Opera Giuseppe Verdi Aida

Of all Pavarotti´s opera recordings, this is, for me, the most memorable. Not just because of him: this 'Aida' is one of those opera recordings that offers the excitement of a live event, where everything gells. The singers do a good job individually - Chiara as a lovely Aida - but are even more convincing as an ensemble. Maazel conducts a sensitive performance, grander in scale than Abbado, Muti and many others.
-By E. J. Van Sten

Of the 10 selections on this disc of Verdi “discoveries”, four are bona fide world premieres, though in one of those, the Variations for Oboe and Orchestra, only the orchestral part is by Verdi. In the late 1830s clarinetist Giacomo Mori hired the young Verdi to provide an orchestra accompaniment to his variations on the theme “Canto di Virginia”. Here, Verdi displays his early skill at handling large orchestral forces, and the same can be said of his Variations for Piano and Orchestra. However, there are few musical hints in these works–or in the Capriccio for Oboe and Orchestra, the Sinfonia in C, or the Adagio for Trumpet and Orchestra–that suggest the great master Verdi was to become.

One of the most acclaimed musicians of his era, Toscanini was a conductor of the "old school" - aristocratic, perfectionistic and something of an autocrat on the podium. After a brief flurry of interest in Fascism in the 1910s, he rapidly became disillusioned with the movement and indeed became a personal rival of Mussolini, repeatedly antagonising him through acts of artistic defiance such as refusals to open concerts with the Fascist anthem Giovinezza.

Following Andrea Bocelli’s recent smash-hit release “Cinema”, the award-winning, top-selling, international tenor returns to his first love, singing opera. One of the world’s best-loved operas, AIDA has been performed over 1,100 times at New York’s Metropolitan Opera alone.

Levine realizes the nobility and inner intensity of Verdi's broad concept. On this occasion there's little to cavil at in his speeds and his attention to detail, as for instance the mournful string figure that underpins Eboli's confession in Act 4 and the reflective accompaniment to the Queen's recollections of happier times at Fontainebleau in her Act 5 aria, is as discerning as ever.

Claudio Abbado hat mit diesem Werk seinem Credo alle Ehre gemacht: "Für mich ist Zuhören das Allerwichtigste: einander zuhören, zuhören, was andere Menschen zu sagen haben, auf die Musik hören.“

Decca is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the supreme master of Italian opera Giuseppe Verdi’s birth in matchless style by releasing in February 2013 a 75-CD box containing his entire canon of works.