Braccioli Riccardo

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents The Three Queens, a program that brings together the finales of Gaetano Donizetti’s Tudor trilogy, showcasing three of the most fascinating heroines of opera history. These extraordinary women are interpreted by soprano star Sondra Radvanovsky, who performs them together with an excellent ensemble of soloists under the baton of Donizetti specialist Riccardo Frizza. Singing these three breathtaking roles on one night is an enormous challenge for any soprano, and this live recording captures all the excitement of this exceptional achievement.

Star tenor Javier Camarena makes his Pentatone debut with Signor Gaetano, together with Gli Originali under the baton of Italian opera specialist Riccardo Frizza, presenting a carefully-curated exploration of Donizetti's greatest tenor arias. Besides famous excerpts from L'elisir d'amore, Don Pasquale and Roberto Devereux, this project focuses on hidden gems from rarely-recorded works such as Betly, Maria de Rudenz and Il giovedì grasso. Camarena and Frizza's exceptional sense of style is enhanced by the period instrument playing of Gli Originali.

Chatka (1978) is released in the period when dance music is at its heights. This contaminated some of Tullio De Piscopo’s rhythmic movements, often employed in this album - bass drum in 4 and the hi-hat on the off beat. It is a moment of strong social contrasts. Supported by some private radio stations, Riccardo Zappa starts a tour in high school and university halls in Milan. Radio Popolare holds a referendum with its listeners to individualize the theme tune for its radio news programme. A theme by Bob Marley and Riccardo Zappa’s “Chatka” win with equal merit. Since then, and for a period afterwards, both themes were played alternately on the daily programming. Chatka, like the previous album and the two that followed, also climbed the TV & sorrisi, Ciao 2001 and Musica e Dischi charts. As far as we know it’s possible on track 3 to hear the first example of tapping, which had never been applied to the acustic guitar.

This is a very good performance of the Piano Concerto No. 2 and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini performed by Andrei Gavrilov, the Russian Pianist, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Muti. It is a very good interpretation of these works, capturing all the intensity and nuance, energy and romance, of these selections. There are passages of incredible speed where precision is essential and this is evident in this recording. Gavrilov has the ability to fully express the magnificence of some passages and the more brooding nuance and subtlety of other passages. The Philadelphia Orchestra sounds terrific in this recording.

This recording marks the start of Riccardo Muti's tenure with the Chicago Symphony. It is also his first appearance on the orchestra's own label. Given the reputations of the conductor, the orchestra, and even the label itself, expectations run high are not disappointed. This is as good a Verdi Requiem as you'll find anywhere on disc. It is a distinctive interpretation as well, the work of a conductor who is clearly intent on stamping his identity on his new ensemble. www.classical-cd-reviews.com, October 2010

This DVD would appeal mainly to a selected group of bel canto enthusiasts who lose sleep at night trying get rare recordings of rare operas from the bel canto repertoire. The audio from this performance circulated for a while (on the Philips label) and was difficult to find; this issue is therefore a treasure from that perspective. It represents one of the peaks of the bel canto revival movement of the past 20 years…

By Noam Eitan

…"Plácido Domingo is the finest Otello of our time, and Riccardo Muti is as good as any Verdi conductor around, so their partnership at La Scala, in a naturalistic production by Graham Vick, was guaranteed to be memorable…" The Guardian

This is the 51st title in the Vivaldi Edition and the 6th volume, out of approximately 12, of the series dedicated to the violin concertos whose manuscripts are held in the National Library of Turin. Following two successful volumes of concertos for solo violin and orchestra recorded separately in the Vivaldi Edition, virtuosos Riccardo Minasi and Dmitry Sinkovsky now join forces to record pyrotechnic concertos for two violins and orchestra. This series of 6 concertos is an overview of the complete art of Vivaldi as a composer and violinist: large of musical scale, invention, expression, energy, and of course, virtuosity.