MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Nabucco - opera in four parts (1842)
Nabucco – Renato Bruson (baritone); Ismaele – Fabio Armiliato (tenor); Zaccaria - Ferruccio Furlanetto (bass); Abigaille - Maria Guleghina (soprano); Fenena - Elena Zaremba (mezzo); Gran Sacerdote – Carol Stiuli (bass); Abdallo – Masatoshi Uehara (tenor); Anna – Taemi Kohama (soprano)
Tokyo Opera Singers; Tokyo Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Oren
rec. live, Suntory Hall, Tokyo, April 1998
synopsis but no texts included
NAÏVE V5158 [70:05 + 53:15] 

 

Experience Classicsonline


Nabucco
is an opera that always thrills me in the theatre, and usually also on disc. There is a ferocity in the music that takes hold of the listener, and it is no wonder that it was the composer’s first big success. It then suffered a period during which it was ignored, especially in Britain where it was not until 1952 that revivals in Scotland and Wales drew attention to its merits. Although the first complete studio version dates from 1951, recordings are now relatively common, including many live performances from Verona. Whilst it certainly benefits greatly from the kind of care that it gets, at least in part, in versions conducted by Muti and Gardelli, the opera usually remains worth hearing even in coarser performances. I had therefore expected to enjoy this version greatly, but was disappointed. 

I should say straightaway that it is by no means incompetent or without sections which do work well, but overall, for too much of the time, it seems generalized and lacking in the kind of commitment which is a prerequisite for the piece. As the recently revised published score shows, even at this stage in his career Verdi took care over dynamics and phrasing, but here all too often these are ignored. There is a lack of the kind of rhythmic definition and dynamic contrast which are necessary in any satisfactory performance. Admittedly this applies also to some of those live performances I mentioned earlier, but for the most part there remains in those cases sufficient dramatic drive to keep the listener involved. Here, although the efforts of Renato Bruson and Ferruccio Furlanetto do occasionally strike fire, the singers seem in general to be going through the motions rather than projecting the individuality of the situations and the characters. 

The orchestra and chorus are adequate as in general is Daniel Oren’s direction. The booklet has a useful historical note and a synopsis which would have benefited from being linked to the track numbers, but no information about the performers or the performance(s). It is stated to be live but no indication is given of whether it was a single performance or assembled from a series of performances. Nonetheless, it is hard to recommend this other than as a souvenir for anyone who was there.

John Sheppard

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.