Mozart: Idomeneo

This latest in the series of live performances from Glyndebourne’s archives has presumably been issued due to the presence of two singers who were barely known in 1964, but quickly became big names. Gundula Janowitz as Ilia already shows her artistry fully formed, displaying a kind of generalised loveliness that made her many fans, though some people wished she would use her voice more expressively instead of cultivating tone.

Our rating

3

Michael Beek

Published: January 20, 2012 at 4:30 pm

COMPOSERS: Mozart
LABELS: Glyndebourne
WORKS: Idomeneo
PERFORMER: Gundula Janowitz, Luciano Pavarotti, Neilson Taylor, Enriqueta Tarrés, Richard Lewis, Dennis Wicks; Glyndebourne Chorus; London PO/John Pritchard
CATALOGUE NO: GFOCD 006-64

This latest in the series of live performances from Glyndebourne’s archives has presumably been issued due to the presence of two singers who were barely known in 1964, but quickly became big names. Gundula Janowitz as Ilia already shows her artistry fully formed, displaying a kind of generalised loveliness that made her many fans, though some people wished she would use her voice more expressively instead of cultivating tone.

More spectacularly, I suppose, there is Luciano Pavarotti, here showing great security of technique, even if it sounds as if he would rather be singing 19th-century Italian opera. He went on singing in this opera, moving from Idamante, which is now usually sung by a mezzo, to his father Idomeneo, which he recorded, also with John Pritchard.

They were his only Mozart roles, and one sees – or hears – why. Actually the most characterful and attractive singing on this recording comes from Richard Lewis in the title role. A singer of great versatility and with a most appealing voice, he has been scandalously under-rated and this is a fitting tribute to him at his peak.

Idomeneo was still, in 1964, a comparatively little-performed opera, and there are innumerable cuts, from whole arias to segments of recitative and ensemble. Having endured the longueurs of Glyndebourne’s every-last-note production of 2003, I find them welcome. Michael Tanner

Reviews Editor, BBC Music Magazine

Michael is the Reviews Editor of BBC Music Magazine. He looks after the 26 pages of recording and book reviews in the magazine each month, deciding what will be reviewed – no easy task with so much being sent in for consideration! Michael joined the team in 2018, following ten years as a freelance film music journalist and fifteen years at St George's Bristol. Film and television music is his favourite thing, and when he’s not listening to things to be reviewed in the mag, Michael loves nothing more than to listen to the music of John Williams and James Horner – his favourite film composers. He was the Editor of MusicfromtheMovies.com and has written for the BBC Proms, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall, Hollywood in Vienna and Silva Screen Records. His favourite writing gigs so far have been programmes for each of the Doctor Who Proms, soundtrack album notes for Doctor Who – Series 4 and Torchwood – Children of Earth, plus programmes and features for live concert screenings of Jurassic Park, Gladiator, Back to the Future and Raiders of the Lost Ark. While he never got the chance to interview the late James Horner, Michael was delighted to spend an hour on the phone with John Williams for the 2020 Christmas issue of BBC Music Magazine. Also a presenter, Michael has hosted concerts and live events for Bristol Film Festival and St George's Bristol, plus Debbie Wiseman's ‘Music and Words from Wolf Hall’ shows at venues across the UK. Michael has worked regularly with Debbie Wiseman over the years, writing concert programmes and scripts (for Terry Wogan and Simon Bates) and producing her 2011 album Piano Stories.