg – which debuted in Vienna in 1909, but is heard here in the composer’s second version (1937) – derives from live performances at the Frankfurt Opera (2015-16). 

Jake Heggie’s works are consistently successful with American audiences, and his opera Dead Man Walking, his first collaboration with playwright Terrence McNally, more widely so. At 56 Heggie is the most prominent opera composer on the US scene. 

Il Prigioniero is Dallapiccola’s masterpiece – the work in which his musical language, his political engagement and his innate sense of theatre all came together in perfect harmony.

‘Journey to Mozart’, the latest of Daniel Hope’s theme-driven compilation albums, places at its centre Mozart’s Third Violin Concerto, K216, and his single- movement Adagio, K261.

When Schumann’s Etudes symphoniques appeared in print, in 1837, they bore a dedication to his English composer friend William Sterndale Bennett.

The centenary of Polish independence, which propelled Ignacy Jan Paderewski into highest political office, is inspiring something of a retrospective of his music. Polish National Opera will be putting on a major staging

Something seems missing from this account of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Joseph Moog’s opening flourishes are dry, and his Allegro non troppo carries no sense of emotional drive; his passagework lacks lyricism; the orchestral playing is efficient, but has no signposting to what should be the score’s moments of wonder.