CDs:

• Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna: Angela & Roberto Forever


• Various artists: Opera New Generation -- Greatest Arias


• Various artists: Opera New Generation -- Great Duets

This week I'm focusing on operatic vocalists again, but don't let the any of the titles fool you or, for that matter, limit your expectations.

First of all, nothing lasts forever, not even the heat of summer. But that beautiful, temperamental duo Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna, partners in life and on the opera stage, are sparking a flame of their own with Angela & Roberto Forever, an assortment of popular duets for soprano and tenor.

The focus here is strictly on their French and Italian repertoire for EMI, heavy on the passionate longing and release, and, for that matter, the ensuing heartbreak. Bring on those ill-fated couples from Bizet, Gounod, Massenet, Puccini, and Verdi! If you wanted to know how it feels to hear Gheorghiu and Alagna wrap their voices around "O soave fanciulla" from La Boheme or "O nuit d'amour" from Faust, this is your opportunity.

Yes, somebody slipped and included a selection from Donizetti's comic opera Don Pasquale, but even that is a touching love duet, "Tornami a dir che m'ami."

And how do they partner each other, this Romanian soprano who studied music from childhood and this French-Sicilian tenor who took a less orthodox path? Alagna has an appealing voice, youthful but manly, and once he blends it with his wife's stunning soprano, everything starts to catch fire.

That said, Gheorghiu possesses the greater range, power, and versatility. Though she and Alagna make an exciting team, she's a lot to handle, and the more varied, more demanding roles lie ahead of her. Take care of those voices, you two.

All right, opera lovers and newcomers, let's look at two of your other options.

Virgin Classics has been putting out enticing two-for-one opera compilation discs, varied in their choice of artists, composers, and eras.

Firstly, the "new generation" moniker puzzles me a bit, for there are quite a few veterans on these albums—real veterans, people whose careers we've been tracking in decades, not months and years: Susan Graham, Katia Ricciarelli, Dawn Upshaw, Jose Van Dam, and others.

Then again, it's more than a pleasure to revisit well-known talents. For example, the Great Duets album includes a delicious performance by Felicity Lott and Yann Beuron in La Belle Helene. Lott started her singing career the better part of four decades ago, Beuron started his in the 1990s, and I'm glad to see them come together, so to speak, on this album.

So alongside familiar names like John Aler and Arleen Auger you'll find up-and-coming singers. The litany of the familiar and unfamiliar includes Elina Garanca, Vivica Genaux, Veronique Gens, Rolando Villazon, and many others.

Moreover, the selections stretch nicely from the Baroque into the 20th century, and include a few things we all can't seem to get enough of—e.g., duets from The Pearl Fishers and Lakme, "Ombra ma fui" from Handel's Xerxes, "When I am laid in earth" from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas—and a few more we might have missed. It's a great opportunity to see where we've been and perhaps where we're going in the classical vocal world.

Stay cool.

CD: The Essential Leon Fleisher






We spend a great portion of our lives either trying to recapture things, or setting up things to achieve. And in doing so, we often fail to live the now. Leon Fleisher
I'm getting a little tired of the media's constant emphasis on intergenerational warfare these days -- newer, louder, faster, younger! As if there's any substitute for experience.

Moreover, delving into genealogy has not only given me an appreciation for the past, it's deepened my sense of how relationships and influences bridge the centuries. It was just a few years ago, for instance, that I realized that a particular great aunt I'd known in my childhood was the youngest daughter of my Irish great-great-grandfather -- a man born in 1828!

The pianist Leon Fleisher could almost be the poster child (well, man) for the power of relationships and influences across the centuries. During his childhood he became the pupil of the great Artur Schnabel -- which puts Fleisher at about three degrees of separation from Beethoven and one from Brahms -- and launched his concert career at age 16 in a little place called Carnegie Hall. The legendary recordings of the Brahms and Beethoven concerti with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra followed.

But Fleisher is also, paradoxically, an example both of playing the cards life deals you and refusing to take no for an answer.

By now the story of Fleisher's decades-long struggle with focal dystonia -- which for many years cost him the use of his right hand, and consequently the concert pieces with which he had made his career -- has been chronicled everywhere from The New York Times to YouTube, and so have his subsequent pursuits as conductor and educator.

Some of you are already shifting uncomfortably in front of your computers right now. Is this some treacly inspirational tale, Hagman?

Well, I'll attempt to avoid the maudlin. The story is this simple and this complicated: Leon Fleisher pursued not only the left-handed repertoire but of course his careers at the Peabody Institute and the Kennedy Center. And to the joy of stubborn people everywhere, over the years he sought a diagnosis and treatment for his disability, eventually made the right connections, and regained the use of his right hand, and with a richer existence in the concert hall and recording studio.

Many in our Olsson's community will recall what was a joyous time it was when Fleisher's Two Hands, a warmly received album of solo works for piano, arrived in stores several years ago.

Area fans will be pleased to hear that not only is Fleisher still performing, not only is he celebrating his his 80th birthday, but he's going to do both locally: He's scheduled for a special concert, an all-Mozart program, this Thursday at the Strathmore.

But you won't want to miss experiencing the phases of Fleisher's career via this two-disc set, The Essential Leon Fleisher. Disc 1 will knock you out of your seats (It's got the Allegro from Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, done with Szell, of course), and by the time you've recovered for Disc 2, it's time for the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1. Woo-hoo!

The set is much more, however, than a hint at what Fleisher accomplished in his youth. The selected recordings date from the '50s, '60s, '70s, and '90s (No '80s or aughties!) and represent both the traditional two-handed repertoire and works for left hand. Just listen to what happens as you drift from the beguiling Adagio from Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor and into the wild ride of Korngold's Suite for Two Violins, Cello and Piano Left Hand. Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma, and Joseph Silverstein join him for the latter track.

But the Essential set and even recent albums such as Two Hands and The Journey are not the end of the story. Last December found Leon Fleisher at the Kennedy Center Honors -- a not unexpected fate for a man with such a rich musical career. It had to have been a proud moment when his former student Jonathan Biss, another talented pianist, took the stage to pay tribute with a performance of Beethoven's Choral Fantasy.

The event was not without certain ironic and provocative touches, though. For instance, Fleisher, who has to some degree been pummeled by fate, shared the evening with fellow honoree Martin Scorsese, who makes movies in which people are pummeled by actual fists.

And the provocative bits? Well, there was that epic struggle between Fleisher's personal and political impulses, chronicled in our local paper well after everyone had put the holiday finery away. I'd say just I'm glad he came to the party, and that we still have a lot to learn from this lion of classical music.

CDs:

• David Daniels: Handel: Operatic Arias


• Renee Fleming: Handel: Opera and Oratorio Arias


• Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: Handel: Arias

This is definitely one of those surreal weeks. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been propelled from unannounced press conferences (That wasn't on our morning schedule!) to Metrobus meetings to a continuing series of articles of the decline of civilization, as reported by intrepid and no doubt increasingly nervous journalists.

It was therefore my good fortune to be on the treadmill tonight, watching Keith Olbermann do his nightly spiel, when Mr. O. broadcast the latest JibJab video. To the neighbors: Sorry about the barking laughter emanating from the fitness center.

The week's other saving grace has been revisiting George Frideric Handel, as channeled by several singers of rich and radiant voice. That experience, too, had its surreal aspects -- for instance, noting the intersections between the careers of David Daniels, one of the world's top countertenors, and the mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. For starters, they both sang Sesto in Handel's Giulio Cesare, but can you tell me which one carried the Uzi in the controversial Peter Sellars production?

In addition, I have chosen only American singers this time out -- not only Daniels and Hunt Lieberson but the soprano Renee Fleming. That too may seem counterintuitive, given the variety in Handel recordings. At our Dupont Circle store alone, we have an interesting selection -- Danielle de Niese's Handel: Arias, Great Handel from Ian Bostridge, and a three-disc Hyperion set from Dame Emma Kirkby -- and that is just a sample.

But as much as I enjoy my Emma Kirkby and my Bryn Terfel, I have a soft spot for the three artists in this week's recordings.

First there is Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, whose all too brief life and career yielded so much treasure. The more I hear that voice, the more I am beguiled, and the more I struggle for descriptions. The sound is distinctly feminine, with a bell-like clarity, beautiful tone and coloring. There's a corresponding emotional immediacy, but the singer never goes too far and thus draws the listener in.

In the Arias recording, I was particularly struck by the wonderful balance between Hunt Lieberson's voice and the orchestra. It hints at intimacy, perhaps even humility, rather than grandeur.

I'm always fascinated by people who set out to accomplish one thing and embark on an unexpected quest that reveals their true gifts. That was to some degree Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's story, and it's apparently true for David Daniels, who did not set out to be a countertenor but gradually accepted what proved to be his true voice.

And the results are simply thrilling. I usually prefer my countertenors safely ensconced in early music ensembles or all-male vocal groups, but Daniels can take the stage any time, rule it, and make it all look so easy. The beauty and naturalness of the singing temper the grandeur of Operatic Arias. This is a Handel hero for this age, and likely for the ages.

Like the other two singers, Renee Fleming is accompanied by period orchestra, and while there is some overlapping in talent and material on the albums -- yes, you can enjoy "Ombra ma fui" by both Daniels and Fleming -- there's no mistaking that lush, ravishing voice.

Fleming takes a trip through Handel's career, turning to both the operas and oratorios, a journey chronicled in the liner notes that hint at the never-ending struggles of composers and performers.

It's possible Handel is a victim of his own ubiquity, taken for granted by listeners due to his familiarity. After all, even Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole weighed in when Kiri Te Kanawa sang "Let the Bright Seraphim" at Charles and Diana's wedding.

But what struck me as I reviewed Handel's life and these particular vocal works is the degree to which the man responded to the changes, challenges, and shifts in his own life and age. These operas, oratorios, and cantatas provide the soundtrack as we march or straggle into the second half of 2008.

CD: Denis Matsuev: Unknown Rachmaninoff

So this Siberian guy walks into a Swiss villa...

No, it's not the beginning of a rather lame joke. It's what actually happens when you round up the winner of the 1998 International Tchaikovsky Competition and set him loose at the personal piano of another Russian composer, Rachmaninoff, with some early compositions by the same.

And so with this CD young Mr. Matsuev presents two previously unrecorded piano pieces, Rachmaninoff's Fugue in D Minor and an arrangement of the Suite for Orchestra in D Minor.

So the play list and the piano are themselves the newsmakers: two world premieres, played at Rachmaninoff's own Steinway and not Mr. Matsuev's usual Yamaha.

That said, Denis Matsuev is not the first classical star to record using Rachmaninoff's piano. Mikhail Pletnev got there first with his Hommage a Rachmaninov a few years back.

As for other comparisons, Matsuev has been touted as a natural successor to Vladimir Horowitz, and perhaps it is daring to make such an assertion relatively early in his career. However, I'd observe that Matsuev is his own man, a real contender -- or, as Tim Page put it, "an absolute powerhouse of a pianist."

And he has an open love affair with jazz, as he explains in an interview for Russia Today. Safety note: Turn down the sound on your computer before you click on this link.

What we are concerned with here, though, is his interpretation of Rachmaninoff, particularly the early pieces that make up the world premiere recordings. I found the piano version of the Suite for Orchestra in D Minor particularly engaging, but was equally happy to hear the various etudes and preludes here, plus Sonata No. 2, also included on the album. More than one reviewer has commented that several of the works contain passages with a raindrop-like effect -- a shower of notes, if you will, even though at other moments it all becomes a cascade.

But Matsuev asserts himself satisfyingly in the stormier passages, and is then ready to charm and sparkle and whisper when the moment calls for it. If you want a sense of his technique, there are a few opportunities online to check it out, perhaps starting with this one.

But don't come away with the impression Matsuev's repertoire is rather confined. Yes, he thrills audiences with concert programs and encores comprised Russian material, but he also makes room in his career for a jazz festival and for recording the works of Chopin, Liszt, and Schumann.

That said, Rachmaninoff is quite enough for this time out, and of course it's clear that Matsuev has the heart (and hands!) for a lifetime of performing Rachmaninoff.