Few things have given me so much pleasure of late as Desderi’s account of Il maestro di cappella. A famed Don Alfonso and Dandini, he has always been the master of this kind of Italian comedy and here he projects the gentle humour of this delightful piece with a charm and wit that never deteriorates into farce. The touch is always light, the manner smiling. After that I enjoyed most the truly spinto sound of Giacomini’s Puccini. If there were any justice in the world he would long ago have become one of the famous Three, none of the existing trio sounding so authentically the heroic tang of the “Nessun dorma” as Giacomini, whose dark-hued timbre is so reminiscent of Francesco Merli as Calaf. He is just as convincing in Dick Johnson’s famous solo.
In arias from parts he has sung on stage and/or disc, Bruson as ever places his burnished tone on a long-breathed line. Perhaps playing, literally here, to the gallery, he seldom modulates his dynamic level below mezzo forte (his account of the Ernani piece is better heard in the complete set under Muti – EMI, 1/84), but the actual sound of held high notes except under extreme pressure is balm to the ear. That can’t be said of Freni. Even in 1988 the pronounced beat in her voice makes her Mimi and Liu sound anything but youthful – we have better, earlier mementoes of her in these parts – but, as on stage in her late career, she is everything an Adriana should be.
The evening at the Bolshoi began, somewhat inappropriately, with two movements from the ubiquitous Seasons led by Ughi in a manner now deemed inappropriate, his sweet vibrato much to the fore. On the other hand Paganini’s La caccia Caprice exactly suits his style, and his playing is brilliant. All the same, those wanting to hear the singers may, in consequence, find that side of things given rather short measure.
Applause breaks in often during the postludes to arias but it’s quickly faded out. The recording has all the soloists very forward as though we were hearing them from the front of the stalls. For all its oddity of compilation, I would have hated to have missed Desderi’s Cimarosa, Ughi’s Paganini and Giacomini’s Puccini.'