Xenia

Vermicelli Orchestra - Markus Aurelius Suite (2005)
EAC | FLAC tracks +CUE +LOG +600 dpi Full Scans = 187 Mb | RAR 3% | RS
Genre: Progressive Rock | Label: Geometrija | Catalog Number: GEO 005 CD

Though VO was a russian PROG-ROCK ORCHESTRA and its leader (Sergej Schurakov who died at the age of 47 in 2007) was an accordeonist, the presented album is string-dominated and maybe not rock-album at all. Modern classical music. And it's brilliant…

This fiery performance of L'incoronazione di Poppea (referred to here as Il Nerone, the title used in Busenello's libretto) is driven by the resonant honesty of the characters' extreme and frequently volatile emotional states, which the soloists convey with singing of exceptional individuality, purity, and tonal beauty. The 2009 recording was made soon after a series of staged performances in France, Germany, and Italy, and it shows; the singers and instrumentalists have the freedom that comes from an easy familiarity with the score and with each other that allows them to perform with a spontaneity that sounds like they are making the music up on the spot. Characterizations are especially strongly drawn, and conductor Claudio Cavina is able to lead the group with the extremely flexible tempos that Monteverdi is known to have advocated. The instrumental ensemble is dominated by plucked strings, so the accompaniment initially sounds somewhat twangy and brittle, but the program notes make a strong case for the historical precedent for the use of these instruments, and the ear eventually adjusts to the sound.