Ruggiero Ricci - Art of Ruggiero Ricci - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Several legendary but long-unavailable recordings freshly remastered in a comprehensive 'original covers' set of Ruggiero Ricci's recordings for American Decca during the 1960s. With definitive accounts of the Tchaikovsky Concerto and the Paganini Caprices recorded in 1950, Ruggiero Ricci became established as a Decca artist in the early days of LP. A decade later he began recording for Decca's American division, and between 1960 and 1970 he made nine albums of solo, recital and concerto repertoire which are gathered here in one set for the first time. Ricci had already recorded some of the solo Bach sonatas and partitas, but in 1967 he made his first complete set for American Decca. Tully Potter's illuminating booklet essay explains how a snowstorm forced Ricci to hole up in a hotel for several days prior to the sessions, and his devoted his time to perfecting his interpretations of Bach. Ricci was renowned for the astonishing virtuosity that enabled him to tackle the Caprices and Concertos of Paganini without breaking sweat - he became the first great exponent of the composer in the LP era with his Decca recordings - and he remade the Second Concerto for American Decca in 1964 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Max Rudolf one of several albums here receiving it's first international on CD. The American Decca legacy of Ricci also included several 'concept albums' which soon became collector's items. The set opens with the first of them from 1964, on which the violinist plays The Four Seasons of Vivaldi on four different Strads, one for each concerto, with a string ensemble fielding another ten Strads for a uniquely rich string sound. Two years earlier, Ricci had made InchThe Glory of CremonaInch, which saw him play fifteen priceless violins in sessions attended by two security guards. Even these two projects pale beside the astonishing virtuosity

Luigi Ricci (1805-1859) composed around thirty operas, four of which were written in collaboration with his brother Federico; he tried his hand at serious melodrama - which was perhaps not very congenial to him, and in which he had less luck - and semi-serious melodrama, where he immediately enjoyed great success with Chiara di Rosenberg, given at La Scala in Milan in 1831, which was to have wide and lasting diffusion in Europe.But it is above all the comic operas, among which there are many highly successful works, that ensure Ricci an international reputation. His pronounced flair for comedy, ability to master plots, and taste for the surreal meant that Ricci - right from his first approaches to the genre - was immediately identified as the champion of post-Rossini opera buffa.Ricci's particularly happy musical vein and his richly lively writing make him the leading Italian exponent of a tradition that might have seemed obsolete in the 1840s, but which still Donizetti - with L'elisir d'amore and Don Pasquale - had been able to reinterpret and revitalize. At least until Falstaff, Ricci would have very few rivals in his genre.

L. Boccherini - Giuseppe Riconosciuto [COMPACT DISCS] date 03/26/2002