| Recently I acquired another two recordings of Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" and "L'elisir d'amore" into my collection. Both these pieces are well-known and don't need any kind of introduction. Saying that the works have received numerous recordings would be a very big understatement: according to one of the best sites for discographies, operadis-opera-discography.org.uk, there are, respectively, 62 and 77 recordings of the operas. I have several recordings of the operas with which I am pretty happy: Abbado's recording of "Don Pasquale" with Allen, Mei, Lopardo and Scimone's "L'elisir" with Carreras, Ricciarelli, Trimarchi and Nucci would have to be the highlights... At least, they were before I bought the two new ones. Heinz Wallberg was a German conductor. He became principal music director in Augsburg in 1954, and in Bremen in 1955, concluding in both posts in 1960. From 1964 to 1975, Wallberg was principal conductor of the Tonkünstler Orchestra, Vienna. He held the same post with the Munich Radio Orchestra from 1975 to 1982, and with the Essen Philharmonic from 1975 to 1991. From what I managed to read on him, most of his recordings are set firmly in Wagnerian operas and verisimo. And yet, in 1979 and in 1984, with the help of Bavaria Radio and BMG Music, he recorded Donizetti's comic masterpieces (in the order already given at the beginning)... One would imagine that the recordings are bound to be heavy, over-emphasized affairs... They aren't even close to these ... |
