© Protected - Selected Classical Music in Poland and the Europe of Chopin - Reviewer's Notebook

Don Juan  and  Zerlina   (British Library) NIFCCD 141-142 A scene from Bizet's opera  Carmen A degree of vertigo overwhelms me when I begin to consider the kaleidoscopic life of  Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838). He was  the speedy Mozart librettist of  Le nozze di Figaro (1786); Don Giovanni (1787) and Così fan tutte (1789). Constant   unexpected reversals of fortune in his life led to massive changes of plan that plagued this intense  improviser on life's stage. The insanely disconnected and illogical events of his long-lived destiny  are introduced piecemeal into the opera plot.  Da Ponte became immensely successful as a result of the libretto for the opera A Rare Thing (1786)   by  Vicente Martín y Soler (1754-1806) , one of the great musical successes of the time,  comfortably outdoing Mozart in Vienna despite the success of Figaro. He wrote in his Memoires: 'We might have had more amorous a...

The Eliot Quartet Maryana Osipova, Violin Alexander Sachs, Violin Dimitry Hahalin, Viola Michael Preuss, Cello Dimitry Ablogin, Piano CD:  GENUIN  GEN 22784 And yet another CD spins on my player, one of many that regularly come my way. The title of this disc  Le temps retrouvé   intrigued me as it irresistibly gave rise in my memory of reading long ago that great work  À la Recherche du Temps Perdu  by Marcel Proust. The title became a semantic analogy of a madeleine dipped in tea.  César Franck (1822-1890) The emotional impact of the music and performance on this disc by the Eliot Quartet (named after T. S. Eliot and his poem  Four Quartets,  itself inspired by the late Beethoven quartets) and the distinguished Russian pianist Dimitry Ablogin. His exceptional performances  have often been reviewed on this internet journal  and his numerous international awards, such as the 10th International German Pia...