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


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

Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Ernani - opera in four acts (1843) [117:55]
Ernani, the bandit - Gino Penno (tenor); Don Carlo, King of Spain - Giuseppe Taddei (baritone); Don Ruy de Silva, a Spanish grandee - Giacomo Vaghi (bass); Elvira, Silva’s niece and loved by Ernani - Caterina Mancini (soprano); Don Riccardo, the King’s equerry - Vittorio Pandano (tenor); Jago, equerry to Silva - Ezio Achilli (bass); Giovanna - Licia Rossini.
Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Roma della RAI/Fernando Previtali
rec. 25 June 1950, Rome. AAD. mono
WARNER FONIT 2564 66143-6 [74:38 + 43:17]

Experience Classicsonline


Here is another of the radio broadcast recordings produced by Cetra in the 1950s. Their chief value now, apart from intrinsic artistic excellence, is that they re-connect us with a vanished tradition. Despite being largely overlooked, they are hardly held in low esteem by people who really know their opera. "Gramophone" reviewer Philip Hope-Wallace began the fashion of belittling them with patronising condescension in his reviews through the 1950s and 1960s, though to be fair, he could not have foreseen the dearth which now teaches us to appreciate them better. 

Why should a sixty-year-old mono recording remain desirable? Easy: there are voices here to pin back the ears of the most jaded opera-buff and yet none except Giuseppe Taddei is really well-known. Gino Penno had a scant ten years at the top in the 1950s as a successful international Heldentenor and partner of Callas in several Verdi operas, then dropped out of sight - but what a voice he had. Not exactly beautiful - in fact it's rather plaintive and penetrating of tone - but it is absolutely huge, smooth and even with a ringing top, superb legato and ample breath which allows him to ride orchestral climaxes.
 
Just as impressive is the much-underrated Caterina Mancini. She, too, has fearless attack, enormous volume, and a gutsy lower register. Top notes can be a little acidic and her coloratura can be laboured but we have had no one of her amplitude of voice since her contemporary Tebaldi - whom she somewhat resembles, vocally. Despite the size of their voices, both artists can sing quietly and their intonation and musicality are unimpeachable.
 
As if that were not sufficient to gladden the heart, we also hear the great baritone Giuseppe Taddei and Giacomo Vaghi, a bass once spoken of in the same breath as Pinza and Pasero, but whose star seems to have fallen. He has a smooth, black tone and great authority - a treacly treat of a voice.
 
The studio recording is in clean, clear, undistorted mono and Previtali conducts with wise and generous forbearance towards his singers, letting the melodies breathe and bloom, not rushing but not allowing any slackness to creep in, either. I have a great attachment to another contemporary classic live performance of that era with Del Monaco, Cerquetti, Bastianini and Christoff, but I cannot say that this one is inferior. Each delivers a full-blooded performance of Verdi at full throttle the like of which it is impossible to hear today.
 
The original garish 1951 cover artwork is reproduced and there is no libretto.  

Ralph Moore 

 

 

 


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






Error processing SSI file