Olga Peretyatko / Alfred Eschwé / Tonkünstler Orchester NEUJAHRSKONZERT

 

NEUJAHRSKONZERT

 

Olga Peretyatko / Sinfonieorchester Basel / Ivor Bolton MOZART +

The Russian soprano has selected some of Mozart's most beautiful opera and concert arias, as well as discoveries of largely unknown pieces from operas by Tommaso Traetta, Giovanni Paisiello and Vicente Martín y Soler, reflecting the exchange of musical ideas between Mozart and his contemporaries and getting these three composers out of Mozart's shadow. Ms. Peretyatko chose arias from the well-known operas Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and La Clemenza di Tito by Mozart and combined these with arias from rather forgotten operas such as Antigona by Traetta, Il barbiere di Siviglia by Paisiello as well as Il burbero di buon cuore by Soler. The connection between Mozart and Soler becomes obvious, as the recording also includes two insertion arias (K582 and K583) by Mozart, which he had written for the revival of "Il burbero di buon cuore". Mozart+ is Peretyatko's second collaboration with the Sinfonieorchester Basel and Ivor Bolton as the conductor, after the highly acclaimed recording The Secret Fauré (2018).

Sinfonieorchester Basel / Ivor Bolton THE SECRET FAURÉ

From 2009-2016 the American conductor Dennis Russell Davies was leading the Sinfonieorchester Basel. At the beginning of the season 2016/17 Ivor Bolton took over as Principal Conductor. The British conductor was Chief Conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg from 2004-2016, and has conducted every year at the Salzburg Festival since 2000 in a wide opera and concert repertoire, including three Mozart operas in the Mozart anniversary festival in 2006. In September 2015, he took up the position of Music Director of the Teatro Real Madrid. He is also Chief Conductor of the Dresden Festival Orchestra.

His many recordings with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg include Bruckner Symphonies No.s 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ, Haydn’s Creation and The Seasons, as well as a wide repertoire of Mozart, and other recordings include Xerxes, Ariodante and Poppea from Munich. With the Sinfonieorchester Basel, he has recorded Of Madness and Love with works by Berlioz and The Secret Fauré.

Olga Peretyatko / Münchner Rundfunkorchester / Miguel Gómez-Martinez LA BELLEZZA DEL CANTO

Operatic powerhouse Olga Peretyatko is accompanied by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester (Munich Radio Orchestra) conducted by Miguel Gómez-Martinez on this high-quality album of (coloratura) soprano favorites. With an able, keen orchestra behind her, Peretyatko is free to demonstrate her considerable talents. Two arias are by opera legend Rossini. One, his "Non si dà follia maggiore," begins the album, and Peretyatko interprets it in a way that leaves the listener entranced. Peretyatko's voice is clean, bright, and full of vibrato. Her interpretation is also highly dramatic. "Canzone del salice" is an even better Rossini choice for the artist, for it begins with a delicate harp and then shows off the core to Peretyatko's smooth, legato sound. Her melismas are not out of control, in keeping with the character of the piece, and there is a lovely trill on "caldi." Despite being a coloratura soprano, Peretyatko's low voice is particularly nice, with depth and color. One can hear this in arias like Dvorák's "Song to the Moon" or Donizetti's "Quel guardo il cavaliere." Where one can hear her true coloratura prowess is on pieces like "Les oiseaux dans la charmille," where the aria shows off her agility as she glides between high and low notes, and her melisma on a piano dynamic demonstrates her excellent technique. The coloratura classic "Caro Nome" is another great example of her fach, for she lightens phrases and notes in such a way that the listener will be amazed by her tremendous vocal control. She brings a rich, fullness to the aria, which is what makes her particular interpretation unique. The overall choice of repertoire on the album is excellent, for it spans a range of composers, languages, and moods that are all well suited to Peretyatko's voice and vocal personality. A general tendency is, oddly, that some of her very high notes are thin and unsupported, rendering them slightly under pitch. This seems to happen on long, sustained high notes, which is unfortunate, for they are often the climax of the aria. Needless to say, no singer is perfect, but Peretyatko and the wonderful Munchner Rundfunkorchester come close. (V. Vasan)

Olga Peretyatko / NDR Sinfonieorchester / Enrique Mazzola ARABESQUE

Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko is the latest in a group of young performers championed by the revived Sony Classical label. She's got personality to spare, and, from the looks of the pictures, charisma, too. Arabesque seems to be an album designed to showcase her suitability for a wide variety of roles; the program runs from Mozart forward through the 19th century and includes the Italian, French, and German languages. She's certainly versatile and seems to have fun with most of the music, and she bears watching as a rising star. This said, there's just one type of aria in which Peretyatko really stands out, and that's the vigorous diva number that lets her voice bloom effortlessly into its upper range in rapid, churning material. The Mozart concert aria Ah se in ciel, K. 538, that opens the program is a fine example, as is Verdi's Mercè, dilette amiche from I Vespri siciliani. In this kind of material the voice simply doesn't reveal any weak points, and it's tremendously exciting. It seems almost to become unmoored from the key in climactic passages without ever getting out of control, and the effect of that is uncanny. Slow things down in something like the Villanelle of Belgian soprano-composer Eva Dell'Acqua, and Peretyatko is competent, but not as riveting and not as powerful. There is nevertheless a sufficient number of really brilliant flashes here to make the voice-seekers sit up and take notice. (James Manheim)

Olga Peretyatko RUSSIAN LIGHT

Olga Peretyatko has announced her new album for Sony Classical.

The Russian soprano announced the news via Facebook as she posted a picture of the album’s cover art. alongside the picture she said,”Are you ready for my new CD? Coming very soon!!! Stay tuned!”

No track list was revealed but based on the title, “Russian Light,” audiences can expect it to be an all-Russian album.

The new CD will mark Peretyatko’s fourth solo album. She first released “La Belleza del canto” in 2011 followed by “Arabesque” in 2014. In 2015 she released “Rossini!,” which was conducted by the late Alberto Zedda.

Peretayatko is currently at the Metropolitan Opera reprising the role of Gilda, which she performed earlier in the winter. She will next perform Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Bolshoi Theatre before returning to the Staatsoper Berlin for Bizet’s “Les Pêcheurs de Perles.”

Next season she returns to the Met for Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” and also performs in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” at the Hamburg State Opera. She is also scheduled for “La Traviata” at the Vienna State Opera and the Deutsche Berlin Oper.

Olga Peretyatko ROSSINI!

This is the third album from Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko, whose first two releases included a variety of unusual repertory choices. Here she plays to what has emerged as her undisputed strength with a set of Rossini arias, each with its full complement of introductory material. A few might qualify as rarities, although Peretyatko has been a staple of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy, which has been doing a pretty good job of remaking the Rossini canon: the likes of Matilde di Shabran, which supplies a barnburner here (track three), are making increasingly frequent appearances on stages thanks to this festival. At any rate, Peretyatko is an ideal Rossini soprano. Each of these scenes builds dramatically over its ten minutes or so, and you feel that she's in such complete control that the precise coloratura comes as no surprise. And the high notes...they're a marvel, with power, uncanny pitch accuracy, and just a little bit of smoke. Peretyatko gets idiomatic support from the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna under Alberto Zedda, and idiomatic sound, if one can call it that, from Sony's engineers, working in that same theater. This is state-of-the-art Rossini, and Peretyatko is not just another pretty Russian soprano. (James Manheim)