Not Just a Pretty Face

The young Latvian mezzo Elina Garanca makes her recital debut on the label with a delightful programme of Mozart arias, interweaving five of Mozart’s brilliant and demanding concert arias, including the supremely taxing ‘Ch’io mi scordi di te’ with extracts from La finta giardiniera, La clemenza di Tito and Così fan tutte. Well-known for her engaging stage performances as Dorabella Elina has chosen also to include Fiordiligi’s dazzling ‘Come scoglio’.

Nad Sylvan is of course the latest incarnation of the archangel Gabriel, providing a myriad of prog bands the ability to step up to the microphone and sing…

He had done it years ago, first with Blues for the Working Class, which dealt with the issues of safety in the workplace (a topic in which Tenca is particularly expert and involved); then, with Wake up nation, which is ten years old, but which is still very current; finally, with Love is the only law, which sees the collaboration of the great bluesman Guy Davis. Now, after a break of a few years, the blues is once again pressing the accelerator of emotions, the social and political situation is far from being improved, and the eleven songs of the new work constitute a manifesto of what Tenca thinks is the duty of a bluesman today: to continue singing, to denounce, to invite reflection, beyond the ideological fences and various mystifying propagandas.