chi mai?
Dark horse Alberto Veronesi conducts — indeed, the same Muti-maned steed who was recently announced to succeed Eve Queler as music director of the Opera Orchestra of New York in 2011.
The release is a chance for Domingo to cut yet another notch into his belt, adding a long and demanding work to his already enormous recorded repertoire. But the addition of a second recording of the piece (which was first put on wax in 1990 by tenor Salvatore Fisichella and conductor Nello Santi) seems unjustified, especially in an age of such slender production in the recording industry.
The lengthy symphonic poem, a quasi song cycle on French-language verses by Alfred de Musset, oozes with Romantic imagery of the Poet and his Muse. Domingo sounds plausible as a tenor here, with most of his famous luster. His rolled R’s do not detract from a suave command of the French, but the verses pass by with a wan and tiresome sameness.
Veronesi exhibits the right feel for Leoncavallo’s languid kitsch. The orchestra of the Teatro Communale di Bologna shows them to be solid if not top-tier, and they handle the extended orchestral passages (such as the Berliozian 7th Movement “Allegro con fuoco” ) with sober authority.
Pianist Lang Lang gets top billing for his cameo playing the concertante piano passages (even though the prominent zither part that mucks up the orchestration is unattributed.) Filling out the balance of the disc, Lang accompanies Domingo in an assortment of Leoncavallo’s songs and even offers a pair of cute walzes for piano solo. A Universal press release calls this Lang’s “first recorded collaboration with a singer.” I can only imagine how long the opera world has been waiting for this day.
The songs become, marginally, the more satisfying bits on this album. Lang’s muscular accompaniment of Domingo in “Ecco Aprile!” shows his enthusiasm, while his cascading arpeggios decorate “Hymne à la Lyre” with the requisite dynamism. But don’t look too long for subtleties or poetry in these performances — and don’t blame the artists! For the songs have little gold to mine.
O me o my O — why MAI??
Would this man please just go to Acapulco, as do others his age, and Stop The Madness!!
81 years young today:
wow
frau mödl even makes fortner sound interessant!
Is there a pianist that supposedly
forced Deutche to delete another
fellow pianist from its list before he
would sign up as be believes he is
the one and only --?
So this Leoncavallo release is supposed to be illustrious. With ‘Clang-Clang’ on the piano, no thanks. Just listen to his performance of the second subject, in the opening movement of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto……..yikes! It is pathetic,and probably the worst performance of that concerto I have ever heard. Still DG the record label persists with their ‘star’ pianist. Any wonder CD sales are falling??!!
Do we really have to have more Lang Lang? I heard him in Aspen, CO a couple of years back and was highly disappointed. He (to me) bangs alot plus seeing him in rehearsal, he comes across as a very arrogant SOB--very “full” of himself as “I’m the greatest”! That same year. Stephen Hough gave a masterful and beautiful recital showing what beautiful sounds can come from the piano. Just my opinion. I am sure that DGG does not give a fig what I think! Lang Lang is a little “pot of gold”. Americans especially seem to adore him.
Not just Americans adore him -the
lower orders of all countries who
know little of the art of the piano
adore him . He is the international
Liberace -at least in Liberaces’
favour he knew it was all a sham
and played it to the hilt -not so
Lang Lang -.The many Chinese who
belive he brings glory to China do
not realize all he brings is ridicule
while the good artists are shoved aside .Deutche Gram . is a business
it has nothing to do with the art of music ,except as a commodity it
hope to sell like manure . If Lang
Lang sells ,that is all that matters
and if rumor is true that he was instrumental in getting them to drop Li, then we for that alone
we should drop him . As forPD
he is doing everything he can to
rid himself of the Vickers shadow
he will sing on until he can’t move,
but for those that have seen Vickers, PD will always be the brides maid no matter what he does or however well . He can sing
100 great Otellos’ but Vickers will
always be “the Otello” Vickers for
all his faultswill be remembered for his towering performance -but poor
Domingo will be rembered for lasting a long,long long time as
Lang Lang probably won’t .
” Americans especially seem to adore him.”
The (less gifted ) Andre Watts of his generation.
Hardly in the tradition of Dame Myra Hess.
Rafal plays rings around Lang Lang
You gotta love that little wink too.