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GRAMOPHONE (01/2017)
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Pan Classics
PC10352



Code-barres / Barcode : 7619990103528

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Reviewer: David Vickers

The innovations of Niccolò Jommelli (1714-74) transformed mid 18th-century Italian opera just as much as Gluck’s slightly later so-called reforms, but his tercentenary passed by largely uncelebrated; this recital album was recorded in 2014 after a concert tour around Spain and presents a cross-section of arias from seven different cantatas, oratorios and operas written between 1749 and 1768.

Filippo Mineccia is a visceral performer for whom dramatic characterisation seems to be paramount, while the range of musical moods provides some scope for versatile and astute musicianship. His sustained higher notes can be overly forced but there is plenty of theatrical personality in the florid passagework in Leonte’s ‘Fra il mar turbato’ from Bajazette (Turin, 1753), during which the small band Nereydas play turbulent stormy effects with brio. Gently undulating muted strings convey a soft breeze in Sesto’s ‘Se mai senti spirarti sul volto’ from La clemenza di Tito (Stuttgart, 1753) – an outstandingly lovely aria that warrants more relaxed singing than we get from Mineccia’s mildly effortful exaggerations (though some of his embellishments in the da capo are delightfully tender).

There are two assertively sculpted arias for St John from the oratorio La Passione di Nostro Signore Gesú Cristo (Rome, 1749), dedicated to Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie’s younger brother), and the graceful pastoral ‘Pastor son’io’ from a Christmas cantata for the Blessed Nativity (1750) also dates from Jommelli’s Roman period; these show Mineccia’s sensitivity with words but there is also some uneven tuning and his timbre is occasionally shrill. Mineccia’s singing sounds much more at home in the lively ‘Salda rupe’ from Pelope (Stuttgart, 1755), but there are some vocal flaws in ‘O vos omnes’ from the Lamentazioni per il Mercoledi Santo (c1751) that regrettably diminish an unhindered appreciation of Jommelli’s skill.

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