VERDI: Songs

Surgenor, Ingrid;
O'Neill, Dennis

8.557778

It may seem odd that Italy’s greatest opera composer should have first come before the Milanese public with a set of salon pieces, but in fact the ‘liriche da camera’ which punctuate his long career would often serve as a forging ground for his treatment of dramatic verse. He was 25 and pursuing the humble calling of municipal music master in Busseto when, doubtless as a result of useful contacts made during his student years at Milan, the firm of Canti brought out his Sei Romanze for voice and piano. Within their modest scope fingerprints of the mature master can already be discerned. The heavily charged harmonies that introduce Non t’accostare all’urna 5 set a mood of high tragedy, while at midpoint the lyrical flow gives way to forceful declamatory gestures and a convulsive urgency as the singer inveighs against his faithless beloved.

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

03-10-2005

747313277827