Braccioli Riccardo

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No 3; J. S. Bach/Mahler Suite - Petra Lang mezzosoprano; Netherlands Children's Choir; Philharmonic Choir;
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Riccardo Chailly - conductor
Classical | 2 CDs | EAC Rip | 466 MB | FLAC+LOG+Cue | Full scans | RS links
Publisher: Decca

Here we have not only the (now "Royal") Concertgebouw ensemble in all of its idiomatic glory, magnificently recorded, but also Chailly at his most interpretively perceptive–and the result is absolutely stunning… As a bonus, Mahler's Bach Suite also receives its finest performance on disc. David Hurwitz
***
Riccardo Chailly's Mahler cycle with a sonically spectacular performance of the Third. It also brings nearer the end of his tenure in Amsterdam with the great Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra whose tradition he has maintained while overlaying it with a fine dedication to new music. This is a deeply impressive interpretation with an intriguing coupling. Gramophone

In 2010, Maestro Riccardo Chailly records Johann Sebastian Bach for Decca for the very first time with 3 releases. Having conducted the illustrious Gewandhaus Orchestra since 1986, this esteemed conductor's association with Leipzig is but one year less than Bach's. Chailly's profound musicality illuminates three of Bach's large-scale masterpieces: The St. Matthew Passion, the Brandenburg Concertos and the Christmas Oratorio. The 2nd release from this triology, the St. Matthew Passion is both riveting and dynamic. Played on modern instruments, Chailly's Bach beautifully demonstrates that a vivid, stylistically aware performance is not the exclusive preserve of period instrument ensembles. Distinguished German vocal soloists, including acclaimed bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, rise gloriously to the challenges of Bach's exalted score.

TDK presents an impressive staging of one of Rossini’s opera masterpieces. This production, staged by La Scala Milan is conducted by Riccardo Muti. Moïse et Pharaon - Rossini’s re-adaptation of the story of Moses in Egypt - emphasizes the dramatic moments of the biblical account beautifully and also demonstrates the composer‘s mastery of the French tradition: solos and choral work are superb compositions, the duets are expressive and touching. Including an extensive ballet scene at the beginning of Act III and featuring a preeminent international cast of singer-actors – Erwin Schrott, Barbara Frittoli, Sonia Ganassi - this recording brings a Rossini experience of the highest rank onto the screen…

EMI can boast a great number of excellent recordings of Don Giovanni. Back in the 1930s Fritz Busch made the first complete recording with his Glyndebourne forces. After that it took more than twenty years before a new version appeared, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini and with Eberhard Wächter, Giuseppe Taddei, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Joan Sutherland among the soloists. This set, at present available in the GROC series, is regarded by many as the definitive recording. Klemperer recorded it in the mid-1960s with Nicolai Ghiaurov in the title role and a decade later Barenboim set it down with Roger Soyer as Don Giovanni and Geraint Evans as Leporello. In the 1980s EMI returned to Glyndebourne and took down Bernard Haitink’s view of this eternally fascinating masterpiece – Thomas Allen and Richard Van Allan were the Don and his servant…
– Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

Riccardo Muti conducts a fine cast in the powerful and atmospheric 1991 production of Verdi’s ninth opera, whose story of the heroic tussle between Ezio, a Roman general, and Attila, the Nordic invader was written for the 1846 Teatro la Fenice season and premiered there to huge acclaim.

The "Serenissima" referred to in the title of this release is the Republic of Venice itself, La Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia, as it was known in Vivaldi's time and would be until its fall early in the Napoleonic era. Croatian countertenor Max Emanual Cencic gets some nice shots in the graphics, but no biographical information about either him or the curiously named orchestra Il Pomo d'oro under Riccardo Minasi is included. Instead, the intent seems to be to present some lesser-known Venetian operas from during and slightly before Vivaldi…

Rossini is best known for a delightful long list of Comic Operas; less well known is the Rossini of Opera Seria. Of the several that I've seen, heard on radio or on recordings, Tancredi is on the top of the list. The present DVD recoding of the Florence May Festival of 2005 is a most satisfactory presentation of this masterpiece. Two of the singers are in really good voice and can handle the difficult and complex Rossini line…

Tosca was revived to great acclaim at La Scala in this 2000 production, which built on Luca Ronconi's 1996 version with musical direction from principal conductor Riccardo Muti and Lorenza Cantini's nightmarishly distorted set. Puccini's most recorded opera is loved and derided in equal measure for its high-octane dramatics, rich arias and the fire-spitting exchanges of the eponymous heroine and her wily tormentor Scarpia. Under Muti, the music takes precedence over the self-conscious theatricality of the book. As a result, some high dramatic points–the stabbing, always tricky, and Tosca's suicide, equally dicey–are underplayed here…