The freestanding operatic scene would have been a favored form of court entertainment in the 18th century, and five of the six pieces heard here, even the temporal outlier by Felix Mendelssohn, have texts by the king of Classical-era Italian opera librettos, Pietro Metastasio. Nevertheless, with the exception of Beethoven's Ah! Perfido, Op. 65 at the beginning of the program, none of the music here is terribly often performed despite the big names involved. Mendelssohn's Infelice pensier -- Ah, ritorna, età dell'oro, Op. 94 ...
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The freestanding operatic scene would have been a favored form of court entertainment in the 18th century, and five of the six pieces heard here, even the temporal outlier by Felix Mendelssohn, have texts by the king of Classical-era Italian opera librettos, Pietro Metastasio. Nevertheless, with the exception of Beethoven's Ah! Perfido, Op. 65 at the beginning of the program, none of the music here is terribly often performed despite the big names involved. Mendelssohn's Infelice pensier -- Ah, ritorna, età dell'oro, Op. 94 (1834), a work of the composer's full maturity, is a real rarity, and soprano Christiane Karg gives it full weight and, given the subject matter of faithlessness, seething anger. Karg has a bright, slightly edgy soprano, not super-sized, that is ideal for this repertory, and she gives nice chamber performances with a good deal of emotional display. Next to the Mendelssohn, the biggest surprise is probably the pair of scenes by Haydn, which display an entirely unfamiliar and quite...
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Seller's Description:
Felix Mendelssohn; Franz Joseph Haydn; Ludwig van Beethoven; Luigi Boccherini; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Poor. Used-Acceptable, withdrawn library disc(s) with liner notes. Disc(s) should play great without any playback issues. Disc(s) & liner notes may contain typical library markings like stickers, protective label covers, & writing. Discs may be repackaged in library style casing. Back artwork & any other promo material not included.
