Classical album of the week - La Clemenza di Tito

The Guardian 60

Villazón / Rebeka / DiDonato / Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Nézet-Séguin
(Deutsche Grammophon)

In 2011, tenor Rolando Villazón instigated a project to record all the mature Mozart operas, complete with A-list casts, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin at a concert in Baden-Baden. Five operas down, the series is a curious one, worth relishing on some counts but also frustratingly uneven.

Nézet-Séguin draws a performance from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe that nods to the historically informed movement and old-school, big-orchestra Mozart without quite deciding where in between it wants to stand. He and the excellent RIAS Kammerchor make light work of the crowd scenes, but among much propulsive and shapely playing there are episodes that sound heavy-handed. An example is Sesto’s pivotal aria Parto, Parto: the first section is excessively slow, so that Joyce DiDonato – drawing out each phrase dauntlessly – can convey the character’s turmoil but not his resolve; then the second section hurtles onwards as fast as she or anyone else could possibly sing it.