And then there are these two fairly new discs, which I actually got a few weeks ago.
The DR program is a known
quantity from the radio broadcast of the concerts last year. It's remains a
wonderful program; and I continue to wish someone would cast her as Vitellia again...soon...and
somewhere I can hear her (and hopefully see her, too.) I also wonder, as her
voice darkens wonderfully, if she (and any impresario) would consider taking on
Dorabella. She’d be awesome in any variety of interpretations (insane,
oversexed, neurotic, naïve, or any combination thereof.)
The GG program is completely
new on my radar. Also, taken from
live performances last year, this concert contains the usual suspects as far as
arias go, but GG has made an effort to create a program with an overarching
theme. While the DR concert had an entire Mozart piano concerto in the middle
of it* (not included on the CD), GG's disperses the four movements of Symphony no. 36 throughout his
program (and not in symphony order.) On paper it sounds messy and/or contrived;
but in hearing, I think it works quite well.
These discs (as well as the Clemenza I mentioned yesterday, plus both recently observed Zauberflöten)
call for separate posts that are more review-like (vs. the wow! look what I
found! type of post.)
*I still think there was a missed opportunity here to program the
concert aria (with piano), "Ch'io
mi scordi di te? ... Non temer, amato bene;" but for some reason they didn't ask me when they were planning
the concert.
