Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Messa di Gloria, Capriccio sinfonico & other works
Alejandro Del Angel (tenor), Massimo Cavalletti (bass-baritone)
Aalto Theatre Opera Chorus, Essen Philharmonic Choir
Essen Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrea Sanguineti
Contents details beneath review
rec. 2024, Alfred-Krupp-Saal, Philharmonie, Essen, Germany
Texts in booklet & online
Naxos 8.574685 [76]
I reviewed over a year ago another recording of Puccini’s Messa di Gloria from Ivan Repušić on BR Klassik, concluding that while it had its merit, it did not necessarily surpass Pappano’s earlier account on EMI. Here is another new recording of that youthful work – indeed all the works here, with the exception of the last item, are the products of Puccini’s youth and present a neat collection of his non-operatic juvenilia.
He might have been only eighteen years old when he wrote the Preludio a Orchestra but it already bears the hallmarks of his later output, being melodically very appealing and sweepingly dramatic in its phrasing.
The main work here, the mass, is alternately vigorously and delicately sung by the two combined choirs, directed in spirited fashion by Andrea Sanguineti. They are especially crisp and animated in the “Cum sancto spiritu” section and are given excellent sound, spacious and well-balanced. Tenor Alejandro Del Angel sings out in full-throated, operatic manner for the “Gloria” then assumes a beguilingly soft, beseeching tone for “Et incarnatus est”. His colleague Massimo Cavalletti is billed as both a bass and a baritone and is less convincing, his low notes sounding growly and lacking resonance in the “Crucifixus”. He is better in the higher-lying “Agnus Dei” duet which concludes the mass and is vocally the most appealing and memorable part of the whole piece, albeit brief. The orchestral playing throughout is admirable.
The vigorous Scherzo which follows is very attractive: it is a bouncy, rhythmic and atmospheric. The Capriccio sinfonico is better known and now fully in the expressive-tragic mode of Puccini’s maturity, with lilting, yearning, melodic themes and of course a tune so catchy that it was recycled for the opening of La bohème. The tune of the reconstructed “Ad una morta” is similarly memorable and the hint of strain in Cavalletti’s voice doesn’t diminish its impact too much but I can imagine it sung with better legato, a more honeyed timbre and easier top notes. It will be recognisable to operaphiles as the theme of the Intermezzo in Manon Lescaut.
The Scherzo of Puccini’s string quartet rearranged for orchestra is another appealing number, almost Elgarian in its lightness and fantasy. The concluding Inno a Roma, the only later work here, is a jolly tub-thumper – an occasional piece of no great consequence, employing plenty of military percussion and a martial trumpet.
(I would suggest to the Naxos designers that they not put essential information in miniscule-point, light-orange print such as we see at the foot of the back case insert; it is unreadable to anyone who is not a fighter-jet pilot…)
Ralph Moore
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Contents:
Preludio a orchestra (1876)
2-14. Messa di Gloria (1880)
15. Scherzo in A Minor, SC 34 – Trio in F Major, SC 52 (1882/3) (completed by V. Bernardoni)
16. Capriccio sinfonico (1883)
17. Ad una morta, SC 41 (1883) (arr. for Voice & Orchestra by Gabriella Biagi Ravenni & Dieter Schickling)
18. Scherzo for String Orchestra, SC 56 (1883) (reconstr. by W. Ludewig after Puccini’s SC 50)
19. Inno a Roma, SC 90 (1919) (arr. for Choir & Orchestra by Nuccio Fiorda, 1929)
