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
Download from eclassical.com

Great Baritone Arias
Arias by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Gounod, Rossini, Verdi and Britten.
See the complete track listing after the review.
Peter Mattei (baritone)
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Lawrence Renes
rec. November 2008, March 2009 and October 2010 at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Hybrid SACD.
Texts and English translations are included.
BIS BISSACD1749 [63:51]

Experience Classicsonline


Hey you, collections of tenor and soprano recordings on the CD shelves! Move to one side and make room for an outstanding baritone disc! Peter Mattei is now in his prime, and his voice miraculously preserves the freshness and vibrancy of youth. His fast notes are excellently articulated, his slow ones are just beautiful. His voice is instantly recognizable. It is not as muffled as Hvorostovky, not as watery as Hampson and not as dark as Gobbi. It is straight, clear and never shows its limits - as if there are no limits, and the singer just decides to draw the cut exactly where he chooses.
 
It’s harder to get under the spell of opera these days. The plots may be silly and overblown, but such is the magic of opera that we forget about the logic - we are fed by the emotion in the music, in the voice. 200 years ago this could have been easier - people did not expect logic in the art, did not expect opera to be something else. Now we are educated, we read, we watch tons of movies - and it takes more to break through the stockades of our brains to our hearts. And the main weapon here is, surely, the voice. It must come into resonance with our emotional core. Then we’ll stop looking for logic and will believe the action like a fairy tale, like children that believe the art because it is beautiful. That’s why we can listen to opera in other languages without understanding a word and will still cry and laugh with it.
 
That’s what I feel in Mattei’s final monolog of di Posa from Don Carlo. I don’t quite care for the future of Spain and Flanders at that moment; di Posa’s actions do not seem to me the smartest things to do, and his death is dubious. There is too much Deus jumping out of every macchina. But Verdi and Mattei bring me into emotional resonance. I don’t think anymore: I feel. And this feeling is beyond words.
 
I feel it with Mattei’s Wolfram, his Valentin and his Yeletsky. They are noble and tender, and power blends with beauty in the singing as they watch their sopranos being stolen by flashy tenors. Wagner’s opera chunks rarely mix well with other composers, but the two Wolfram songs from Tannhäuser (the contest song and the Evening Star) are heartfelt and lyrical, and fit in the picture frame like two pieces of mosaic.
 
Mattei’s Count from Figaro is not a villain: he has human feelings, and his actions are motivated. As a matter of fact, Mattei is a natural Mozartean. He shows deep psychology in Se vuol ballare, going under the surface. He conveys soft humor in the Cosi fan tutte aria, and in Leporello’s number he lights the music with a smile.
 
Mattei’s Onegin is ardent and very sincere. You’ll be touched by the eerie, dreamy meditation of Billy Budd, the humble acceptance of his fate. Largo al factotum is spirited and sonorous. Finch’han dal vino may be too fast, almost reaching frenzy. Deh vieni is a gallant romance: a soft, elegant ending to the program.
 
I wish there were more arias included - especially more Verdi. Even so, this collection is a delight. The acoustics are perfect, catching the voice and the orchestra in full 3D. The orchestra under Lawrence Renes is a worthy partner, elegant and colorful, well balanced and sympathetic. The booklet contains a short essay about the tough life of the baritone in the opera world and about the arias from the program. It also tells us about the singer, the orchestra and the conductor - all this in English, Swedish, German and French. Texts of all arias are given in the original language with the English translation. A glorious disc! 

Oleg Ledeniov 

 
Track listing:
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Finch’han dal vino (from Don Giovanni) (1787) [1:18]
Metà di voi qua vadano (from Don Giovanni) [2:43]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Uzhel ta samaya Tatyana (from Eugene Onegin) (1878) [2:11]
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Blick’ ich umher in diesem edlen Kreise (from Tannhäuser) (1843-45) [5:18]
Charles GOUNOD (1818-1893)
Avant de quitter ces lieux (from Faust) (1859) [3:14]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
Se vuoi ballare (from Le nozze di Figaro) (1786) [2:34]
Hai già vinta la causa… Vedrò mentr’io sospiro (from Le nozze di Figaro) [4:34]
Richard WAGNER
Wie Todesahnung… O, du mein holder Abendstern (from Tannhäuser) [5:09]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY
Ya vas lyublyu (from The Queen of Spades) (1890) [3:53]
Gioacchino ROSSINI (1792-1868)
Largo al factotum (from Il barbiere di Siviglia) (1816) [4:54]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo, K.584 (originally intended for Così fan tutte) (1789) [5:03]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY
Vy mnye pisali… Kogda by zhizn domashnim krugom (from Eugene Onegin) [5:00]
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Son io, mio Carlo… Per me giunto… O Carlo, ascolta (from Don Carlo) (1866) [8:06]
Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976)
Look! Through the port comes the moonshine astray (from Billy Budd) (1951) [5:41]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
Deh, vieni alla finestra (from Don Giovanni) [2:02] 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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.