Moniuszko - Halka (4-act Italian version)
£22.75
Usually available for despatch within 3-5 working days
Despatch Information
This despatch estimate is based on information from both our own stock and the UK supplier's stock.
If ordering multiple items, we will aim to send everything together so the longest despatch estimate will apply to the complete order.
If you would rather receive certain items more quickly, please place them on a separate order.
If any unexpected delays occur, we will keep you informed of progress via email and not allow other items on the order to be held up.
If you would prefer to receive everything together regardless of any delay, please let us know via email.
Pre-orders will be despatched as close as possible to the release date.
Label: NIFC (National Institute Frederick Chopin)
Cat No: NIFCCD082
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 2
Genre: Opera
Release Date: 22nd March 2019
Contents
Artists
Tina GorinaMonika Ledzion-Porczynska
Matheus Pompeu
Robert Gierlach
Rafal Siwek
Karol Kozlowski
Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir
Europa Galante
Conductor
Fabio BiondiWorks
HalkaArtists
Tina GorinaMonika Ledzion-Porczynska
Matheus Pompeu
Robert Gierlach
Rafal Siwek
Karol Kozlowski
Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir
Europa Galante
Conductor
Fabio BiondiAbout
Fabio Biondi, together with Europa Galante and soloists Tina Gorina, Monika Ledzion-Porczyńska and Matheus Pompeu, presents the world premiere recording on period instruments of Moniuszko’s opera, Halka. Biondi recorded the 1857 Italian version of the opera in a concert performance which took place during the 14th International Music Festival ‘Chopin and his Europe’ in Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio, Warsaw, in August 2018.
Fabio Biondi, who with his ensemble Europa Galante has become renowned for interpretations of Baroque music, has been shifting his interests for the last decade or so towards early Romantic opera. In Warsaw, at the ‘Chopin and his Europe’ festival, he has presented concert versions of operas by Bellini (Norma, I Capuleti e i Montecchi), the original version of Verdi’s Macbeth and, in 2018, Halka, in its Italian version. Of course, he could not show the despairing girl’s fiery torch or her salto mortale, but the music in his interpretation gained all the more force of expression. Biondi’s recording of the Italian version of Halka situates it among the finest operatic works of European romanticism.
He admits to having discovered an exceptional composer: “The passion that engulfed me for the music of the great Stanislaw Moniuszko was not by chance. In the Europe of the first half of the nineteenth century, filled with the operatic element, under the powerful sway of the phenomenon of Giuseppe Verdi, we are enchanted by the language which the great Polish master succeeded in personalising in such an exceptional, distinctive way. In his scores, we find wonderful lyricism and splendid instrumentation, referring with deference to the great German symphonists, and at the same time to Italian simplicity. Above all, however, we discover the wonderfully mined potential of popular Polish music of those times. This all means that Moniuszko is a composer to whom one cannot but refer with great enthusiasm, if one wishes to better understand the phenomenon of nineteenth-century European music.” – Fabio Biondi, October, 2018
Cast:
- Halka: Tina Gorina
- Zofia (Sofia): Monika Ledzion-Porczyńska
- Jontek: Matheus Pompeu
- Janusz (Gianni): Robert Gierlach
- Stolnik (Alberto): Rafał Siwek
- Young man: Karol Kozłowski
Fabio Biondi, who with his ensemble Europa Galante has become renowned for interpretations of Baroque music, has been shifting his interests for the last decade or so towards early Romantic opera. In Warsaw, at the ‘Chopin and his Europe’ festival, he has presented concert versions of operas by Bellini (Norma, I Capuleti e i Montecchi), the original version of Verdi’s Macbeth and, in 2018, Halka, in its Italian version. Of course, he could not show the despairing girl’s fiery torch or her salto mortale, but the music in his interpretation gained all the more force of expression. Biondi’s recording of the Italian version of Halka situates it among the finest operatic works of European romanticism.
He admits to having discovered an exceptional composer: “The passion that engulfed me for the music of the great Stanislaw Moniuszko was not by chance. In the Europe of the first half of the nineteenth century, filled with the operatic element, under the powerful sway of the phenomenon of Giuseppe Verdi, we are enchanted by the language which the great Polish master succeeded in personalising in such an exceptional, distinctive way. In his scores, we find wonderful lyricism and splendid instrumentation, referring with deference to the great German symphonists, and at the same time to Italian simplicity. Above all, however, we discover the wonderfully mined potential of popular Polish music of those times. This all means that Moniuszko is a composer to whom one cannot but refer with great enthusiasm, if one wishes to better understand the phenomenon of nineteenth-century European music.” – Fabio Biondi, October, 2018
A leading figure in historically informed performance, Fabio Biondi’s repertoire covers three centuries and contains both masterworks and less familiar or even forgotten output. At the start of his career, he worked with such ensembles as Cappella Real, Musica Antiqua Wien, Seminario Musicale, La Chapelle Royale and Les Musiciens du Louvre. In 1990, he founded Europa Galante, now one of the leading ensembles specialising in the performance of Baroque music, appearing at major festivals and concert halls around the world. Its recordings have won the Diapason d’Or (five times), Diapason d’Or de l’Année and RTL Prize, as well as a Grammy nomination (Vivaldi’s Bajazet, 2006). From 2005 to 2016, Biondi was artistic director responsible for Baroque repertoire of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, and he has also worked with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the chamber orchestras of Zurich and Stuttgart.
In 2015, he became music director of the orchestra of the Palacio de las Artes Reina Sofia in Valencia. As an esteemed chamber music interpreter, he readily turns to repertoire for violin with piano or harpsichord. Since 2011, he has taught at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In 2015, he received the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He plays on violins by Andrea Guarneri (1686) and Carlo Ferdinando Gagliano (1766), owned by his teacher Salvatore Cicero and kindly lent to him by the Salvatore Cicero Foundation in Palermo.
Cast:
- Halka: Tina Gorina
- Zofia (Sofia): Monika Ledzion-Porczyńska
- Jontek: Matheus Pompeu
- Janusz (Gianni): Robert Gierlach
- Stolnik (Alberto): Rafał Siwek
- Young man: Karol Kozłowski
Error on this page? Let us know here
Need more information on this product? Click here