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             


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

REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH


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

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Elina Garanca - Habanera
Elina Garanca (mezzo)
Roberto Alagna (tenor)(2), José Maria Gallardo (guitar) (7, 11, 12), Coro Filarmonico del Regio di Torino, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai/Karel Mark Chichon
rec. Auditorium RAI Arturo Toscanini, Torino, March 2010
texts and translations in French, German and English enclosed
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 8776
[68:22]

Experience Classicsonline


Francisco Asenjo BARBIERI (1823 – 1894)
El barberillo de Lavapiés
1. Come nací en la calle de la Paloma [3:02]
Georges BIZET (1838 – 1875)
Carmen
2. Près des remparts de Séville (Seguidilla) [4:41]
Franz LEHÁR (170 – 1948)
Zigeunerliebe
3. Hör ich Zymbalklänge [4:34]
Michael William BALFE (1808 – 1870)
The Bohemian Girl
4. I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls [4:55]
Xavier MONTSALVATGE (1912 – 2002)
Cinco canciones negras
5. No. 4 Canción de cuna para dormer a un negrito [2:53]
Manuel de FALLA (1876 – 1946)
El amor brujo
6. Canción del amor dolido [1:30]
Siete canciones populares españolas
7. No. 5 Nana [1:37]
Maurice RAVEL (1875 – 1935)
8. Vocalise en forme de Habanera [3:24]
Ruperto CHAPI (1851 – 1909)
El barquillero
9. Quando está tan hondo [6:08]
Leonard BERNSTEIN (1918 – 1990)
Candide
10. I am easily assimilated [4:00]
José Maria GALLARDO (b. 1958)
11. Canción del amor [3:46]
Manuel de FALLA
Siete canciones populares españolas
12. No. 4 Jota [3:00]
Pablo LUNA (1879 – 1942)
El niño judio
13. De España vengo [6:25]
Georges BIZET
Carmen
14. Les tringles des sisters tintaient [4:46]
Fernando J OBRADORS (1897 – 1945)
Canciones clásicas españolas
15. El vito [3:21]
José SERRANO (1873 – 1941)
La alegria del batallón
16. A una gitana presinsa [1:48]
Georges BIZET
Carmen
17. L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Habanera) Final version [4:43]
18. L’amour est enfant de bohème (Habanera) First version [3:49]

 
There are a few records every year where everything is right. This is one of them. The recording, the booklet, the playing of the orchestra, the singing of the chorus, the conducting – everything is on the highest possible level. But what makes this disc stand out as something extraordinary is the programme and the singing.
 
Let’s begin with the programme. The title Habanera immediately signals associations with Spain and the best known habanera is without doubt the one Carmen sings – and Carmen is a gypsy. So gypsy-related music and music with Spanish flavour. Voilá! There are several Spanish composers represented: de Falla, Montsalvatge, Obradors. There are several maestros of the zarzuela – that typical Spanish kind of operetta – but also some Frenchmen: Bizet and Ravel. Add to these a Hungarian: Franz Lehár; an Englishman: Balfe; and an American: Bernstein. In other words a cosmopolitan gathering ensuring contrasts and variety as well as unity. Some of the music is often heard, the three standard arias from Carmen and de Falla’s songs for instance, but a lot more is unhackneyed. There are some things that will be completely new to many readers. The opening number, a bouncy and catchy aria by Barbieri went straight to my heart. I hadn’t heard the aria from Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl either, truly beautiful and soothing. Also it is clever programming to end the recital with two versions of the Carmen Habanera: first the one everyone knows and then Bizet’s first version, which is completely different, heavier and in a way closer to Carmen’s complex character. With more than 68 minutes playing-time this is a generous offering and I am convinced that most readers and potential buyers will find new acquaintances to add to their personal favourite list.
 
But the main reason to buy the disc is the absolutely stupendous singing of Elina Garanca. The Latvian mezzo, now in her mid-30s, has been a hot name for some years. With this recital she definitely climbs to the top of the list – and there is no shortage of great mezzo-sopranos in our time. Garanca is a real mezzo, neither a pushed-up contralto nor a pushed down soprano. Her tone is creamy but can also be glittering and she has well equalized chest-notes. She is also the possessor of ringing top-notes and tosses off an impressive high C at the end of the Lehár aria. Technically she seems to have no weaknesses but innumerable strengths. Beauty of tone and sure-fire technique are important qualities for a successful singing career but to become really great one needs interpretative abilities as well, abilities to communicate. And this is where her greatness lies. Glorious top notes are one way to impress, but the capacity to turn a phrase memorably, to colour the tone, to whisper and still be clearly heard, to charm, to entice the listener and – as in the Carmen seguidilla – be sexually alluring even without the visual aspects, that is what great singing is all about. On stage as Carmen, where I saw her at the Met earlier this year, her physical presence in combination with her singing is totally engrossing. Also as a pure audio experience all the excerpts from Carmen are absolutely spellbinding. Other Carmens may have had grander voices, few have made the character come so much alive.
 
In the zarzuela numbers she is up against legends like Victoria de los Angeles, Montserrat Caballé and Teresa Berganza, three singers I admire enormously. Their positions as touch-stones have not been upset but another name has been added to the group: Elina Garanca. The same goes for the de Falla and Montsalvatge songs, especially the latter’s Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito, so breathlessly beautifully sung. Ruperto Chapi’s big aria from El barquillero is a marvellous number and gives her opportunities to display all aspects of her interpretative art and so does an old favourite of mine, Luna’s De España vengo. Garanca milks it for every drop of intensity, even out-singing Victoria de los Angeles.
 
The two Spanish folk-songs by de Falla are performed with only guitar accompaniment – a splendid idea; Teresa Berganza did it too. The guitarist, José Maria Gallardo, also contributes a composition of his own¸ Canción del amor, where a small combo is added to the guitar in a jazzy bossa nova number. Garanca is equally at home in this cross-over genre.
 
This is not only my Recording of the Month – it will most certainly be one of my Recordings of the Year when it’s time to close the books in December. Don’t miss it!
 
Göran Forsling
 
 


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






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.