Lui 2023

Alongside our comprehensive limited and numbered edition of the legendary Claudio Abbado’s complete recordings for DG, Decca and Philips, we are in the process of issuing 16 digital albums covering the same repertoire. The penultimate release in this series of e albums, which are organised in alphabetical order of composer name, features Abbado’s Verdi recordings and is available now.

Set in Edinburgh against the backdrop of Oliver Cromwell’s rule, Il proscritto saw a marked return to melody by Mercadante who retained the orchestral richness of his “reform” operas but restored aspects of bel canto lyricism. With Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Irene Roberts, Elizabeth DeShong, Sally Matthews, Goderdzi Janelidze, Susana Gaspar, Carlo Rizzi (conductor) and Britten Sinfonia.

This year, the Queen Elisabeth Competition was devoted, for the tenth time, to the voice. And the Competition that has just taken place illustrates the growing interest it is attracting among young singers and the public. A record number of candidates (412) applied to take part and, after the video preselection process, the 55 candidates who performed in Brussels sang, right from the first round, in a packed Studio 4 in Flagey. In a first for the voice competition, it was also possible to follow the performances in the first round on video via the platforms of the Competition and its partners. The jury, chaired by Bernard Foccroulle, brought together well-known names from the world of opera. For the recordings in this CD set, the singers were accompanied on the piano, either by a pianist of their own choice, or by one of the Competition’s excellent official pianists (Ouri Bronchti, Anna Naretto, Nino Pavlenichvili, Philippe Riga, and Ian Tindale) in the rounds that took place in Flagey. In the final at the Centre for Fine Arts, their accompaniment was provided by the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its Music Director, Alain Altinoglu.