MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
BARGAIN OF THE MONTH


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT
Sound Samples & Downloads

Mirella Freni - Great Singers Live
Francesco CILEA (1866-1950)
Adriana Lecouvreur - Io son l'umile ancella [3:34]
Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)
La Bohème - Si, mi chiamano Mimi [4:43] Quando me'n vo* [2:49]
Tosca - Vissi d'arte [3:20]
Turandot - Tu, che di gel sei cinta [2:36]
Georges BIZET (1838-1875)
Carmen - C'est des contrebandiers le refuge ordinaire [6:27]
Jules MASSENET (1842-1912)
Manon - Adieu, notre petite table [4:30]
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Aida - Ritorna vincitor* [7:17]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Le nozze di Figaro - E Susanna non vien! - Dove sono...* [7:02]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Eugene Onegin ‘Letter Scene’ (Sung in German) [13:48] *
Francesco CILEA
Adriana Lecouvreur - Io son l'umile ancella* [3:41]
Mirella Freni (soprano)
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra/Kurt Eichhorn and Vladimir Ghiaurov*
rec. 3 October 1971, live, Congress Hall, Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany (tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 7); 30 May 1987, live, Philharmonie, Gasteig, Munich (tracks 3, 8, 9, 10, 11); 16 January 1983, live, Congress Hall, Deutsches Museum, Munich Germany (track 4)
No sung texts provided
BR KLASSIK 900303 [59:42]

Experience Classicsonline


One of a great line of Italian sopranos, Mirella Freni at the Metropolitan Opera, New York announced her farewell to a long and distinguished career in May 2005. The event was cause for triple celebration as it marked her seventieth birthday, her fiftieth anniversary on the operatic stage and forty years with the Metropolitan Opera Company.

The present BR Klassik release is taken from recordings made at a series of ‘Sunday Concerts’ in Munich. Initiated in 1952 by Alfred Schröter head of light classics at Bavarian Broadcasting these live radio concerts were first broadcast in 1952 the same year as the Munich RSO was founded.
 
The disc starts and concludes with performances of Cilea’s act I aria Io son l'umile ancella from Adriana Lecouvreur. This was catches Freni in 1971 with a noticeably strong projection to her singing. Her expressive tone supplements the astonishingly heady atmosphere of Cilea’s writing. The extended note at the aria’s conclusion was quite breathtaking. The same Cilea aria is also heard around fifteen years later with Freni now in her fifties sounding equally sensational. Freni’s voice has noticeably mellowed but with additional hues. The climax at the conclusion is once again quite wonderful.
 
I especially enjoy hearing Freni sing Puccini. Mimi from La Bohème was a signature role for Freni. From act I Si, mi chiamano Mimi is delivered with rapt tenderness and smooth control. I felt the hairs lift on the back of my neck such was the effect. As the singer Musetta in act II Quando me'n vo also known as ‘Musetta's Waltz’ one immediately notices the impressive weight of Freni’s colourful timbre and her wonderfully even vibrato. A fine example of Freni’s exceptional diction and even vibrato is the much loved Vissi d'arte from act II of Tosca where she soars gloriously to the heavens. From 1971 in Tu, che di gel sei cinta from act III of Turandot I was struck by the girlish sound to her voice and her ability to build a stupendous climax.
 
From act III of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) in the role of Countess Almaviva singing E Susanna non vien! - Dove sono... Freni conveys a heartfelt and often reverential quality. As Tatyana in the celebrated ‘letter scene’ from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin Freni’s durability was clear managing to vary her tone as the scene progressed. In this aria Tchaikovsky writes deliciously for woodwind instruments. I found the timbre and phrasing of the oboist quite exceptional and the playing of the principal flute also took the ear.
 
The Munich Radio Symphony are on splendid form. It is hard to fault this first rate orchestra who provide sensitive and committed accompaniment throughout. The sound quality is to a consistently high standard with an especially impressive balance. Also provided are interesting if rather concise booklet notes. Sadly there are no texts.
 
I just couldn’t stop playing this disc which is not surprising given that Freni has one of the finest soprano voices I have ever heard.
 
Michael Cookson
 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.