This inexpensive 2-CD album hit the shops at the same time as
a Virgin Classics DVD and blu-ray collection from Jaroussky’s
concerts (6026659 DVD and 0175919 blu-ray - see review)
covering such similar ground that many of the items are duplicated,
albeit in studio performances here and sometimes with different
partners from the live recordings.
For reasons which I’ve explained in more detail in my
review of the blu-ray, I recommend the latter in preference
to the CDs. Briefly:
- If you have a suitable blu-ray player linked to your audio
set-up the sound is preferable to that on the CDs, good as the
latter are;
- There’s a great deal to be learned about baroque instruments
and the different ways in which various ensembles employ them
by seeing what goes on;
- Also there’s a considerable difference between the directing
styles of the various ensembles, some with conductor, some without;
- Online dealers are charging very little more for the DVD than
for the CDs and little more again for the blu-ray.
You should also be aware that only six tracks of the 32 on the
CDs are new recordings - I’ve marked them with an asterisk
in the list. To be fair to Virgin Classics, they do highlight
the six new tracks, though they don’t spell out the fact
that the other 26 are reissued. The new set is, however, complementary
to Jaroussky’s contributions to another recent Virgin
2-CD set, Une Fête baroque which I recommended
a few months ago - review
- with no overlaps, though some of the items from that set are
repeated on the DVD/blu-ray.
It’s particularly annoying that we have duplications of
odd items from various collections: from Vivaldi Heroes,
for example, there’s Vedrò con mio diletto
(CD2, tr.2), Mentre dormi (CD2, tr.6) and Sento in
seno (CD2, tr.9), sounding just as well here as on the parent
recital but overlapping a quarter of that release (Virgin 3634142:
Recording of the Month - review
- review
- and March 2012/1 Download Roundup).
Similarly we have 19 minutes out of 72 from Carestini - the
story of a castrato (Virgin 3952422 - review)
and 15 minutes out of 68 from Caldara in Vienna (Virgin
6488102 - review).
Some items come from complete opera recordings, such as the
excerpt from Ercole sul Termodonte, from the 2-CD set
of that work to which Simon Thompson gave a well-deserved ovation
as Recording of the Month (Virgin 6845450 - review).
Not everything on these two CDs comes from the baroque; Andrea
Mattioli, composer of the penultimate item on CD2 predates that
period, while CD1 is rounded off by music with piano accompaniment
by Reynaldo Hahn, Cecile Chaminade and Guillaume Lekeu, an item
from a recent CD of South American music Los Pájaros
perdidos and a beautiful performance of the Pie Jesu
from Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, demonstrating
Jaroussky’s versatility, before we return to the baroque
with a new recording of an aria from Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo.
It’s a bit naughty to rehash parts of Los Pájaros
perdidos soon after the release of the album of the same
name - I made it Recording of the Month as recently as May 2012:
review
- but I can’t grumble at the music or the performance.
The performances are every bit as good as those on the DVD/blu-ray
set, though the latter have the added frisson that comes from
a live concert, and there’s just enough here that isn’t
on that release to make the CDs recommendable in their own right.
For Jaroussky as a very accomplished violinist in Shostakovich
on video, for example, we trade his beautiful performance of
Fauré; that and the superb performance of Handel’s
Ombra mai fu which opens CD2 are almost worth the cost
of the two CDs in themselves. Even without the visual clues,
you can hear that Jaroussky is acting with his voice, not just
singing.
I’m also pleased to see several pieces by J C Bach and
Bononcini, not represented on the blu-ray but on the CDs; both
were, of course associated with London, where the latter was
a serious rival to Handel such that contemporaries often claimed
not to be able to tell their music apart and nicknamed them
Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
I took some time to get used to Jaroussky’s light-toned
counter-tenor when I first heard it on un Concert pour Mazarin
(Virgin 5456462 - see May 2009 Download Roundup)
but it’s a taste that I’ve long since acquired and
I’ve come to appreciate his contributions to opera recordings
more and more. After some initial hesitation I enjoyed the CD
set of Handel’s Faramondo in which he appears (Virgin
2166112 - review
and review)
and he recently ‘sold’ me L’Incoronazione
di Poppea which I’d previously dismissed as the least
effective of the three surviving operas attributed to Monteverdi.
Of course he had some very effective help in Poppea from
Danielle de Niese and William Christie (Virgin DVD 0709519:
Recording of the Month - review)
and he gets some equally fine assistance on the new 2-CD set.
The second CD is splendidly rounded off by a performance of
Pur ti miro from Poppea in a performance with
Nuria Rial and l’Arpeggiata conducted by Christine Pluhar,
just as fine as that in the DVD performance.
If you think you may be one of the small group who have trouble
getting acclimatised to Jaroussky’s voice - more soprano-like
than alto - try listening to these CDs via the invaluable Naxos
Music Library, where they are already available, or from Spotify.
The documentation in the booklet is more thorough than that
which accompanies the video, though it’s still mainly
about Jaroussky rather than the music and there are neither
texts nor even synopses.
A large and visible physical blemish on CD2 made my Arcam Solo
skip but all my other players obliged without complaint - why
is it that the most expensive equipment is often the most temperamental?
I’d recommend the DVD or blu-ray companion set La Voix
des rêves in preference to these CDs - and the blu-ray
rather than the DVD - but I can’t imagine any lover of
baroque music feeling short-changed by the splendid singing
on the CDs. There’s enough material here that isn’t
on the blu-ray for me to be sure that I shall be hanging on
to both. Shop around carefully and you’ll find the blu-ray
and CDs together for less than £30. For all my reservations
about the amount of reissued material on the CDs that still
strikes me as excellent value.
Brian Wilson
Track listing:
CD1
Nicola PORPORA (1686-1768)
Polifemo: Alto Giove* [4:36]
Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)
Tito Manlio, RV 738, Act II: Vanne, perfida, va -
Fra la procelle [5:04]
George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
Ariodante, HWV 33, Act II:Scherza infida [5:55]
Antonio VIVALDI Ercole
su’l Termodonte, RV 710, Act I: Per si bella speranza
che non sapro tentar? - Sento con qual diletto [4:00]
Antonio CALDARA (1670-1736)
Ifigenia in Aulide:Tutto fa nocchiero [7:28]
Nicola PORPORA Siface:
Tu che d’ardire m’attendi [3:24]
Antonio VIVALDI Pianti,
sospiri e dimandar mercede, RV 676: Cor ingrato, dispietato
[3:22]
Giovanni Battista BASSANI
(c.1650-1716)/ Luigi ROSSI (c.1597-1653)
In caligine umbrosa: Recitativo ed Alleluia: Ardendo
suspiro … Jam gratæ memoria [5:23]
Johann Christian BACH (1735-1782)
Ebben si vada … Io ti lascio, W. LG2 [5:51]
Anonymous Ninna nanna [4:40]
Reynaldo HAHN (1875-1947)
A Chloris [3:02]
Cecile CHAMINADE (1857-1944)
Sombrero [1:35]
Guillaume LEKEU (1870-1894)
3 Poemes: No. 1. Sur une tombe [3:54]
Mario TREJO (1926-2012)
/Astor PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992)
Los pájaros perdidos (arr. Quinto GATO)
[3:45]
Gabriel FAURÉ (1845-1924)
Requiem, Op. 48: Pie Jesu [3:37]
Luigi ROSSI Orfeo: Lasciate
Averno* [6:18]
CD2
George Frideric HANDEL Serse
(Xerxes), HWV 40, Act I: Frondi tenere - Ombra mai fu*
[4:12]
Antonio VIVALDI Giustino,
RV 717, Act I: Vedro con mio diletto [5:10]
George Frideric HANDEL Rinaldo,
HWV 7, Act I: Venti turbine* [3:46]
Giovanni BONONCINI (1670-1747)
Chi d’amor tra le catene [3:27]
Antonio CALDARA Il Temistocle:
Non tremar vassallo indegno [3:26]
Antonio VIVALDI L’Olimpiade,
RV 725, Act I: Mentre dormi, Amor fomenti [4:27]
George Frideric HANDEL Alcina,
HWV 34, Act II: Mi lusinga il dolce affetto [3:58]
Antonio CALDARA Adriano
in Siria: Tutti nemici e rei [4:50]
Antonio VIVALDI Tieteberga,
RV 737, Act II: Sento in seno ch’in pioggia di lagrime
[4:06]
Henry PURCELL (1659-1695)
Oedipus, King of Thebes, Z. 583: Music for a While* [3:43]
Johann Christian BACH
Gluck - Orfeo ed Euridice, W. G29: La legge
accetto, o Dei [5:15]
Johann Christian BACH Sentimi,
non partir … Al mio bene, W. LG4 [7:07]
Claudio MONTEVERDI Laudate
Dominum in sanctis eius* [4:01]
Giovanni Felice SANCES (1600-1679)
Stabat Mater: O quam tristis [2:55]
Andrea MATTIOLI (1501-1577)
Harmonia sacra dedota dal concerto di salmi, motetti, inni
and antifone: Ave Regina coelorum [2:57]
Claudio MONTEVERDI (1567-1643)
L’incoronazione di Poppea, Act III Finale: Pur
ti miro [4:11]
* new recordings made in Paris, February 2008, Kempen, Germany,
15 July 2010 and Lugano, Switzerland, August 2012; remaining
tracks are reissues.
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Philippe Jaroussky (counter-tenor) 