This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
As if in answer to last month’s Singertalk, a major company issues a recital by this admirable tenor – and not before time. It is eight years since his debut recital was recorded on Claves (11/92), and despite his notable successes in the world’s leading opera houses (not to mention a warm recommendation in these columns) this long and precious span of youth in a tenor’s career has been allowed to pass without another recital as follow-up. Happily the voice as recorded has changed little, the fresh bloom of 1991 being only slightly affected by its steady but judicious usage, which in turn has brought experience and authority.
The earlier disc confined itself to Rossini and Donizetti, while the new one has a wider scope and
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includes at least one surprise in Lensky’s aria from Eugene Onegin, sung in Russian. The performance is a good one but, though a welcome extension, it suggests a limitation that is felt in some degree when he sings in Italian too. He has not yet the art of infusing the voice with emotions: he can express but not quite ‘be’. Still, his gifts and achievements are real enough. The voice is a clear, unforced lyric tenor, singing, in this programme, exactly what is right for it. Flexible and capable of softness, it is put scrupulously to the service of the music, guided by a well-schooled feeling for phrase and carry-over (for instance, in the lovely ‘linkage’ of the reprise in ‘Angelo casto e bel’). His French is good, and the Dream Song from Manon is a particularly skilled and tasteful piece of singing. To Roberto Devereux’s cabaletta and in declamatory recitative he brings spirit and energy without bluster, and the aria from Un ballo in maschera shows something of what may lie in him for the future, both in expressive capability and in the voice itself.
He is working here with the same conductor as in the still-available and recommended recital on Claves. The orchestra is different, with playing less refined than that of the English Chamber Orchestra, but still alert and responsive. The recorded sound is slightly more reverberant but clear and well balanced.
-- Gramophone
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Works on This Recording
1.
Roméo et Juliette: Ah! lève-toi, soleil by Charles Gounod
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1867; France
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 4 Minutes 26 Secs.
Language: French
Notes: This selection begins with "L'amour, l'amour..."
2.
Manon: Instant charmant...En fermant les yeux "Dream of des Grieux" by Jules Massenet
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1883-1884; France
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 3 Minutes 26 Secs.
Language: French
3.
Werther: Pourquoi me réveiller? by Jules Massenet
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1892; France
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 3 Minutes 33 Secs.
Language: French
4.
Il Duca d'Alba: Angelo casto e bel by Gaetano Donizetti
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1839; Italy
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 6 Minutes 41 Secs.
Language: Italian
Notes: This selection begins with "Inosservata penetrava..."
5.
Lucia di Lammermoor: Fra poco a me ricovero by Gaetano Donizetti
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1835; Italy
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 7 Minutes 34 Secs.
Language: Italian
Notes: This selection begins with "Tombe degli avi miei..."
6.
La Favorita: Spirto gentil by Gaetano Donizetti
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Written: 1843
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 4 Minutes 50 Secs.
Language: Italian
7.
L'Elisir d'Amore: Una furtiva lagrima by Gaetano Donizetti
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1832; Italy
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 4 Minutes 36 Secs.
Language: Italian
8.
Roberto Devereux: Ed ancor la tremenda porta by Gaetano Donizetti
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1837; Italy
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 9 Minutes 47 Secs.
Language: Italian
9.
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24: Lensky's aria by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Written: 1879
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 5 Minutes 52 Secs.
Language: Russian
10.
Rigoletto: Parmi veder le lagrime...Possente amor mi chiama by Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Written: 1851
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 5 Minutes 29 Secs.
Language: Italian
Notes: This selection begins with "Ella mi fu rapita!..."
11.
Rigoletto: La donna è mobile by Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1851; Italy
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 2 Minutes 7 Secs.
Language: Italian
12.
Un ballo in maschera: Ma se m' è forza perderti by Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1859; Italy
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 5 Minutes 16 Secs.
Language: Italian
Notes: This selection begins with "Forse la soglia attinse..."
13.
La Bohème: Che gelida manina by Giacomo Puccini
Performer:
Ramón Vargas (Tenor)
Conductor:
Marcello Viotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1896; Italy
Date of Recording: 07/1998
Venue: Studio 1, Bavarian Radio, Munich
Length: 4 Minutes 49 Secs.
Language: Italian
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