Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck
La Nuova Musica presents a new live recording of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, with countertenor star Iestyn Davies singing the title role.
Once created to reinstate the “noble simplicity and calm grandeur” of ancient Greek culture, the opera continues to delight audiences with its direct and unpretentious appeal, epitomized by the world-famous aria Che farò senza Euridice. This live recording presents the original 1762 Vienna premiere version of the opera, with Gluck’s exquisite evocation of the Elysian Fields from his 1774 Paris version as a small addition.
La Nuova Musica and its artistic director David Bates are among the most exciting young Baroque ensembles of our times. For their first PENTATONE recording, they work together with three exceptional vocalists: countertenor Iestyn Davies and sopranos Sophie Bevan and Rebecca Bottone.
We are thrilled that this recording was shortlisted for the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2020.
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“Davies was the epitome of effortless meticulousness… Rebecca Bottone’s Amore was teasingly taut and bright… Sophie Bevan sent rich ripples of sound cascading around the nave of St John’s, Smith Square… Bates ensured that the music spoke of peaks of both pleasure and pain. Characteristically animated, the conductor drew every hue from Gluck’s score… The Chorus produced a vibrant sound, by turns relaxed and wrought, warm with bright hopefulness and darkly Hadean. This was indeed a ‘chiaroscuro’ Orfeo in which Bates, La Nuova Musica and the soloists, especially Davies, shone shafts of light which pierced the darkness, leading to the arresting and exultant illumination of the opera’s conclusion."
OPERA TODAY
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“… a subtle, vivid and detailed performance of Gluck’s original 1762 Orfeo ed Euridice at St John’s by David Bates and La Nuova Musica was just as intense and pleasurable – and a reminder how under-performed Gluck is. This was all about sounds and textures, a physical enjoyment of the halfhidden, frisson-inducing details of a passing discord or suspension, a drawn-out cadence, a viola line.”
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Choir
Soprano: Jessica Cale, Amy Wood, Nancy Cole, Eleanor Minney,
Alto: Helen Charlston, Martha McLorinan, David Clegg, Francis Gush
Tenor: Ben Alden, Tom Castle, Peter Davoren, Ben Durrant
Bass: James Arthur, William Gaunt, Oliver Hunt, Philip Tebb
Language Coach: Matteo Dalle Fratte
Orchestra
Violin 1: Anaïs Chen (Leader), Julia Black, Kirra Thomas, Kinga Ujszaszi, George Clifford,
Violin 2: Rebecca Burman, Miki Takahashi, Jorge Jimenez, Naomi Burrell
Viola: Jane Rogers, Jordan Bowron, Ricardo Cuente
Cello: Jonathan Rees, Gavin Kibble, Kinga Garborjani
Double Bass: Tim Amherst
Harp: Karen Vaughan
Flute: Georgia Browne, Eva Cabellero
Chalumeau: Fiona Mitchell
Oboe: Leo Duarte, Lars Henriksson
Cornetto: Andrea Inghisciano
Bassoon: Joe Qiu, Inga Maria Klaucke
Horn: Alec Frank Gemmill, David Bentley
Trumpet: Peter Mankarious, Kirsty Loosemore
Philip Dale
Horn: Abigail Newman, Steve Saunders
Timpani: Adrian Bending
Harpsichord: Bernard Robertson