As with previous issues
in this series, owners of Romophone’s
Gigli editions will recognise this selection,
which derives from the Complete Victor
Recordings Volume II 1926-28. As before
the songs and arias are in chronological
sequence. By now we have left behind
the occasional gaucheries of his earlier
discs and reach the voice in its full,
unforced beauty. The top is produced
and sustained with unequivocal beauty;
the lower voice capable of almost baritonal
extension and evenness. With electric
recording came the opportunity to remake
some of his earlier acoustics. Recondita
armonia (his third recording of
it) is genuinely thrilling and unsullied
by any strictly non-musical emotionalism
and his Donna non vidi mai is
powerfully ardent if with a few intrusive
catches in the throat. For the Drigo
and Toselli songs – in the latter’s
Serenata we have an unpublished second
take to join the issued third - he’s
joined by an unnamed violinist whose
woefully slow vibrato in no way threatens
Gigli’s sovereign legato. His way with
light material can best be savoured
in the issued sides resulting from Gigli’s
visit to the New York studios on 9th
December 1926. He was in truly beautiful
voice and the songs, though light and
airy, are perfect vehicles for Gigli’s
exceptional powers of communication,
sitting perfectly for the voice. Torna
amore is full of romantic declamation
and Stornelli marini, the gem
of the session, sees Gigli’s legato
supported by a core of steel.
The duets with Titta
Ruffo were not issued immediately. Ruffo’s
star had waned and the voice was no
longer the stentorian instrument of
old, but instead now seriously frayed.
In the unsatisfactory sides he made
with Gigli it sounds as if Ruffo was
standing farther from the microphone
than his colleague – in any case the
tonal imbalance between voices is considerable
– and the remade sides with De Luca
are a considerable improvement. Note-writer
William Ashbrook prefers this later
version of Boito’s Dai campi, dai
prati! from Mefistofele to the 1921
acoustic but I still find it a shade
too lachrymose for comfort and whilst
he aspirates too much in Verdi’s Solenne
in quest’ora he’s still full of
warmth and a superb body of tone and
makes a notable teaming with Met colleague
De Luca.
Once more, those who
have the Romophone discs can rest easy;
the difference between transfers is
minimal. The pleasure of Gigli’s voice,
heard in all its resplendent youthful
ardour, never pales.
Jonathan Woolf