Stefan Pop (tenor)
Canto per te
Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra/Pier Giorgio Morandi
rec. 2024, Radio Studio of Radio Cluj, Romania
Sung texts with English translations enclosed
Reviewed as download
EuroArts 8024211090 [68]
Romanian tenor Stefan Pop had a spectacular start of his career by winning Placido Domingo’s Operalia competition in 2010 at the tender age of 23. I had the good fortune to hear him in Hamburg in March 2013 as Alfredo in La traviata. I found him to be very promising, and he has certainly lived up to that promise. He now has a blossoming international career, and there are several CD- and DVD-recordings with him. Quite recently I hailed him as an impressive lyrical Cavaradossi in Tosca on Pentatone, singing opposite Melody Moore. Here, he has picked nineteen songs from the vast repertoire of Italian canzonettas, and he writes in the liner notes that all of them are personal favourites, very close to his heart. Many are well-known songs, but there is also quite a number of lesser known items, spanning a period from the 1850s to 1986, including Dalla’s Caruso, which he declares is his ultimate favourite. Still in his late 30s, his voice is in prime condition, and he indulges wholeheartedly in the strong feelings of the texts.
These songs have been sung by many of the great tenors from Caruso onwards, such as Gigli, Björling, Del Monaco, di Stefano, Corelli, Bergonzi, “The Three Tenors” and Roberto Alagna. One expects full-throated singing and brilliant high notes, and Pop delivers with aplomb, but he can also scale down and conjure up a whole array of softer nuances, and sometimes I wish he had done so more often.
He shows his lyric vein in the opening song, Voglio vivere così, a song I don’t believe I’ve heard before; its composer, Giovanni D’Anzi, was also new to me, but he wrote more than 200 songs, many in Milanese dialect, some of which were great hits during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. If his other songs are of the same calibre as Voglio vivere così, D’Anzi’s oeuvre at large should be worth exploring. Obviously Stefan Pop is very fond of this one, and the opening is light, elegant and nuanced and the song is crowned with a proper high note at the end. Leoncavallo’s warhorse Mattinata, on the other hand, is sung at full throttle.
Nino Rota is remembered primarily for his many film scores, and Parla più piano is actually the love theme from The Godfather. It is beautiful music, and it begins with rather restrained singing and gradually grows to a climax, but ending softly. Two of the finest songs from the late 1930s by Cesare Andrea Bixio follow, a glowing Mamma and a lively Vivere – from a composer who also was a frequent supplier of film music.
A composer born in 1949 is a relative rarity in this repertoire, but Guido Maria Ferilli had his greatest success at the age of 26 with Un amore così grande, and the singer who launched the song in 1976 was no less than the great dramatic tenor Mario Del Monaco who at the age of 60 finished his singing career with all flags flying. I could imagine that if he still had his powers intact, that was a thrilling experience. But Stefan Pop – who certainly is at height of his powers – is also thrilling. Beginning rather softly, he then revs up in the grand manner. Vieni sul mar is an old traditional song from the midst of the 19th century, and it is beautiful. Lucio Dalla’s Caruso, composed in 1986, became the greatest hit for an Italian popular song, selling 38 million copies worldwide. Pop begins with very nuanced singing, accompanied by Mauro Scaggiante’s accordion, but then he lets loose – and one can feel that he is totally inspired.
Ernesto De Curtis was of the classical generation of composers of canzonettas, to which also Tosti and Di Capua belonged, and Ti voglio tanto bene was one of his last songs, composed in 1937, the year he died. His songs have a special attraction, and this one is no exception. Pop’s singing is also attractive. Domenico Modugno’s Volare from 1958 was a bestseller also in Sweden, and sold well also in a cover version in Swedish with teenager idol Lars Lönndahl, who had actually studied in Italy. I also remember the premiere of Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Stockholm Opera in 2008, when Italian buffo bass, Bruno Praticò, who was singing Don Magnifico, at a change-of-scenes, came on stage before the curtain and sang Volare to celebrate the 50s anniversary of Modugno’s success. He was greeted with the warmest applause of the evening. I would have liked Pop to have been more lyrical in the manner of the composer – but he scales down at the end anyway. On the other hand, he sings the other 1950s hit, Arrivederci Roma, exactly as I wanted it: with great beauty and restraint, ending slowly and softly with only accordion as accompaniment.
Tosti’s Marechiare and De Curtis’ Torna a Surriento are eternal favourites, while Di Capua’s – another master from the earliest generation – Maria, Marì and De Curtis’ Tu, ca nun chiagne are attractive finds. A fourth “old-timer” is Salvatore Cardillo, and his Core ‘ngrato is another old friend. The opening to both stanzas is both soft and sensitive there is an impressive intensity in between. The fifth “old-timer” is Luigi Denza, in particular remembered for Funiculì, Funiculà, inspired by the inauguration of a funicular to the summit of Vesuvius, but he composed many other songs, which also have been sung by great singers. Pop’s reading radiates great enthusiasm in Funiculì.
The song that no tenor dares to exclude from his recital is of course Di Capua’s O sole mio. Pop sings it with commendable restraint, the second stanza very soft, and he also indulges in some decorations à la Pavarotti, but in much more civilised manner! The last word goes to De Curtis, who is the most frequent contributor to this programme, with Non ti scordar di me, another late song in his production. It is one of his finest.
The accompaniments are attractive, the majority newly written by Andreas Gies, but there are other contributors, including four by Giancarlo Chiaramello, and if I’m not mistaken they were originally written for a Pavarotti disc titled Passione. In spite of some reservations, I derive a lot of pleasure from this issue, and no one with an interest in this repertoire should hesitate to acquire it. Stefan Pop’s enthusiasm is often irresistible.
Göran Forsling
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Contents
1 Voglio vivere così (1941) 2:44
Music by Giovanni D’Anzi (1906-1974)
Lyrics by Domenico Titomaglio (1901–1972)
Arr. by Andreas Gies (*1993)
2 Mattinata (1904) 1:49
Music & Lyrics by Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919)
Arr. & Orch. by Giancarlo Chiaramello (*1939)
3 Parla più piano (Love Theme from The Godfather, 1972) 3:21
Music by Nino Rota (1911–1979)
Lyrics by Gianni Boncompagni (1932–2017)
Arr. by Andreas Gies
4 Mamma (1938) 2:46
Music by Cesare Andrea Bixio (1896–1978)
Lyrics by Bixio Cherubini (1889–1987)
Arr. by Andreas Gies
5 Vivere (1936) 3:45
Music & Lyrics by Cesare Andrea Bixio
Arr. by Andreas Gies
6 Un amore così grande (1976) 4:20
Music by Guido Maria Ferilli (*1949)
Lyrics by Antonella Maggio (1952–2022)
Arr. by Guerassim Voronkov (*1960)
7 Vieni sul mar (1850s) 3:16
Music & Lyrics trad.
Arr. by Andreas Gies
8 Caruso (1986) 5:12
Music and Lyrics by Lucio Dalla (1943–2012)
Arr. by Andreas Gies
9 Ti voglio tanto bene (1937) 3:18
Music by Ernesto De Curtis (1875–1937)
Lyrics by Domenico Furnò (1892–1983)
Arr. by Lee Holdridge (*1944)
10 Volare – Nel blu, dipinto di blu (1958) 3:45
Music by Domenico Modugno (1928–1994)
Lyrics by Franco Migliacci (1930–2023)
Arr. by Andreas Gies
11 Arrivederci Roma (1955) 4:25
Music by Renato Rascel (1912–1991)
Lyrics by Pietro Garinei (1919–2006) & Sandro Giovannini (1915–1977)
Arr. By Andreas Gies
12 Marechiare (1886) 3:13
Music by Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846–1916)
Lyrics by Salvatore Di Giacomo (1860–1934)
Arr. by Andreas Gies
13 Torna a Surriento (1894) 4:49
Music by Ernesto De Curtis
Lyrics by Giambattista De Curtis (1860–1926)
Arr. & Orch. by Giancarlo Chiaramello
14 Maria, Marì (1899) 4:23
Music by Eduardo Di Capua (1865–1917)
Lyrics by di Vincenzo Russo (1876–1904)
Arr. by Andreas Gies
15 Tu, ca nun chiagne (1915) 2:50
Music by Ernesto De Curtis
Lyrics by Libero Bovio (1883–1942)
Arr. by Andreas Gies
16 Core ‘ngrato (1911) 4:35
Music by Salvatore Cardillo (1874–1947)
Lyrics by Riccardo Cordiferro
Arr. By Andreas Gies
17 Funiculì, funiculà (1880) 3:32
Music by Luigi Denza (1846–1922)
Lyrics by Peppino Turco (1846–1903)
Arr. by Andreas Gies
18 ‘O sole mio (1898) 3:25
Music by Eduardo Di Capua & Alfredo Mazzucchi (1878–1972)
Lyrics by Giovanni Capurro (1859–1920)
Arr. & Orch. by Giancarlo Chiaramello
19 Non ti scordar di me (1935) 3:06
Music by Ernesto De Curtis, Lyrics by Domenico Furnò
Arr. & Orch. by Giancarlo Chiaramello
Mauro Scaggiante (accordion) (track 4, 7, 8, 11)
