As is his wont‚ Harnoncourt goes his own way. This is not an Aida to satisfy those used to conventional interpretations. The ever-vigilant conductor has decided‚ as he usually does‚ to look at a score afresh. He has sought out‚ indeed has had made‚ the kind of trumpets the composer predicated for the work. He has at every stage along his quest looked for the pertinent instrumental timbre for a passage. He and his performers obey just about every mark in the score‚ and every note is executed‚ beautifully‚ as Verdi intended it to be. As Harnoncourt remarks with reference to this recording: ‘The questions of sound are not only important to me‚ they were also important to Verdi.’ So you hear as never before the underlying importance of the insinuating clarinet line in Act 4 as Amneris attempts to win Radames’s love‚ a single example of the importance given through- out to precision of phrase‚ especially where wind and brass are concerned. You can also hear‚ better than in any recording I know‚ the separate lines‚ and therefore thoughts‚ of the participants in the huge ensemble at the end of Act 2. So‚ one asks‚ would Verdi be pleased with the results? Up to a point‚ but he might also feel that something over and above punctilious execution of the notes and pedantic attention to what is written is needed to convey the spirit of the piece. For the first two acts‚ at least‚ that goes missing‚ not only because of Harnoncourt’s slow speeds but also because the results are bloodless and basically un-Italianate. For instance‚ the chorus‚ so important in the first half of the work‚ sounds etiolated‚ the singers hardly articulating their words‚ and – in the case of the Priests – they are led by a Ramfis who finds it very hard to get his large voice around the Italian text. This seems a perverse piece of casting. In the final two acts‚ undoubtedly the better half of the piece‚ Harnoncourt and his team begin to incorporate some sense of a drama – hereabouts the personal struggles and confrontations of the principals – and so the per-formance takes on a dramatic stature. Those principals are of variable quality. The two leading women are definitely superior to their male counterparts. The Chilean soprano Gallardo-Domâs has proved in many opera houses what a sensitive Violetta she can be. Aida is a stiffer assignment. All her known gifts for identifying with the emotions of the character she is playing are there and she brings them potently to bear on both her solos‚ which she phrases with real style and feeling. Then her Act 2 appeal to Amneris‚ ‘Pietà ti prenda del mio dolor’‚ could hardly be more heart-rending‚ and her part in the final‚ death-laden duet is distinctively done. That said‚ her voice is often too light for Verdi’s demands on it. (Is she being asked to do too much too soon at a comparatively early stage in her career?) Borodina is simply superb. While she also sings with great refinement under Harnoncourt’s tutelage when that is called for‚ it is the sheer strength‚ steadiness and Italianate ping of her voice and the sense of a real presence that make her a truly regal Amneris. Exciting as any mezzo on other sets‚ her reading culminates in a searing account of Amneris’s tussle for Radames’s life in Act 4. She also sings excellent Italian. So‚ of course‚ does the one Italian member of the cast‚ La Scola‚ singing Radames‚ but like his Aida he seems a shade over-parted by the exigent demands of his role. He sings with innate intelligence‚ more so than most takers of the part‚ especially in the Nile scene‚ where he and Gallardo-Domâs convey all their characters’ amorous tensions‚ but climaxes here and earlier in ‘Celeste Aida’ place a strain on his slightly dry voice. Sadly‚ he cannot manage a piano B flat on the several occasions that is demanded of the tenor. Even so he sounds far more idiomatic than the Amonasro‚ Thomas Hampson. Although he is predictably thoughtful in his phrasing of the lyrical passages and finds the parlando asked for in his duet with Aida‚ his soft-grained tone lacks the body and presence for high-lying climaxes. Salminen is‚ as I have already inferred‚ not happy as Ramfis‚ Polgár steady but uninvolved as the King. The choice of such an eminent lyrical tenor as Streit‚ rather than a comprimario‚ for the Messenger is amply rewarded. Röschmann is also luxury casting for the Priestess. The Vienna Philharmonic respond to all their conductor’s wishes with playing of the utmost skill and refinement‚ which the ideal recording catches to the full in an excellent balance with the singers. For a performance of a similar kind to this you need to go back to Karajan in 1959‚ and he has the more even cast. Among more conventional readings‚ Muti’s in the 1970s remains hard to beat: he too took a new look at the score. Both these are now at mid-price‚ while in the bargain basement one finds the exciting 1966 recording under Mehta with a splendid cast headed byNilsson‚ Corelli and Bumbry. Still at full price‚ Callas‚ Gobbi etc under Serafin can never be out of the reckoning. Nevertheless the new version has merits all its own and deserves consideration for that.