Niccolo' Balini Ovunque

During the 1750s Niccolo Piccinni was one of the most popular opera composers at the major houses in Rome and Naples - but of the more than one hundred works he wrote for stage, most have fallen into oblivion. His greatest enduring success was the buffo opera La Cecchina, which enjoyed its premiere performance in Rome in 1760. The libretto was written by the Venetian poet Carlo Goldoni, based on the Samuel Richardson novel Pamela published in 1740. Piccinni's opera was pioneering in terms of style and helped establish his fame far beyond Italy's borders. Although the composer stayed true to the traditional form, he replaced the caricaturing and parodying depiction of the characters with an affectionate, sensitive and very human interpretation.

This fine work, in the perfect Classical tradition, is from late in Piccinni’s French period. It was composed in 1783 and was performed in Paris regularly until 1836 and throughout the rest of Europe until about 1830. Piccinni keeps the plot moving at a fine clip, running one number into the next without a glitch and (especially in the third act) effectively using the chorus to add to the excitement. His writing for the solo voices is stirring in a Gluckian way, but elements of his Italian roots show up in the vocal line and melodic inspiration as well.

Le finte gemelle was first staged in 1771. Success was immediate and other performances followed both in Italy and abroad. With Le finte gemelle Piccinni returned to a genre he had already tried ten years previously with La Cecchina ossia La buona figliola (1760), on a text by Goldoni. A sweeping success, that masterpiece had made him famous in all theatres well before he found himself at the centre of the well-known dispute between Gluck and Piccinni supporters, which would explode in Paris in 1778, after the performance of his Roland. The present live recording, in co-production with the Opéra de Chambre de Genève, features a young and qualified cast who masterfully render the spirit of this score by Piccini.

The conventional view of Niccolò Paganini's 24 Caprices puts them among the encores and etudes violinists use to hone their skills and show off their prowess. But Julia Fischer regards them primarily as expressive works that are as rich in lyricism and emotional color as they are in advanced techniques, and her 2010 Decca album shows her considered approach to the music. There's no doubt about Fischer's impressive abilities, which are apparent from hearing the first Caprice, and all the trickiest double- and triple-stops, bowing styles, and various means of articulation that are included in this fantastic work reveal her phenomenal gifts. But as amazing as Fischer's performance is for sheer technique, it is highly pleasurable because of her polished musicality and firm control of every nuance that is either overt or suggested in the music. The notoriously difficult Caprice No. 6, which Fischer plays con sordino, has a special ghostly quality that makes it much more ethereal and Romantic in character than an exercise in playing trills. Even the ever-popular Caprice No. 9, and that favorite of composers of variations, the Caprice No. 24, have a freshness and vitality that come directly from Fischer's genuine feelings, not merely her dazzling skills. Decca's sound is crisp and clean, so the full range of the violin's timbres and dynamics come through without studio boosting. Highly recommended.

During the course of an extraordinarily active life and compositional career Niccolò Piccinni embraced not only both comic and serious Italian opera but also, during the course of a 15-year period spent in Paris (1776–1791), adapted his style to tragédie lyrique, thereby becoming an unwitting participant in the rows between his adherents and those of Gluck. Like most 18th-century Neapolitan composers (he was actually born in Bari), Piccinni was a product of the conservatoire system, following which he gained his first operatic successes during the 1750s. In 1758 he broke into wider prominence with Alessandro nelle Indie, an opera seria given in Rome with such success that the composer moved there, embarking on a period of intense operatic activity that reached an early peak with the production in 1761 of his most famous opera, La buona figliuola.

Shlomo Mintz performances are just out of human proportions….all nuances and musical problems are easy and masterfully resolved and the product is the best ever set on record.

This fine work, in the perfect Classical tradition, is from late in Piccinni’s French period. It was composed in 1783 and was performed in Paris regularly until 1836 and throughout the rest of Europe until about 1830. Piccinni keeps the plot moving at a fine clip, running one number into the next without a glitch and (especially in the third act) effectively using the chorus to add to the excitement. His writing for the solo voices is stirring in a Gluckian way, but elements of his Italian roots show up in the vocal line and melodic inspiration as well.