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RECORDING INFORMATION Decca’s recorded legacy is dominated by the huge number of complete opera recordings and vocal recitals. While a vast number of these recordings have seen CD release in the past 20 years, many of the original LP recitals have been reissued with other material in order to increase the overall playing time due to the longer time available on CD and modern covers have replaced the originals. This new mini-series is unashamedly nostalgic and presents original recitals as they were first published during the 1950s and 1960s. Original LP cover art is reproduced and the original back of the LP is used as the inside of the digipack. A clear tray is used with a detail from the original LP sleeve as a background, and the back of the digipack gives the tracklist and artist details in a uniform, current style. This is the second group of Classic Recitals. This Classic Recital is a tribute to the great Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov who died in June 2004 at the age of 74. Ghiaurov was born in Velingrad, Bulgaria, in 1929 and first studied in his native Bulgaria at the Sofia Conservatory. He continued his studies in Moscow and at a Paris competition he won first prize. His debut followed shortly after this when, in 1955 at the Sofia Opera, he sang Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia). Italy beckoned and he first appeared there as Méphistophélès in Faust at Bologna in 1958 and the following year as Varlaam at La Scala. Debuts in the other great opera houses followed and it was as Padre guardiano in La forza del destino (conducted by Solti) that he first appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1962. Ghiaurov’s first appearances at New York’s Metropolitan Opera followed in 1965 when he appeared in Faust and sang Philip II in Don Carlo. It was with Karajan at the 1965 Salzburg Festival that Ghiaurov sang the role of the Tsar in Boris Godunov, a collaboration which led to Decca recording the complete opera with Ghiaurov in the title-role and Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Ghiaurov’s career flourished throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and in recent years, assuming smaller roles in a variety of operas, resulted in a career which had lasted for almost fifty years on the stage. When this Verdi recital was released in September 1970 it attracted very positive praise and critical reaction: “… exemplary accompaniments from the London Symphony Orchestra which give unmitigated pleasure in their own right … and with choral contributions of quite unusual nuance and finesse of tone … are five scenes featuring that fine Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov, who exudes a magisterial personality … his is a voix noble, entirely even throughout its considerable range … and used with intelligence and expressiveness … the whole of the recording has been very well produced … a clear recommendation.” Gramophone September 1970 |
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