Opera Recital. Villazón/Plasson. Virgin Classics 344701. The Golden Voice. Calleja/Rizzi. Decca 475 6931. Speculating on who tomorrow’s Pavarottis and Domingos may be? Mexico’s 34-year-old Ricardo Villazón and Malta’s 28-year-old Joseph Calleja are two distinct possibilities. Villazón’s prize-winning 2005 Massenet/Gounod arias (Virgin Classics) and his outstanding Alfredo in DGG’s recent release of Salzburg Festival’s blockbuster Verdi Traviata already assure him a place as one of next generation’s great tenors. This new Virgin CD underlines it further. His trademark of dramatic urgency is at his most pressing in his excerpt from Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. His gyration from fantasy to reality in his large Offenbach Tales of Hoffman piece shows how vividly he can act through the voice. He pours his soul out in Lensky’s aria from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.
Calleja’s specialty is in restoring the bel canto singing tradition as in past voices such as Schipa’s and Gigli’s. His medium-size lyric voice is ideal for Donizetti, such as in Una furtiva lagrima, where his elegant legato, frontal voice production and ecstatic tone quality are bel canto at its best. His Bellini duet, shared equally with Russian soprano Anna Netrebko (what a scoop!), has depth of passion. In Nadir’s Romance from Bizet’s Pearlfisher, his subtly shaded diminuendos and the ravishing sensitivity of his head tone make this his most moving item from a voice that could be destined for greatness.
The Graduate Choir NZ. Atoll ACD105. Terence Maskell’s warm-toned choir lopes along with easy spontaneity across an eclectic range of classic, middlebrow, folk, soul and jazz. The tenor section’s unforced top Gs and A flats in “Sally Gardens” and its supple fluency in Mendelssohn’s Abendlied would be the envy of nearly all Kiwi choirs. Spacious chording in Bruckner’s “Locus Iste” and rich blend in the eight-part Pearsall “Lay a Garland” shows vigilant technical control for the intricate classics. They bounce into Finzi’s “My spirit sang all day” with winning gusto.
Mozart Piano concertos 17 & 20. Piotr Ander-szewski, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Virgin Classics 3446962. Very strong. This young Polish pianist’s readings are sophisticated and subtle. His delicate shadings in the K453 in G articulate its intimacy. His insight plumbs deeper still in a strongly contrasted reading of the dramatic No 20 K 466 in D minor. He transforms it into instrumental opera. Recommended.