Otello Archive
Editorial for September, 2018
Giuseppe Verdi — Otello and Rigoletto Delos records presents Dmitri Hvorostovsky, acclaimed baritone, performing the lead role in Rigoletto, in this two CD set. This is accompanied with Pentatone’s release of Otello, under the baton of Lawrence Foster, with Nikolai Schukoff and Melody Moore and Nikolai Schukoff in the lead roles, Otello and Desdemona. To enter in the drawing for these operatic releases, merely fill out the form here: Register to win. AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began as a local program in San Francisco and then in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by John Sunier, and aired for 13½ years on up to 200 public radio and commercial stations. In September 1998 its web site for program listings was expanded to this free Internet publication. September 2018 is our 234th issue! All disc reviews are added thru the month as written and received, often daily, amounting to nearly 100 a month. The Home Page lists the latest published reviews. Vinyls, Pure Audio Blu-rays and other hi-res formats are included in the SACD/Hi-Res Section. We are staying with physical discs rather than downloads. The site has been redesigned and improved. Please let us know if you find any errors. […]
Shehori – The Celebrated New York Concerts, Vol. 9 = Works of BEETHOVEN, LISZT, SCHUBERT, TCHAIKOVSKY, CHOPIN & MOSZKOWSKI – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d’amour CD
A moment of New York musical history is preserved, in which Shehori pays homage to Vladimir Horowitz. Shehori – The Celebrated New York Concerts, Vol. 9 = BEETHOVEN: 15 Variations and Fugue in E-flat Major, Op. 35 “Eroica”; LISZT: Impromptu in F-sharp Major; Au Bord d’une Source in A-flat Major; Canzone “Nessun maggior dolore” (after Rossini’s Otello); Funerailles; SCHUBERT: Sonata in A Major, D. 959; TCHAIKOVSKY (trans. Shehori): Melodie for Violin and Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 42, No. 3; MOSZKOWSKI: Etincelles, Op. 36, No. 6; CHOPIN: Mazurka in g minor, Op. 24, No. 1 – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d’amour CD 183 (2 CDs) 46:05, 48:27 (5/20/16) ****: The latest installment of “The Celebrated New York Recitals” by Mordecai Shehori preserves a distinctive moment (19 May 1992) for him and us at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall: he pays tribute to his mentor Vladimir Horowitz, even as the great pianist’s widow sits near his keyboard. Later, Mrs. Horowitz would remark: “Mordecai, you are the only pianist that learned from my husband but you do not imitate him.” Shehori opens with a Liszt group, a selection of four pieces that explore Liszt’s penchant for polar ecstasies of emotion. The […]
VERDI: Otello (complete opera) – Aleksandrs Antonenko (Otello)/ Krassimira Stoyanova (Desdemona)/ Carlo Guelfi (Iago)/ Barbara Di Castri (Emilia)/ Chicago Children’s Choir/ Chicago Sym. Orch. and Chorus/ Riccardo Muti – CSO Resound
The CSO puts a real winner in our hands with a recording exemplary in sound and nearly so in performance as well.
VERDI: Otello (complete opera) (1962/2012)
Of undoubted historical interest, and very well sung, but for specialists only.