REWIND
Great artists talk about their past recordings This month: ANTONIO PAPPANO Conductor
MY FINEST MOMENT Puccini Il trittico Angela Gheorghiu (soprano), Roberto Alagna (tenor), Cristina Gallardo-domâs (soprano); Tin Boys’ Choir, LSO and Philharmonia/antonio Pappano Warner Classics 5565872 (1999)
The Philharmonia and the London Symphony Orchestra were both involved as this was a very long project – three weeks – so we split it. An opera studio recording, of course, is missing the production. You have to have somebody in charge who is the stage director – and that was me. It was an opportunity to visualise and create in everybody’s performance something that was tangibly theatrical, that when you’re listening you could somehow see the production. I had wonderful singers but I would single out Cristina Gallardodomâs, who not many people knew at the time, and who captivated at the sessions. The orchestra was le gobsmacked at her intensity, commitment and heart. They were weeping; it was quite something. One scene I’m very fond of is the final scene of Tabarro, between Michele and
Giorgetta. There’s the heartbreaking loss of a child that has destroyed their marriage; she becomes an adulteress, he murders the lover and the two of them just sort of go at each other. The sadness and the tragedy of it all is very special as a piece of writing and theatre. You have to capture the fire and the electricity of the performance, otherwise it sounds like a laboratory, and you’re done for.
MY FONDEST MEMORY Puccini La rondine Angela Gheorghiu (soprano), Roberto Alagna (tenor); Lso/antonio Pappano Warner Classics 5563382 (1997)
I’ll never forget my very first recording with the LSO. They had just finished a long stint of contemporary music, and when they got their teeth into this Puccini score, which is one of the most alluring, perfumed and rambunctious scores, it was like they’d died and gone to heaven! From my side it was like all of a sudden I was driving a Ferrari. I couldn’t believe it. I started reading a little bit of the opening, which has this incredible orchestral flourish, and it was as if I hit the pedal and the car just took o . To see and hear them fall in love with this music was amazing – I’ve talked to several players over the years, and it remains one of their favourite recordings too. That makes me feel really good. It was also my first project with Gheorghiu and Alagna together. We went on to make several recordings and it was a real partnership; her vocal allure and knowing way with the music, plus his ardour. Then, in the smaller roles, there was this wonderful who’s who of young singers of the time, all whom went on to have really terrific careers. It was a labour of love.
I’D LIKE ANOTHER GO AT… Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2 Orchestra dell’accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/antonio Pappano Warner Classics 9494622 (2011) The list of pieces I’d like to do again is quite long, but one is the recording of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony.
It has many beautiful things in it, but because I’ve performed it so o en since I recorded it, my view of it has grown. I’ve done it with many di erent orchestras now, just recently in Dresden, and I had the chance to go on tour with Santa Cecilia long a er we made our recording. So I think there’s another recording there, to bring new sha s of light on certain things, a new-found confidence and ability to read the piece’s secrets, of which there are many. I love it to death; for the conductor, it’s a piece about shaping, but it’s also very long. You have to smell the roses along the way, but there has to be a rigour – you have to know how to take it home. Also in its fabulous slow movement you must savour everything that’s in it, and yet have an idea of the whole. I just have a deeper knowledge and understanding of the piece now, so I’d love to have another go at it. Pappano’s recording of Bernstein symphonies is out on Warner Classics