Fantastic four-star review of 'Ottone in Villa' - next Vivaldi Edition opera to be recorded - at the Barbican on Friday!

elow is undoubtedly the first of a long series of fantastic reviews of 'Ottone in Villa' which was performed last Friday at the Barbican in London. In line with the great reaction of the audience after the performance, here are some highlights from the four-star review of 'Ottone in Villa' by The Guardian.

The Guardian ★★★★

Premiered in 1713, Vivaldi’s bitter little comedy Ottone in Villa was his first opera and stands, in some respects, at a tangent to its successors. At just over two and a half hours, it is short by his standards, while its taut dramaturgy precludes the sprawling quality that hampers his later stage works.

The subject – standard 18th-century fare, but handled with great sensual frankness and moral astuteness – is the relationship between desire and politics.

(...)

Caio’s emotional and moral anguish gradually exposes the self-seeking superficiality that surrounds him. An exacting, complex role, it was sung unforgettably in this concert performance by Julia Lezhneva, who combines flawless technique with emotional veracity. Sonia Prina’s Ottone was all rapid-fire coloratura and smug self-deception.

Tim Ashley

You can read the full article here and consult more reviews of the performance on the Vivaldi Edition facebook page.

Vivaldi's 'Ottone in Villa', RV729 (1713) - The next recording project for the Vivaldi Edition

From the moment we learnt that the next Vivaldi opera to be recorded for the Vivaldi Edition would be Ottone in Villa - Vivaldi's first opera produced in Vicenza in 1713 - we here at Naïve Classics in London were filled with great excitement and anticipation as to what it would be like.  

Although it is not the first time this opera has been recorded, a new recording of the work is long overdue and with Il Giardino Armonico / Giovanni Antonini attached along with internationally acclaimed soloists, there is no doubt this is going to be a truly stunning recording.  Artists confirmed for recording include:

Sona Prina Ottone

Veronica Cangemi Cleonilla

Julia Lezhneza Caio Silio

Roberta Invernizzi Tullia / Ostilio

Topi Lehtipuu Decio

Il Giardino Armonico

Giovanni Antonini conductor

The full cast are currently touring this work throughout Europe and will be appearing on the following dates:

24 May 2010 Valladolid (Spain) 

29 May 2010 Valladolid / Concert
02 June 2010 Valladolid 

We attended the performance of the work last Friday (http://bit.ly/btIJGJ) at the Barbican in London and were overwhelmed by the reaction of the audience as the third and final act came to a close.  One journalist wrote:  “With a terrific band and technically accomplished singers, Ottone in villa will be an exciting CD.” – The Arts Desk (http://bit.ly/9QsDpJ)

Please find below fantastic video footage taken from the first concert of the European tour in Kraków:

Please head to the venue’s website to view fantastic images from the performance - http://www.operarara.pl/en/7/142/158/photo-gallery.

We would be interested to hear what you think. A good choice for the next Vivaldi Edition opera?

BBC Music Magazine award-winner Patricia Kopatchinskaja featured in Gig Magazine

Independent labels such as Naïve were this year’s “big winners” at the BBC Music Magazine Awards according to Gig Magazine.

“Of the 10 discs receiving awards at the ceremony on 13 April, only two were released on major labels.”

Below is an extract from the article, mentioning Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Naïve.

“In the Orchestral category, voters chose violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with Philippe Herreweghe conducting the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées (Naïve).”

Gig Magazine, 27 April 2010

Edna Stern’s recording of Chopin’s works reviewed by The Times!

The Times ★★★

Mercurial and meditative, Stern’s interpretations are distinctive enough. But it’s her piano that makes the big difference: an 1842 Pleyel, which clouds most of the notes in a velvety darkness, transforming textures and cutting out scintillating display. Odd? Perhaps. Yet this muffled sonority was what Chopin favoured. Stern, a pupil of Krystian Zimerman, works hard extracting magic from her difficult instrument, triumphing in the sombre Funeral March. The rest of the bill includes waltzes, ballades and preludes.

By Geoff Brown

An excellent review of Mark Minkowski conducting in Bruxelles… to help you wait until August!

Mark Minkowski’s ‘Haydn Symphonies’ will be released in a few-month time and we know, it is hard to wait. So here is a review of Don Quichotte which was performed in Bruxelles last week… conducted by Mark Minkowski. Below is an extract of the review but you can read the full article here.

“The production's greatest asset has to be its conductor, Marc Minkowski, who is on formidable form here. From the off, he drew wild, excited thrusts from his band, with basses sounding as if lit from below, and the rest duly adjusting to their steaming pulse. Sounding like Tchaikovsky on speed, those martial passages in the score that depict the peregrination of the Don and also his somewhat unhinged self-image completely suffused the house. Equally evident, though, was a keen lyric tinge, which came out most persuasively in the final act, where Minkowski held his left hand at constant attention, always dimming the ardour of the tragic music, waiting instead for the explosions of the final chords, which shattered the ears when they finally came. A thoroughly enjoyable, pleasingly confusing, evening in the theatre.”

By Stephen Graham

Fantastic features of the Quatuor Diotima in the international press!

The Quatuor Diotima has received excellent reviews from the British and American press in the last months. Below are two features from the UK's newspaper The Guardian and the American's newspaper The Dallas Morning News.

The Guardian ★★★★

Admired by Beethoven and Schubert, George Onslow (1784-1853) has become that rare phenomenon, a composer who was internationally popular in his own lifetime and for a considerable time afterwards, yet who virtually vanished in the next century. Despite his English name, Onslow was essentially French; born in the Auvergne to an English father and a French mother, he studied with Cramer and then Reicha in Paris, and later succeeded Cherubini as director of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Onslow composed symphonies and operas, but it was his chamber music – put on a par with Mozart’s by Mendelssohn and Schumann – with which he made his reputation. Onslow composed more than 30 string quartets, and an equal number of quintets, so the Quatuor Diotima are only scratching the surface with this selection of three from 1834. They reveal a composer caught on the brink of Romanticism; some moments recall late Beethoven or Schubert, others anticipate Mendelssohn and Schumann, or look back to Haydn and Mozart. It’s a fascinating historical snapshot, beautifully rendered by the Diotima, who lavish immense care on every bar.

By Andrew Clements

You can also read the article on The Guardian website.


The Dallas Morning News

Born to a British father and a mother from the Auvergne region of France, George Onslow (1784-1853) was trained by some of the most esteemed teachers of the day: Jan Ladislav Dussek, Johann Baptist Cramer and Antoine Reicha. A skilled pianist who also knew his way around the cello, Onslow was especially prolific as a composer of chamber music – 34 string quintets and 35 string quartets.
Brought up in a solid classical tradition, Onslow reportedly was shocked by the bold new language of Beethoven's late string quartets. Then, in the early 1830s, he turned around and penned these three quartets very much in the vein of late Beethoven, albeit with a bit more sheer flamboyance. They need no apologies even next to Beethoven, and they get brilliant performances from this young French quartet.

By Scott Cantrell

You can also read the article on the Dallas News website.

Minkowski’s recording for St Cecilia reviewed by The American Record Guide: still fantastic!

Here are three major works in honor of St Cecilia, the patron saint of music, by three major composers in new recordings made in January of 2009. Each of the composers had a special relationship to England. Purcell was a native son. Handel became an Englishman by adoption. Haydn was an esteemed visitor whom the English took to their hearts.

Hail! Bright Cecilia (1692) was the last and greatest of Purcell’s odes for celebrations of the saint’s day (November 22) that were organized by the Gentlemen of the Musical Society of London in the late 17th Century. He wrote three earlier odes—two in English and one in Latin—but they are not as ambitious or colorful as the 1692 ode. He would write a large scale Te Deum and Jubilate with accompaniment of strings and trumpets for the St Cecilia celebrations of 1694. They were the canticles sung at the church service preceding the celebratory banquet. The text for the 1692 ode was a new poem by Nicholas Brady, who evidently used John Dryden’s Ode for St Cecilia’s Day (1687) as his model.

Handel turned to Dryden’s ode for the text of his Song for St Cecilia’s Day in 1739. Both Dryden and Brady consider the musical instruments and declare them all inferior in dignity and resources to the organ, the instrument especially associated with St Cecilia. Irresistible opportunities for exploitation of instrumental colors are imaginatively taken by both composers.

Haydn’s St Cecilia Mass was originally composed in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the shrine at Mariazell (Missa Cellensis in Honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae). It is thought that a later performance on St Cecilia’s Day in Vienna may account for its other title. It exists in two versions. The earlier one— performed on this recording—dates from 1766 and includes only the Kyrie and Gloria. The later version of 1773 includes the entire Mass Ordinary and is the lengthiest of Haydn’s masses, comparable in scale to Bach’s B minor Mass or Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. As an encore here, Minkowski includes the two concluding movements of the 1773 Credo.

These are highly polished performances of great energy and subtlety. Marc Minkowski takes quick tempos very quickly, but rarely do they seem rushed. The rapid-fire repetitions of the words “must be forced” in ‘Wondrous Machine’ from Purcell’s ode come close to sounding frantic. Bass Luca Tittoto is more than able to keep up, but it does not sound easy or natural. On the other hand, Minkowski is not afraid to let a movement in slow tempo unfold at a leisurely pace while preserving structural coherence, as for example, Handel’s ‘What Passion Cannot Music Raise’.

The vocal soloists are excellent. Soprano Lucy Crowe exhibits an exquisite refinement of tone and impressive vocal control in Handel’s ‘The Soft Complaining Flute’ and ‘But Oh! What Art Can Teach’ as well as the aforementioned ‘What Passion Cannot Music Raise’. At the same time she performs impressive vocal acrobatics in Haydn’s ‘Quoniam tu Solus Sanctus’. I have admired contralto Nathalie Stutzmann from other recordings. Her tone is almost unbelievably majestic: a genuine contralto, not just a mezzo with some good low notes. Her trios with tenor Richard Croft and bass Luca Tittoto are amazingly cohesive in tone and blend. Even so, I think it was the right decision to give Purcell’s alto solo ‘Hark, Each Tree’ to countertenor David Bates; it is more suited to the musical idiom.

The 30-voice chorus (8-7-7-8) is highly disciplined and responsive. I find their tone a trifle thick for Purcell, whose style benefits from the lightness and transparency of the best British early-music choirs. This chorus sounds much more at home in the more broadly-conceived choral lines of Handel and Haydn. The playing of the period-instrument ensemble is outstanding.

The physical presentation is exceptionally elegant. The two discs are bound in a substantial hard-cover book of over 130 pages printed on glossy paper with stitched binding. It is lavishly illustrated with fine art reproductions, mostly from the 16th and 17th Centuries. It contains a program notes by Hilary Finch, a rather whimsical philosophical essay by Ivan Alexandre, and a more technical commentary on performance questions by Minkowski himself. These are given in French, English, and German. Full texts and translations are also given.

By William J Gatens

Anna Vinnitskaya described as a “rising star” in the BBC Music Magazine!

Last month, the BBC Music Magazine dedicated a fantastic article to Anna Vinnitskaya who was described as a “rising star”, one of the “great artists of tomorrow”. Below are some extracts from the article.

RISING STAR Great artists of tomorrow

“In recent months the release of her debut CD on Naïve has caused flurries of excitement among critics and brought her to the attention of a larger audience.”

In the article, Anna talks about the influence of the Russian repertoire on her work but nevertheless states: “My next CD will be with orchestra, and of music by a non-Russian composer!”

“Although she dismisses any suggestion of being a prodigy – ‘People said I was, but I said I was really quick at learning music – she never contemplated another career.”

Anna also mentions her busy schedule which prevents her from playing the piano as often as she’d like to: “There are days when I don’t practise at all. But most days I’ll practise and feel wonderful after it.”

If you want to read the full article, please refer to the April edition of the BBC Music Magazine.

A Spanish article dedicated to ‘Impressions on Chopin’ for our Spanish fans!

Impressions on Chopin was re-issued this year to celebrate the bicentennial of the Polish composer’s birth. The recording sees the internationally acclaimed jazz pianist Leszek Mozdzer perform his own arrangements of well known works by Chopin. Lately the album was reviewed by one of our Spanish partners, Diverdi.

Chopin sin dejar de ser Chopin

Regresa Impressions on Chopin de Leszek Mozdzer en Naïve.

La celebración del 200 aniversario del nacimiento de Frédéric Chopin no está lejana. De ahí quizás la recuperación de esta grabación de 1999 de un pianista al que acompaña la fama de ser uno de los mejores improvisadores sobre Chopin, él mismo gran improvisador. También el hecho de que Leszek Mozdzer es un pianista en auge, en especial al lado del contrabajista sueco Lars Danielsson, entre el público jazzístico y crossover. Si Chopin ha sido inevitable objeto de tratamiento por maestros del jazz del país, como Adam Makowicz, o el del trío Andrzej Jagodzinski, Leszek Mozdzer, de una generación posterior, muestra armas distintas a las de sus mayores. Donde Makowicz era digitalismo exacerbado y la influencia de Art Tatum, Mozdzer exhibe su mano en inteligentes arreglos y en un exuberante estilo hypercomunicativo que parte de su más evidente influencia, Chick Corea, que le permite interpolar en sus interpretaciones citas y standards completos sin violencia alguna. Es la improvisación lo que domina sobre cualquier otro criterio, ya sea con pura dicción jazzística en un grácil Preludio op 28 n°7, come el perfecto engaste en puro lenguaje chopiniano de My Secret Love o el Segment de Parker en un preludio o un estudio del autor polaco. Es la naturalidad del lenguaje lo que hace que no haya más transiciones entre uno y otro sino simple reconocimiento. No es simple revestimiento del que domina los giros de un determinado artista sino gozoso acto de improvisación de un material que Mozdzer parece conocer al dedillo desde sus estudios iniciales. El pianista puede hacerse acompañar por un tombak, o añadir ritmos ajenos, incluso darle una estructura que se sostiene más en el Standard, pero lo que transmite es Chopin, no un Chopin en traducción o siendo objeto de ventriloquia. Brillante Mozdzer.

Ángel Gómes Aparicio