BEAUTIFUL CAPE TOWN: Fine Music “Voices” (GSE Claremont)
PUT Emma Eenzi as Aida, Sally Presant as Carmen, and Aviva Pelham as Cherubino on a disc and you have not only a winner but also a historic document that captures the often under-appreciated artistry of these singers. As if that is not enough to tempt buyers, producer Donald Graham has added treats such as Andrea Catzel’s heartfelt and securely sung Liebestod superimposed on a 1933 recording of the orchestral part by Wilhelm Furtwngler with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Joseph Gabriels’ ardent Di quella pira from Il Trovatore (Gabriels, a star of the EOAN group, was the first South African to debut at the Metropolitan Opera), Carina Cronje’s pure Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, and excellent performances of O Holy Night (with Lynn Julius, a stunning 14-year-old soprano) and the Lachrymosa from Mozart’s Requiem. The quality of the originals vary but they have all been restored to the best possible condition.
CELEBRATION OF CHRISTMAS (Erato)
IT is that time of the year again. If you simply have to have a disc with some of the ditties of the season, there can be few better than this collaboration of Jose Carreras, Natalie Cole and Placido Domingo. With the help of the Vienna Children’s Opera Choir and Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vjekoslav Sutej, they sing perennial favourites like Panus Angelicus, Bizet’s Agnus Dei, Silent Night, and I’ll be Home for Christmas. Two interesting items have a Spanish flavour. !Ay Para Navidad has its roots in a Bolivian dance performed by young girls at Christmas while Navidad, composed by Domingo junior, is a setting of Castilian lyrics. This disc was recorded live in Vienna in December 1995; that concert was broadcast to over 50 million people. Some of them would definitely want to buy the disc.
RAVEL: Chamber Works (Decca)
THE artists on this disc have the sure Midas touch of classical music: in whatever work or composer they perform they produce readings that challenge and convince, and are hard to beat. Violinst Chantal Juillet and pianist Pascal Roge have made a number of recordings before, but none as special as this one. In Ravel’s Tzigane, Juillet is every bit the gipsy. Here Roge plays on the piano lutheal, the instrument used for the work’s Paris premiere. It is simply a piano modified to sound like a cimbalon, and Roge coaxes the most bewitching range of sounds out of it. The two violin sonatas are also given performances that are strikingly idiomatic and perfectly balanced. In the all too rarely performed Sonata for Violin and Cello Juillet is excellently matched by Truls Mork, rapidly emerging as a cello leader in the chamber repertoire. The interaction between the two artists is a constant joy; a performance to better this one is hard to imagine. Juillet and Roge complete a generously filled disc with the composer’s Kaddish, Piece en forme de Habanera and Berceuse. A magical disc.
TCHAIKOVSKY: The Complete Symphonies (DG)
THE performance of this composer’s sixth symphony (Pathetique) by the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev on the Virgin label has long been the most desirable of all performances of this audience favourite. These new recordings set the standard against which all others will be measured. Unlike the customary brash “non-Russian” performances to which one has become accustomed, these readings are almost classically proportioned, with the orchestral sound finely cultivated. The orchestral playing is outstanding, even, soaring strings and rich, confident brass. But above all, Pletnev’s intellectual grasp of the composer’s musical language is quite unique.