This could have been a very short review, indeed, could even have
taken less time to type than the contents listing: everything
here - repertoire, singing, orchestral support, direction, presentation,
generous playing time and recording quality - is a thorough delight.
By no means all the music is well known, but even the less familiar
items were well worth the exploration. Some are, indeed, real
discoveries - the opening aria, from Sartorio’s
Giulio
Cesare and track 7, from Scarlatti’s
Griselda
to name but two - and even those few which are less than first-rate
serve to highlight the quality of the better-known, especially
the Handel and Vivaldi.
This was a double journey of discovery for me: not only did much
of the music represent a very worthwhile exploration, but I had
never heard Patricia Petibon before, though I was well enough
aware of her reputation in the baroque repertoire and of the fact
that Michael Cookson had made her debut album of Haydn, Mozart
and Gluck Recording of the Month (477 7468 - see
review.)
I can’t resist following his example and giving the same
accolade to the new album.
I had never heard Sartorio’s
Giulio Cesare and there
don’t seem to be any available recordings, but there is
a version of his
L’Orfeo on the Challenge label (CC72020)
and I shall be looking to add this to my collection. The Warner
version to which Robert J Farr gave a lukewarm welcome -
here
- seems to have been deleted, but his point about the musicological
significance of the work remains valid. In fact, as sung here
by Petibon, the aria
Orfeo, tu dormi (track 12) is of much
more than musicological interest, but that is one of the delights
of this album - Petibon and Marcon have a Beecham-like knack of
making everything sound first-rate.
Porpora’s
Morte amara (track 10), from another opera
that I have never heard,
Lucio Papirio, also receives a
performance that makes one wonder why it has not been recorded.
When it comes to the genuinely first-rate, as in the case of Handel’s
Piangerò la mia sorte (track 6) and
Ah! mio cor
(track 8) and Vivaldi’s
Siam navi all’onde
(track 11), track 6 preceding and tracks 8 and 11 following immediately
after one of the unknown tracks that I have singled out, the result
is even more striking.
Some of the works represented here have been rediscovered in fine
recordings in recent years. Such is the case with Stradella’s
San Giovanni Battista, of which there are fine recordings
from Minkowski on mid-price Erato - see
review
- and (even better) on Hyperion (Allessandro de Marchi, CDA67617
- see
review).
There is also an excellent recording of Vivaldi’s
L’Olimpiade
(Naïve Op30316, highlights on OP30451 - see
review:
another Recording of the Month.) Cecilia Bartoli (Decca 466 5692)
and Simone Kermes (DGG 477 4618, like the new CD with the Venice
Baroque Orchestra and Marcon) also include the aria
Siam navi
on highly recommended all-Vivaldi albums. Others, such as Stradella’s
Griselda and Porpora’s
Lucio Papirio, certainly
seem to be ripe for recording on the basis of what we hear here.
Not only does the programme alternate between the better- and
less-well-known, the range of moods which it contains is also
extremely varied. Not only do I want to hear more of the works
that were discoveries, I also look forward to hearing more from
Petibon. She doesn’t efface earlier loves in this repertoire,
notably Emma Kirkby - how could she? - but I did want to play
the whole CD over again after the first hearing. In fact, there
is not one single item here which duplicates anything on the superb
Hyperion 3-CD set of Handel Opera Arias which I strongly recommended
some time ago (Emma Kirkby, with Catherine Bott on CD2, a mid-price
offering on CDS44271/3 - see
review
and
review.)
I can think of no finer recommendation for the quality of the
new DGG CD than that it made me think of that Hyperion set and
recommend the two in the same sentence. Kirk McElhearn asks, with
reference to the Hyperion, what more could you ask? Now I must
ask the same rhetorical question with regard to the new CD.
If I have to find one thing to criticise, it must be the title
and the spatter of ‘blood’ on the back of the booklet
and on the insert. I suppose the title is meant to signify the
red-blooded nature of most of this music, especially the final
aria,
Caldo sangue (tr.14), and of the performances. The
graphics are there, presumably, in case we didn’t get the
message. I don’t suppose that it will stop this CD following
its predecessor,
Amoureuses, in winning lots of awards
- nor should it - but it’s less subtle and less descriptive
of the contents than the earlier album. The notes in the booklet
are good enough to make me wish that Philippe Beausant had been
invited to write at greater length - but then we’d have
had the Hyperion problem that the booklet would have been too
good and too thick to insert in the case.
The revamped DGG Webshop will give you the opportunity to sample
the new CD. A warning is necessary, however: listen to any track,
not just those which I have singled out, and you will want not
only to place an immediate order for the album and its predecessor,
but also to explore more fully many of the works represented here.
Don’t overlook Petibon’s earlier Virgin Classics CD
of Rameau, Lully and Charpentier (5454812) or her contribution
to the Handel Anniversary Edition
Arias and Duets 2-CD
set (6960352 - see
review).
Brian Wilson
Patricia Petibon (soprano); Venice Baroque Orchestra/Andrea Marcon
