Release Date: 03 January 2006
Label: Naxos - Ex Select Products / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313278022
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: DONIZETTI
Description
Gaetano Donizetti(1797-1848)Songs'I shall have to writetwelve canzonette as usual, to get twenty ducats for each, somethingthat in times past I used to do while the rice was cooking.' Thus Donizetti tohis brother-in-law, Antonio Vasselli, in 1837, the year of Pia de' Tolomei andRoberto Devereux, hardly suggesting a profound commitment to the genre. Fortunatelythe majority of his 'Liriche da camera' tell a different story. Whetherissued in batches of six or more with fancy titles, a common practice of thetime, or written individually for some professional singer or wealthy amateur,they display a freshness of melodic invention, neat craftsmanship and, aboveall, that inexhaustible formal resource that marks the best of his operas.In Donizetti's day vocalchamber music, as it was called in Italy, tended to run to fixed patterns:strophic with refrain, simple ternary with central episode and reprise,minor-to-major key 'romanza' also with episode, even the cantabile-cabalettascheme of an operatic aria with piano accompaniment that suggests an orchestralreduction. All are to be found in Donizetti's output, but always with subtlevariations and extensions that carry them well outside the norm. Some of his designsare wholly original, being dictated by the nature of the text. Clearly morethought was given to their composition than Donizetti was disposed to admit.The earliest of his salonpieces date from his years in Naples, which would remain his base of operationsfor a good part of his career. Indeed, in Verdi's eyes he was more of aNeapolitan than Mercadante, who claimed (falsely) to have been born in thatcity; and the judgement was meant as a compliment.The present recordingincludes items from a Collezione di canzonette probably published duringthe 1820s and containing five solo songs, three duets and an unaccompaniedquintet. 'Giuro d'amore' [Track 9] , a simple heart-felt avowal of love,is remarkable in making a perfectly rounded musical statement with no elementof thematic recurrence. 'Su l'onda tremola' [7], an invitation to thehesitant beloved to take a trip on the Venetian lagoon, is laid out as a rondo,each reprise varied with light touches of fioritura.Altogether more ambitiousare four songs from the set, 'Un hiver ?á Paris', also a Neapolitan publication reprintedin Paris in 1839. Their style approaches the operatic, with passages ofrecitative, inconclusive pauses in the accompaniment before the vocal entry andeven final cadenzas. 'La ninna-nanna' [11] opens with a recitative in adistant key before settling into a gentle, rocking refrain, its recurrencesextended by haunting melismata on the word 'Ah!'. The other threerequire vocal impersonations in the manner of Schubert's 'Der Erlkonig'. In 'Ilpescator' [16] the narration, the grief of the abandoned fisherman and theblandishments of the goddess of the lake are conveyed in a masterly blend ofrecitative, arioso and fully formed cantabile that illustrates every detailof Schiller's poem. 'La sultana'
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
