Bargiel / Vasilyev / Siberian Sym Orch - Orchl Music Vol. 1 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Japanese SHM-CD pressing. Universal. 2022.

On stage they're usually rivals, but in real life Jonas Kaufmann and Ludovic Tézier share a close friendship. After many live performances together these two extraordinary artists have recorded their first duet album InchInsiemeInch, meaning InchtogetherInch in Italian, to be released on Sony Classical. Accompanied by the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Antonio Pappano, they present duets they've sung together on stage, plus works specially chosen for the album. Their mutual respect is unbounded, and nowhere more so than in these extremely demanding roles. InchTo me, Jonas is the prototype of a modern singerInch, Tézier explains. InchNot only because of his good looks and acting abilities. He can sing in any language and adapt his performances to any style. And he immerses himself completely in his characters. Those are qualities that keep opera alive.Inch Both singers can also be heard here for the first time in the great duets from Verdi's Les Vêpres siciliennes, in it's rarely performed French version. The duet from Ponchielli's La Gioconda, a masterpiece of verismo, is likewise a fully-fledged double début, soon to be followed by a joint performance of the complete opera. In contrast, both have sung Puccini's La Bohème on stage, but never together. Here they can be heard, likewise for the first time, in the duet from Scene 4.

The Muscovite Alexander Tchaikovsky (b. 1946) - nephew of Boris Tchaikovsky but no relative to Pyotr Ilich - is one of the most highly respected composers at work in Russia today, and yet his music has had little exposure to western audiences. His symphonic style owes something to that of his uncle it likewise patiently develops enormous power over large expanses of sound, although there is also room for gently ironic touches of nostalgia - an inheritance, perhaps, from his uncle's teacher, Shostakovich. The monumental Third Symphony (1995-2002), scored for a huge orchestra, is infused with dance rhythms it uses material from an abandoned ballet based on Dostoyevsky's The Devils. The Seventh Symphony is very much a work de nos jours Tchaikovsky composed it during the Covid-19 pandemic, scored it for a socially distanced orchestra of strings, percussion and piano - at which point, as he writes, 'the virus then took revenge', and he fell ill himself. The message of the work is clear, as the turmoil of the first movement gives way to a message of hope in the second.