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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely Rare Male Soprano,
By
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This review is from: Antonio Maria Bononcini: Cantate in Soprano (Audio CD)
For any classical music fan who is attracted to Baroque vocal music, this Bononcini CD is a must-buy. The vocalist Radu Marian is a prime example of the extremely rare, true male soprano (not falsetto sopranist,) perhaps one voice in a billion in today's world. His voice is completely different from that of a woman with the same tessitura or that of a boy soprano.
One must remember that 80% of operas (and other vocal works) were written before the year 1800, and 70% of the roles were written for alto and soprano castrati. This was fine in a prolonged era during which such singers were produced artificially to the tune of 4000-5000 per year, and not all in Italy. Approximating that kind of voice today is very difficult. With better training today, a greater number of alto countertenors are available, although not many have the quality of, for example, an Andreas Scholl or Philippe Jaroussky. A few women sopranos, such as Maria Cristina Kiehr, Emma Kirkby, and Gundula Janowitz possess many of the finer qualities required of the Baroque voice. And occasionally, a sopranist such as Aris Christofellis comes along, although as amazing as his vocal technique and musical understanding were, his voice had a rather unnatural sound. To be able to listen to a true male soprano, therefore, is a rare treat. Radu's voice likely does not have the power or tone of a "Farinelli," a sound required for the more dramatic operatic roles; however, it is very clean, focused, and pure, perfect for cantate. For some of us who listen to his recordings often, his voice has become rather addicting. The composer Antonio Maria Bononcini apparently was very talented both in writing for the voice but also for Baroque orchestra. His very musical and appealing orchestrations show a surprising degree of development from his predecessors. The orchestra direction and performance are very professional, and the recording sound is attractive. Not very long ago, acquiring Radu Marian CDs was not an easy task, especially here in the Americas. I am pleased to see that his reputation has spread and that his recordings have started to be listed on easily accessible sites. There is no telling how long the CDs may be available from American distributors, and I suggest your checking shipping charges from overseas. For people who have become Radu Marian fans, however, perhaps no price is too much.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Challenging Listening,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Antonio Maria Bononcini: Cantate in Soprano (Audio CD)
I can imagine an instant antipathy to the voice of soprano Radu Marian. It's not the voice of a countertenor -- and believe me, I've heard plenty of reasonable people decry the current popularity of falsettist countertenors -- nor does it sound like the voice of a woman coloratura of equal technical skill. It sounds like the voice of a preternaturally skillful thirteen-year-old boy. I played this very CD for some musically innocent friends and asked them to guess the identity of the singer. They all guessed ... marvelously precocious boy!Radu Marian doesn't look like a boy. He was born in Romania in 1977. He was 27 years old when this CD was recorded, in 2004. He's been described as a man who simply never went through puberty and thus retained his boy-soprano voice into maturity. In short, a natural male soprano. It's worth noting, I think, that "puberty" struck boys much later in their teens in the centuries of Renaissance polyphony and Baroque opera; natural male sopranos 16-18 years of age would have been rather ordinary in 1504 or 1604, allowing for extended vocal training. So that acoustic impression is in effect correct: Radu Marian, musically, is a virtuosic boy soprano. When and if you choose to read about him on-line, you'll find innumerable references to the the "castrati" of the 17th/18th Centuries, the acclaimed opera stars of the Baroque era. You'll discover some controversy. What did the castrati really sound like? Do falsettists like Randall Wong or David Daniels match up to the vocal potency attributed to those legendary castrati like Farinelli? It's a moot question, and of less interest to modern professional Baroque performers than to casual listeners. On YouTube, there's a scratchy cylinder recording of Alessandro Moreschi, identified as the last "castrato" trained in the baroque tradition, in comparison to Radu Marian. As far as my ears can make anything of the comparison, it suggests that Marian really does sound quite a lot like Moreschi, in other words that the never-deepening voices of the castrati might well have sounded like the voices of overgrown boy sopranos. One other thing is clear from the YouTube clip; Marian is a vastly more skillful singer than Moreschi was. There's no denying the virtuosity of Radu Marian's singing. He has flexible control of his voice and perfection of tuning to match almost any prominent woman soprano performing today; indeed, his technique is better than that of many divas. Whether you "like" his voice or not is purely a question of taste. I'll admit that I do and I don't; that is, I can relish its special timbre in some musical contexts but not all. If I had to 'vote' for a favorite male soprano, it would be falsettist Philippe Jaroussky over Radu Marian, on the basis of subtlety of phrasing and warmth of timbre. The Bononcini brothers were both cellists and both extraordinary composers. Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677-1726) was the younger and has always remained the less known, probably with justification. His works are perfectly craftsmanlike but lack the scintillating imagination of his brother Giovanni Battista's. The four "cantate in soprano" sung on this CD by Radu Marian are typical of his skills: polished , elegant, affective, but not particularly distinctive. I don't think that amounts to a serious criticism; good music doesn't need to be distinctive, it just needs to be good. (If you're a romanticist, I suppose you'll disagree vehemently, but it's my opinion that "originality" is less of a virtue than competency.) The ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria, led by violinist Gunar Letzbor, is easily among the best these days, especially after the retirement of Musica Antiqua Köln. Three of these cantatas feature sparkling obbligato passages for the violins, and one is graciously enhanced by sprightly obbligatos for twin flauti dolci (alto recorders). The instrumental artistry of this performance is beyond dispute, so any evaluation of the CD comes stubbornly back to the question of taste, whether the voice of Radu Marian is truly beautiful or simply novel.
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