DONIZETTI: La Fille du Regiment (Nightingale Classics)
ONE of the leading coloratura sopranos of our time (perhaps even of all time), Edita Gruberova is busy recording all the lesser-known Donizetti heroines for this small Swiss company. The added attraction of this recording for South African listeners is that it features Deon van der Walt in a tenor role far removed from the Mozart and Rossini, and lately the Beethoven and Wagner, roles which we have come to associate with him. As Tonio, the unlikely hero of the proceedings, he shows that he can more than hold his own in this demanding role, as he amply demonstrates in the ridiculously difficult aria Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fte (the one which undid Pavarotti’s last assumption of the role at the Met). Gruberova remains astonishing, effortless no matter what, and surprisingly adept at comedy. The Munich radio orchestra conducted by Marcello Panni sparkle in support. A delight and a treasure.
BEETHOVEN: Piano Quintet; SPOHR: Septet (Decca)
THIS seemingly odd coupling (the Mozart quintet for the same forces usually accompanies the Beethoven) begins to make more sense when one listens to the performances. Pianist Pascal Roge and his colleagues from the London Winds produce a far more powerful sound than, say, Murray Perahia and friends from the English Chamber Orchestra (Sony). Add to that the greater expressive warmth of the performance and the softer focus of the present recording, and it becomes clear that Roge and company look ahead to the romantic era. Spohr’s last chamber work with piano (composed in 1853) fits perfectly into this perspective. Here Roge and the wind players are joined by violinist Chantal Juillet and cellist Christopher van Kampen. The performance is witty and charming, a perfect reading of a work for an unusual combination of instruments.
PROKOFIEV: Violin Concertos etc (DG)
FOR a long time the imagination and individuality of Shlomo Mintz (DG) and Kyung Wha Chung (Decca) have had no equal in these concertos among the violinists on the world stages today. But then along comes youngster Gil Shaham, with Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra (who also participated in his acclaimed Korngold and Barber coupling), to give performances of these phenomenal works that must surely rank with the definitive ones of yesteryear — Szigeti in the first (EMI) and Heifetz in the second (Pearl). Shaham is never less than astounding, whether in the gently intense, translucent passages (such as the opening of the first concerto) or the more tenebrous sound world of the second concerto. Previn and the orchestra are almost equally spectacular, far better than they were for Chung. A vibrant performance of the composer’s D major solo violin sonata rounds off a most sensational disc.