Seven dramatic arias. We would expect nothing less from Cecilia Bartoli, who loves to play the harpy, at least on stage and on record! In this album, recorded in Basel with the Kammerorchester Basel conducted by Muhai Tang, the Italian diva, so adored by the masses, performs arias composed by Mozart, Haydn, Mysliveček and Beethoven for the great sopranos of their own times.
It was not uncommon in those days for arias to be tailored to the style, vocal abilities and range of the cantatrici and singers. Thus Bartoli brings back to life for us the memory of Josepha Duschek, Nancy Storace and the castrato Pietro Benedetti. "Unreleased" proclaims the title of the album, but only those unheard among Cecilia Bartoli's previous recordings, for the arias here performed are, for some, well known, such as Beethoven's Ah! Perfido, Haydn's great Scena di Berenice and Mozart's arias Ah, lo previdi, L’ameró, saró costante and Bella mia fiamma, addio.
With the latter, beware of confusion with the aria Ch’io mi scordi di te, K. 490 performed here by Cecilia Bartoli, which is a substitute aria for a partial revival of Idomeneo and not the famous concert aria of the same name (K. 505) for which Mozart wrote a large solo clavier part for himself. The aria sung here by Cecilia Bartoli includes an important solo violin part that Mozart had intended for Count Hatzfeld, played here for our great pleasure by Maxim Vengerov, from whom we hear twice more within this programme. We should emphasise also the pure beauty of an aria from La Clemenza di Tito by Joseph Mysliveček, a contemporary and friend of Mozart who cries out to be rediscovered. © François Hudry/Qobuz