RCA Red Seal's Stars of Salzburg: Music CD Review

The good folks at AssociatedContent's music department recently treated me to a shopping spree at iTunes and one of the first album I grabbed in my mad scramble for the many great classical and opera selections available was the RCA Red Seal label's Stars of Salzburg. Why was I drawn to it? I confess it was mostly because Vesselina Kasarova appears on 2 of its 16 tracks, though both tracks were taken from 2 of her solo Cds that I already own.... That's when the other names on the album; Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Evgeny Kissin, Melanie Diener, Diana Damrau, et.al; jumped up and compelled me to spend half of the credit on my iTunes gift card on the thing.

As it happens, the CD is really a compilation of tracks taken from various RCA artists' solo recordings rather than from any specific Salzburg Festival (though most of the names here appear at that prestigious annual music extravaganza every year). The album features music from other composers aside from Mozart and is a great sampler disc both for those who are new to classical music and would like to experience its many subgenre in one 75 minutes long listening session and to those already die hard fans looking for a taste of many different artists at once. The tracks were recorded between 1997-2003.

Tracks: (click on hyper-linked piece name for sample clip on Youtube)
1. SMETANA: Ma Vlast - From Bohemia's Fields and Groves (Nikolaus Harnoncourt/ Wiener Philharmoniker).
2. MOZART: Don Giovanni - Notte giorno e faticar. (Bertrand de Billy/ Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Maurizio Murare, Kwang Choul Youn, Regina Schörg, Reinhard Hagen)
3. MOZART: Zaide - Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben (Elena Mosuc, Camil Marinescu/ Iasi Moldava Philharmonic Orchestra)
4. DEVIENNE: Flute Concerto No. 8 in G - Tempo di Polonaise (James Galway & London Mozart Players).
5. PUCCINI: Turandot - Nessun dorma (Johan Botha & Paolo Carignani/ Vienna Radio Symphony).
6. GOUNOD: Roméo et Juliette - Depuis hier/ Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle (Vesselina Kasarova & Frederic Chaslin/ Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra).
7. BRAHMS: Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor (Evgeny Kissin)
8. BRAHMS: Hungarian Dance No. 6 in D flat (E Kissin)
9. VERDI: Il trovatore: Ah! Sí, ben mio, coll'essere/ Di quella pira (James Anderson & Annegher Stumphius with Edoardo Müller/ Munich Radio Orchestra)
10. Richard STRAUSS: Vier letzte Lieder: September(Melanie Diener & David Zinmann/ Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra).
11. WAGNER: Tannhäuser: Dich teure Halle (Waltraud Meier & Lorin Maazel/ Bavarian Radio Symphony).
12. SARASATE: Introduction and Tarantella, Op. 43 (Mirijam Contzen & Valéry Rogatchev).
13. RACHMANINOV: Spring Waters, Op. 14 No. 11 (Diana Damrau & Florian Henschel)
14. MURCIA: La Jota (Los Otros)
15. Bulgarian Folk Song: Dilmano, dilbero (Vesselina Kasarova & The Cosmic Voices of Bulgaria).
16. PONCE: Estrellitao (arr. Heifetz) (Nikolaj Znaider & Daniel Gortler).

RCA is surely a label richly well endowed with spectacular artists, and leading off with a 14 minutes long orchestral visitation to the Bohemian fields and groves as captured in Smetana's music as Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Wiener Philharmoniker haul you through the dark tinged cumulous clouds into the lush green valley with its soft grass and colorful flowers. Every peaceful little blade of grass carries its own tales (and, in this neck of the woods between the German and the Slav, there are many tales to tell).

The blustery immediacy of the excerpt from the first act of Mozart's Don Giovanni that follows has a nice effect of waking you up from the near pastoral reverie of the previous track and putting you into the horrendous opening scene, notte giorno e faticar, of Mozart's dark operatic version of the tale of how amorous Don Juan spent his last (and strikingly unproductive) day on earth. Bertrand de Billy and the Vienna Radio Symphony keep the scene tight and rowdy while the three low voiced men and lone soprano livens up the stereo with their tuneful angst. It is enough to convince me to search out the full CD of the opera while being grateful for the break in tension in the form of Zaide's famous serenade, Ruhe sanft, from Mozart's unfinished Turkish-themed opera, sweetly if not very subtly intoned here by Elena Mosuc.

I wasn't familiar with Devienne's flute concerto and find it a delightful little perk of a tune. Sir James Galway would really make a fetching monarch butterfly once he's done impersonating one with his flute. This thing is really Bardinerie on steroid... and the man really must have 2 extra lungs hiding somewhere inside his chest. His feet doesn't touch the ground!

Even non-fans of opera would be familiar with Calaf's famous aria, Nessun dorma, from Puccini's unfinished final opera, Turandot, I think. It is something of cursed tune for the tenor since anyone singing it today is now bound to be compared to the soaring versions done by the late Luciano Pavarotti. Johan Botha won't make you forget the great Luciano, but he doesn't do any injury to the aria either. Following him with an infinitely less well exposed aria of Stephano (the trouser page boy role) from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette is the remarkable Bulgarian Vesselina Kasarova who really conjures up a white dove in her sparkling rendition of Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle.

Two of the tracks on this Cds that I come back to the most are the fiery Brahms Hungarian Dances (sample isn't from the CD, but is very similar) at the hand of Evgeny Kissin, who turns them into smoldering 6 minutes of demolition derby worth repeating over and over again. Speed and conviction... there isn't an ivory left unlicensed by the Russian wild fire. One doesn't just stand and politely clap after hearing such a thing, one tears up ones seat and set the curtain on fire while asking for more!

Fanning the flame further does the gloriously clear voice of Ramon Vargas in a thrilling rendition of Manrico's Di quella pira. It is a rousing war-mongering number well supported by Edoardo Müller and the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Chorus of the Bavarian Radio that guarantees to drive all the ennui out of your living room air for the weekend.... But since the weekend is still young for me and I don't really feel like jumping out to do something more productive than writing a music CD review just yet, following this blood-pumping tune with September from Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs, one of my all time favorite arias, is a most welcoming prospect. Though Melanie Diener doesn't have a supernaturally rich voice like that of Jessye Norman or Renee Fleming, her radiantly sweet sound characterizes a gentler but no less authoritative autumn. Really remarkably clean diction even in the upper reach of her range and superb breath control through out... and I really love the way she phrase the ending with the long modulating melisma falling on 'langsam' instead of the usual 'Augen'... It allows a different tonal color there that really goes well with the sleepy horn call that brings the piece to rest.

Jagging the temperature up a few degrees is the entrance of Waltraud Meier as Elisabeth in her opening aria, Dich teure halle. One can nitpick about her high notes, after all, she's a mezzo singing soprano repertoire, but one would be hard pressed to find a more lively reading of the role. Being well heralded and supported by Lauren Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra sure doesn't hurt either!

Sarasate's Introduction and Tarantella turns up as an engagingly lively conversation between Mirijam Contzen's insistent violin and Valery Rogatchev's equally spirited piano. You get the feeling that these two can really finish each other's sentences in real conversations.

It's good to finally get to hear a singing version of Rachmaninov's Frühlingsfluten #11. Perhaps Diana Damrau's voice isn't quite heavy enough to really command the piece, but she has an impeccable sense of drama that is perfectly mirrored by the piano under the suitingly fluid fingers of Florian Henschel. I suspect that the more country music loving folks would appreciate Murcia's La Jota a lot more than I do, but I'm still compelled to finish the CD if only for the fascinatingly upbeat and asymmetric Bulgarian folk tune, Dilmano, Dilbero, toward the end of the Cd (the line up of the last 3 numbers really doesn't flow all that well). It is a splendidly lively duel of Vesselina Kasarova's solo voice and the spirited all female Cosmic Voices of Bulgaria chorus, conveying a particularly infectiously peppery dissonance straight from the Slavic country garden into your living room.

The CD ends with Nikolaj Znaider's liltingly melodious rendition of Heifetz' arrangement of Ponce's Estrellita... Another solo recording of which I'll definitely be looking out for now that I've heard this snippet of it.

If you are new to classical music and don't know what to listen to yet, RCA Red Seal's Stars of Salzburg is a great sampler CD to dip your toe into. I'm afraid the more die-hard classical enthusiasts wouldn't be quite as satisfied with this pastische collection from various classical subgenres, though if you are ones who have been stuck on certain composers or styles before, this CD should also give you a good incentive to explore into less familiar territories. A good buy all around!