Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Giorgio Lamberti, Sylvia Sass, Kolos Kováts, Ezio di Cesare
Hungarian Radio and Television Chorus
Hungarian State Opera Orchestra
dir: Lamberto Gardelli
Label: Hungaroton HCD-12498-500-2 (1984) DDD
[flac&cue; cover,inlays,disc&booklet scans]
Reviews:
"Anyone looking for a recording of "I Lombardi" will probably first find themselves directed towards either the earlier studio recording conducted by Gardelli, which was the first in his series of Early Verdi recordings for Philips (see my review), or the 1996 digital Decca set with June Anderson and Pavarotti, aged 61, choppily conducted by James Levine.
I am not a fan of Ms Anderson, whose tone I always find harsh and windy - she has always sounded very like an aged Joan Sutherland to me and is too often stretched - but to be fair nor does everyone enjoy Cristina Deutekom's shrill, idiosyncratic vocal production in the earlier Gardelli. Even though he still sounds pretty good, Pavarotti really is getting on a bit here and his voice has lost some of its sappiness, Ramey's vibrato has loosened by this stage of his career and not everyone appreciates Levine's alternately dragging then hard-driven approach.
So this far less well-known, second studio recording by Gardelli with Hungarian forces presents an attractive alternative - and I think there can be little argument that the Giselda of Sylvia Sass is by far the most impressive of the three sopranos considered here. She is in full control of a sometimes previously wayward voice and delivers a wonderful performance; this is a real spinto Verdi soprano, ample and soaring. The tenor is the Hungaroton stalwart Giorgio Lamberti in very capable voice, ringing but also hard-toned and somewhat unvarying in colour and expressivity. However, he is more involved than Domingo and obviously younger than Pavarotti, even if no-one is better suited to the role of Oronte than the young Carreras - but to hear him sing this music you must catch him in a live recording of 1976 or "Jérusalem", the revised Paris version of this opera. Bass-baritone Kovats struggles a bit with his Italian but it is a big, handsome voice with more bite than Raimondi and greater smoothness than the ageing Ramey. Best of all is the Hungarian Radio and Television Chorus, whose energy and attack are markedly superior to any of the competition - and the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra are superb, too; Gardelli again shows that he knows just how to pace this patchy early work and makes the best possible case for those swinging waltz-time ensembles and rumbustious marches.
So while I still enjoy the earlier Philips set, I put this Hungaroton recording out in a front by a nose; it's an absorbing, large-scale interpretation in excellent digital sound." - Ralph Moore - Amazon.com
"Anyone looking for a recording of "I Lombardi" will probably first find themselves directed towards either the earlier studio recording conducted by Gardelli, which was the first in his series of Early Verdi recordings for Philips (see my review), or the 1996 digital Decca set with June Anderson and Pavarotti, aged 61, choppily conducted by James Levine.
I am not a fan of Ms Anderson, whose tone I always find harsh and windy - she has always sounded very like an aged Joan Sutherland to me and is too often stretched - but to be fair nor does everyone enjoy Cristina Deutekom's shrill, idiosyncratic vocal production in the earlier Gardelli. Even though he still sounds pretty good, Pavarotti really is getting on a bit here and his voice has lost some of its sappiness, Ramey's vibrato has loosened by this stage of his career and not everyone appreciates Levine's alternately dragging then hard-driven approach.
So this far less well-known, second studio recording by Gardelli with Hungarian forces presents an attractive alternative - and I think there can be little argument that the Giselda of Sylvia Sass is by far the most impressive of the three sopranos considered here. She is in full control of a sometimes previously wayward voice and delivers a wonderful performance; this is a real spinto Verdi soprano, ample and soaring. The tenor is the Hungaroton stalwart Giorgio Lamberti in very capable voice, ringing but also hard-toned and somewhat unvarying in colour and expressivity. However, he is more involved than Domingo and obviously younger than Pavarotti, even if no-one is better suited to the role of Oronte than the young Carreras - but to hear him sing this music you must catch him in a live recording of 1976 or "Jérusalem", the revised Paris version of this opera. Bass-baritone Kovats struggles a bit with his Italian but it is a big, handsome voice with more bite than Raimondi and greater smoothness than the ageing Ramey. Best of all is the Hungarian Radio and Television Chorus, whose energy and attack are markedly superior to any of the competition - and the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra are superb, too; Gardelli again shows that he knows just how to pace this patchy early work and makes the best possible case for those swinging waltz-time ensembles and rumbustious marches.
So while I still enjoy the earlier Philips set, I put this Hungaroton recording out in a front by a nose; it's an absorbing, large-scale interpretation in excellent digital sound." - Ralph Moore - Amazon.com