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The Gigli Edition - Vol. 15: The 1955
Carnegie Hall Farewell Recitals Giacomo MEYERBEER (1791-1864) L’Africaine: Mi batte il cor ... O Paradiso!
[3:00] Giulio CACCINI (1545-1618)
Amarilli [2:29] Stefano DONAUDY (1879-1925)
O del mio amato ben [3:33] Georg Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
Serse: Frondi tenere e belle … Ombra mai fu [3:15] Jules MASSENET (1842-1912)
Manon: O dolce incanto …Chiudi gli occhi [3:08] Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Lohengrin: Mercè, mercè, cigno gentil [1:34] Edvard GRIEG (1843-1907) Un Rêve [En dröm] [2 :21] Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Reviens, mon amour (from Étude in E major, Op. 10, No. 3) [Tristesse] [2;13] Jules MASSENET (1842-1912)
Werther: Ah! Non mi ridestar [2:35]
GOMES (1836-1896)
Lo Schiavo: All’istante partir .. Quando nascesti tu [3:15] Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)
Tosca: E lucevan le stelle ... O dolci baci [2:23]
WECKERLIN (1821-1910)
Bergère légère [1:19] Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Don Giovanni: Dalla sua pace [3:38]
CURCI (1808-1877)
Notte a Venezia [1:39]
CARNEVALI (1888-?)
Come, love with me [2:18]
CURRAN (1875-1941)
Life [1:44]
DE CRESCENZO (1875-1964)
Rondine al nido [2:38] Ernesto DE CURTIS (1875-1937)
Addio bel sogno [3:08]
DI VEROLI (1888-1960)
Ritorna amore [2:52]
Cesare BIXIO (1898-1978)
Mamma [2:54] Eduardo DI CAPUA (1864-1917)
’O sole mio [1:36] Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)
La fanciulla del West: Ch’ella mi creda libero e lontano [2:05]
Beniamino
Gigli (tenor)
Dino Fedri (piano)
rec. Carnegie Hall, 17, 20, 24 April 1955. ADD NAXOS 8.111104 [55:38]
This
is the end of Naxos’s Gigli journey. The fifteenth volume
brings us the 1955 Carnegie Hall recital programmes, just
under an hour’s worth culled from the surviving music of
the three concerts given in April of that year. This is their
first CD appearance, it would appear, and the transfers have
been effected from American and Italian LPs.
The
old magic was pretty much intact even if the technique was
no longer armour-plated. The programmes were felicitously
chosen to combine the odd novelty with a preponderance of
trusty recital standbys. Programmatically the Meyerbeer would
have been better down the running order and not opening the
disc, especially as Gigli makes one of two ungrateful sounds
and commits registral gear-grinding as he ascends. Still
the Caccini wins us back with its thoroughly personalised
versimo intimacy, that half-croon and voice hardening passion
with which he explored Aria Antiche such as this. Prandelli,
amongst many, must have leant a great deal from Gigli in
this repertoire.
His
Serse recitative is virile bordering on butch but Ombra
mai fu itself has sweetness and portamenti in profusion – the
voice may have weakened but the bel canto instincts were
very much intact; the defiant masculainity of the outburst
too. His Massenet Manon half voice elicts tremendous applause
though he Gigli-ises the Wagner almost out of existence.
One either surrenders to his Chopin Tristesse – the
Etude in E major Op.10 No.3 – or one runs a mile from it.
I’m for the former, though here his high notes are imperfectly
produced. We also hear him coughing at the end of some songs,
as here, quite loudly as well. The physical strain must have
been considerable, even for one so famed as he.
There
are trace elements of Gigli gold in the Gomes though I happen
to find it a strenuous performance - annotator Alan Blyth
doesn’t, it should be noted. The de Crescenzo is perhaps,
for me, the highlight of all – so ravishingly done, so expressive
it’s hard to tear oneself away despite the clamour of the
audience applause. The aria from La fanciulla del West is
the one item new to his discography. He’s taxed by it but
it’s valuable none the less for reasons of its extreme rarity.
The
long journey has been well worth it; the New York Farewell
recitals have earned their place in Gigli folklore. And let’s
not forget pianist Dino Fedri.
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