Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Antonio Pappano VERDI Otello

OTELLO

Antonio Pappano / Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia BERNSTEIN The 3 Symphonies

Leonard Bernstein was the Honorary President of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia from 1983 until his death in 1990. Temperamentally they were exceedingly well suited. Their ethos, their extrovert nature, to say nothing of their innately operatic manner, made them a good fit. And there’s something of Bernstein’s dynamism and eclectic, all-embracing nature in the person of Antonio Pappano whose penchant for, and love of, jazz for starters ticks one of the many boxes that this music demands. So here we have it: the three ages of Lenny the symphonist, fittingly signed off with that short, sharp, wacky jam session Prelude, Fugue and Riffs.

Let me say straight away that these performances come at us with a theatricality that puts them firmly ‘on stage’ where they belong. All three pieces are essentially about the process we all go through to ‘find ourselves’, except that in Bernstein’s case the question of belief and faith was to haunt him, trouble him, from first to last. How to reconcile being Jewish with his essentially agnostic nature. That The Age of Anxiety is flanked by the soul-searching of the Jeremiah and Kaddish Symphonies is nothing if not ironical.

One should give credit for the fact that Symphony No 1, Jeremiah – his very first orchestral work – sprang so fully formed from his imagination. For sure it is mightily filmic, a piece whose movement titles ‘Prophecy’, ‘Profanation’ and ‘Lamentation’ portend and indeed deliver biblical gestures; but the piece is big-hearted, too, and paradoxically there is an almost guilty jubilance in the central ‘Profanation’ movement – a destructive hedonism in which Bernstein’s composerly prowess advances in leaps and bounds, powering forwards on the back of driving rhythms and self-evidently American syncopation. We are pre dating and predicting here the prairie-pounding Scherzo of Copland’s Third Symphony and the Santa Cecilia players fully relish the heat of it (flaring trumpet fanfares and all) only to slink back into the singing melody of the Trio section which hardly needs saying could only have been penned by Bernstein. Then there is resonance in the closing lamentation for the fallen city of Jerusalem (the political overtones will never have eluded Lenny) with Pappano’s solo casting (inspired throughout this set) hitting precisely the right declamatory tone with Marie-Nicole Lemieux’s ripely theatrical delivery.

The Second Symphony, The Age of Anxiety after WH Auden’s tremendous prose poem, is I think Bernstein’s finest concert work – still hugely underrated in some quarters. This searching dark night of the soul, evolving as it does from that lonely two-part clarinet counterpoint at the outset (the musical equivalent of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks and one of Bernstein’s most inspired ideas), uses an interlocking variation technique to great effect, each new idea emerging from the last notes of the previous one to create not just a sense of evolution but of new beginnings, too.

Again, Pappano’s choice of the audacious young Italian pianist Beatrice Rana – a rising star if ever there was one – is right on the money. She has the razzle-dazzle in spades, of course, but it is the mercurial throwaway manner (cool, and then some, the jazzy ‘Masque’ at the heart of the piece brilliantly on point) that really excites. That and her ability suddenly to look inwards and to thoughtfully reflect on what is past and what is to come. She and Pappano communicate great kinship in the piece and that inexorable build to the cathartic peroration has impressive inevitability. One of those eternally hopeful Bernstein sunsets or sunrises, depending on your viewpoint.

Symphony No 3, Kaddish, is still the most problematic of the three symphonies for me, one in which the music seems almost incidental to Bernstein’s spoken text. That text – highly emotive as it is – has always struck me as more therapeutic for him than it has ever been for the listener. What we have here is essentially a melodrama, a public venting of his troubled relationship with God, the Father. But Pappano has played an absolute blinder in casting Josephine Barstow in the Speaker’s role. She is tremendous and far and away the most exciting, the most affecting, the most probing narrator of any on disc. One can all too easily forget that she was an English scholar and an actress before she was a singer. She is blistering in her voicing of Bernstein’s angry confrontations with his ‘Tin God’ while the music for its part wrestles with its thorniness, finding respite in the central lullaby and the glorious ‘rainbow’ theme which Bernstein, one feels, knows all too well is the manifestation of his true self. But it is Barstow that makes the piece work as never before in my view and it is Pappano who should take credit for knowing all too well that she would.

Lenny’s Benny Goodman inspired-jam session Prelude, Fugue and Riffs is the most pertinent of postscripts to this terrific set. Alessandro Carbonare emerges from the orchestra to lead his feisty combo through the seven action-packed minutes where classical sleight of hand meets jazz improv. Hard to believe it’s written down. But then that was the general idea. (Edward Seckerson / Gramophone)

Anna Netrebko / Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Antonio Pappano VERISMO

. . . ["Verismo"] reveals she is more than just a star; her performances of arias and scenes from Italian opera highlight an artistry that is both subtle and thrilling . . . Netrebko's rich lyric soprano is a natural match for the lush vocals demanded by these operas, not least because her voice is at its most powerful and complex in the transitional "passaggio" points at the top and bottom of the treble staff . . . [she] flaunts a fascinating low register in the very first cut on the album, "Io son l'umile ancella" . . . The hallmark of this collection is Netrebko's taking offbeat approaches to pieces opera fans have heard a hundred times before . . . Netrebko's originality of approach can color an entire aria . . . among the most striking performances on this disc are arias from operas associated with full dramatic sopranos. In "Suicidio!" from "La Gioconda", Netrebko evokes a mood of doom with lurching high phrases and plunges into her eerie lower range . . . in the showpiece from "Turandot" "In questa reggia," Netrebko works the many phrases pounding at the higher passaggio like an expert warrior wielding a sword. It's hard to imagine this killer aria sung more beautifully . . . [Eyvazov's] bright, almost metallic tenor provides as well an effective foil in the highlight of this disc, the final act of Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" . . . [Manon]: her onstage experience is immediately apparent in the wealth of detail she brings to this 20-minute scene. Pain, desperation, terror, fatigue -- even momentary bliss when Manon nestles in the arms of her lover -- these conflicting emotions shimmer through Netrebko's voice so seamlessly that at moments it's easy to forget that you're just listening to a recording of an opera. On this CD, Anna Netrebko makes verismo seem realer than life itself. (James Jorden / New York Observer)

Anna Netrebko O MIO BABBINO CARO

In honor of Anna Netrebko’s Summer Night Concert at Schönbrunn Palace, Deutsche Grammophon has released a 4-track Digital EP of highlighted repertoire that was performed for thousands of attendees on May 31. The collection includes a new rendition of her longtime signature, “O mio Babbino caro,” an aria she recorded back in 2004 for her second solo album “Sempre Libera.” This time, she is accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Jader Bignamini.

The new EP comes on the heels of her recent performance at the Sommernachtkonzert where she performed the aria, as well as three other arias.

Jonas Kaufmann THE AGE OF PUCCINI

The tenor Jonas Kaufmann has taken the unusual step of telling his Facebook followers not to buy an upcoming release on Decca Classics called Jonas Kaufmann - The Age of Puccini. 

The message reads:

Dear Friends, 

Please do not let yourselves be deceived by the Decca release 'Jonas Kaufmann - The Age of Puccini'. This compilation contains only three Puccini arias - my recordings of 'Che Gelida Manina' and 'E lucevan le stelle' from 2007 and a scene from La Rondine, that I recorded with Renée Fleming in 2008 for the album 'Verismo'. The remaining 18 tracks are essentially my old recording 'Verismo Arias' from 2010. THEREFORE familiar recordings - in new packaging. I was not consulted in its making, this has been done without my knowledge and approval. 

The 'real' Puccini album, which I recorded with Antonio Pappano in Rome in Autumn last year is titled 'Nessun dorma' and will be released on Sony in the middle of September. It exclusively contains arias and scenes from Puccini's operas Including highlights from Manon Lescaut, La bohème, Tosca, La Fanciulla del West and Turandot. 

Jonas Kaufmann

Jan Lisiecki / Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Antonio Pappano SCHUMANN

Jan Lisiecki turns to the music of Robert Schumann for his third Deutsche Grammophon album. The 20-year-old Canadian pianist presents strikingly mature and imaginative interpretations of the composer’s complete concertante works for piano and orchestra. Jan Lisiecki: Schumann – Works for Piano and Orchestra, set for international release on 8 January 2016, opens with the evergreen Piano Concerto in A minor op. 54. It also contains the Introduction and Allegro appassionato op. 92, Träumerei op. 15 no. 7 and the rarely heard Introduction and Allegro op. 134, the latter entering the DG catalogue for the first time in the yellow label’s 117-year history. Lisiecki is partnered by the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Sir Antonio Pappano, with whom he made his debut at the 2013 BBC Proms in Schumann’s Piano Concerto. “This proved to be a performance of extraordinary accomplishment,” noted the Guardian at the time.

Jan Lisiecki’s personal vision of Schumann’s poetic works has evolved over several years, backed by meticulous preparation and deep immersion in the music. His approach to the Piano Concerto and the other concertante works has also gained from Antonio Pappano’s guidance and encouragement. The album reflects the rapport shared by soloist, orchestra and conductor. Recorded in September 2015 under studio conditions in Rome, it renewed a musical relationship forged three years earlier when Lisiecki, then aged 17, performed Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Pappano and his Santa Cecilia forces during a five-concert European tour in which he alternated as soloist with Martha Argerich.

“These pieces demand an incredibly close collaboration in order to accomplish what Schumann desired,” comments Lisiecki. “I believe the sound of the Santa Cecilia Orchestra matches mine in the best possible way.” The Piano Concerto and other concertante works, he adds, are concerned above all with subtle shades of expression and intimate dialogue between soloist and orchestra. “Of course the Piano Concerto is virtuosic. But it’s virtuosic in a way that’s in the background, and that’s what speaks to me.”

Antonio Pappano, himself an accomplished pianist and tireless supporter of young musicians, recalls his first experience of hearing Lisiecki’s pianism. “I’ll admit that I was overwhelmed with envy when I first heard Jan play. What is so refreshing is that there are no fake layers of age added on – just youth,” he notes. “We’ve now worked together many times and this Schumann project provided a perfect opportunity to work on two pieces that are so rarely heard in concert, as well as to revisit a concerto that is a shared favourite.”

Jan Lisiecki’s previous releases as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, comprising piano concertos by Mozart and Chopin’s Études opp. 10 & 25, have attracted critical acclaim and strong international sales. In 2013 he received the Leonard Bernstein Award at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and was also named as Gramophone’s “Young Artist of the Year”.

The pianist’s forthcoming engagements include two tours of the United States this January, the first with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Peter Oundjian, the second with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. During the latter Lisiecki will make his debut in the main auditorium at New York’s Carnegie Hall, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4. His schedule for the remainder of the 2015/16 season also includes an extensive tour of Germany and Switzerland with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and concerto performances with the Cleveland Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. (Deutsche Grammophon)

Beatrice Rana / Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Antonio Pappano PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 2 - TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 2

Maestro Antonio Pappano insisted he wanted to record with Beatrice Rana, the 22-year-old Italian pianist championed by Martha Argerich who shot to stardom when she claimed the Silver Medal and the coveted Audience Award in the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. On that occasion, Huffington Post described the seasoned competition winner’s performance as ‘an endlessly fascinating piece of humanity that had the orchestra riveted on every note’. Warner Classics signed this young piano sensation in mid-2015; the Italian virtuoso now makes her label debut with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano. Recorded in Rome, the formidable programme pairs two Russian masterpieces: a thrillingly fresh take on the warhorse of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat minor – an indispensable repertoire benchmark and calling card for concert pianists all over the world – and Prokofiev’s stormy, emotionally charged Piano Concerto No.2. This coupling is a bold statement for a musician who ‘possesses an old soul that belies her twenty years, and more than a touch of genius’ (Gramophone), but the soloist believes she has ‘the right character’ for this kind of music: ‘People say that South Italians are very dramatic!’