Cecilia Bartoli, Charles Spencer - Rossini Recital: 19 Songs & Cantata (1991)

This is a treasure of a disk that you should purchase right now. You will not only enjoy it deeply many times, but thank me for pointing you to beautiful music that is not often perfromed and sung by a voice that is absolutely perfect for the music. Let me provide a bit of background.

Gioacchino Rossini was born to a family of musicians in 1792. He began writing music at 15 and by 1829 he had written nearly 40 operas and had been the toast of society. He had early success in 1813 with "Tancredi" and in 1816 with "The Barber of Seville" (under the title of "Almaviva"). And while he wrote some songs and sacred works along the way, he won the world over with his operas and concluded with "Guillaume Tell" (William Tell) in 1829. Thereafter, he wrote sacred works and small works for his own delight that he shared with his friends at soirées in his home (they were regular and sought after events between 1857 until his death in 1868). He wrote hundreds of these pieces and would play the piano (he called himself a pianist of the fourth class) for the singers. Rossini referred to these short songs, pieces for small ensembles, and solo pieces as his "Sins of Old Age" ("Péchés de viellesse"), however he never printed them and, in fact, many of have yet to be printed (but should be).

This disk was recorded in 1990 just before Bartoli's twenty-fourth birthday. Her voice is so beautiful and flexible with many rich colors that each piece sounds like a jewel. Yes, she is a very young singer and her voice has become even richer as she has matured, but this is a glorious disk and something you will want to listen to repeatedly. Some of the songs are short, others are a bit longer, and there is the big finish with the full cantata "Giovanna d'Arco" ("Joan of Arc") from 1832 (but first publicly performed in 1859). It was composed as a gift for Olympe Pellisier, who became his second wife in 1847.