Vincerò! – the international success of Piotr Beczała’s new album
A month after it’s premiere, Vincerò! – the first solo album of Piotr Beczała in five years – does not leave the bestseller lists in the classical music category and continues to receive fantastic reviews all over the world.
Vincerò! is a collection of heart-wrenching opera arias by Puccini, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Giordano and Cilea. Beczała is accompanied by the Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana and the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, led by maestro Marco Boemi. The first single promoting new album Vincerò! – Nessun Dorma – was released on April 24.
“Recording the album Vincerò! for Pentatone, which has been awarded Label of the Year at the prestigious Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2019, is a wonderful and exciting experience for me. The Pentatone label team are also my friends. Thanks to their trust and support, together with the maestro Boemi and the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, I can start an artistic journey in a completely new direction and play one of the most interesting characters in the world of opera librettos, i.e. Turiddu, Canio, Andrea Chénier and of course Kalaf. Based on my experience in the lyrical repertoire, I can now take on a new challenge and look for other means of artistic expression in such a colorful direction as Verismo. In the coming years, I will complement my repertoire with more works by Giacomo Puccini, Umberto Giordano and Pietro Mascagni, and I can’t wait to share this wonderful music with the audience on stage”, said Piotr Beczała.
The second of Beczała’s most recent albums – Songs of Stanisław Moniuszko and Mieczysław Karłowicz, which was released last year by Fryderyk Chopin Institute in colaboration with Great Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw, is also enjoying unflagging popularity. „I feel joy and satisfaction that thanks to the great success of this album, songs of wonderful polish composers have been heard all over the world”, Beczała wrote on his social media profiles. The artist is accompanied by Helmut Deutsch who ranks among the world finest, most successful and in-demand song recital accompanists.
Press reviews:
„Just listen to the luminous ring to Beczała’s tenor in the open-hearted ‘Recondita armonia’…In an age when many singers are persuaded to take on heavier repertoire far too soon, it’s refreshing to read of an artist armed with patience. And it’s refreshing to hear a tenor tackle this repertoire with such apparent ease, for this is a simply wonderful disc…Beczała never needs to force unduly, yet there’s plenty of emotion to these readings.”
„There’s no finer tenor operating in the spinto verismo category today than Piotr Beczała…this is a highly enjoyable portrait documenting a musically scrupulous artist moving into a new phase in his career…Thoughtful artistry comes through in his ability to vary tone emotionally, even within the music of a single character…he manages freshly to illuminate some textual points even in this thrice-familiar material…”
Opera, July 2020
„At 50, the Polish tenor is in his absolute prime, with none of the roughness around the edges which many of his illustrious contemporaries are starting to exhibit: whereas others make a virtue of necessity and employ those signs of wear-and-tear to dramatic effect in this music, Beczała sounds in complete control of every interpretative gesture.”
„All is delivered with the nuance and artistry of a singer with a nearly three-decade career under his belt but whose voice betrays next to no wear and tear.”
„Beczala’s voice is absolutely in its prime, with a beguiling warmth and smoothness across the vocal spectrum.”
„Beczała has pipes to spare, and there is no shortage of heft in this collection of fan-favorite verismo arias by Puccini, Mascagni, Cilea, Giordano, and Leoncavallo. More impressive, however, is the painterly sensitivity and conviction with which he phrases these outpourings of doomed and unrequited love.”
“… he phrases Calaf’s Nessun dorma aristocratically, and his voice, at 53, still sounds youthful for Lieutenant Pinkerton’s farewell to Madame Butterfly and Rinuccio’s paean to Florence.”
The Sunday Times, 31st May 2020
„…There’s no finer tenor operating in the spinto verismo category today than Piotr Beczała…”
July OPERA (London), Disc of the Month
„…Das sorgt für einen Verismo-Streifzug der Sonderklasse (…) Inbrunst und Klangkultur gehen Hand in Hand: Beczałas Spitzentöne besitzen bei aller Anmut eine Gespanntheit, die den Eindruck dramatischer Dringlichkeit vermittelt…“
“…Wer ihn kennt, weiß, dass Beczala in Sachen Karriereplanung wirklich nichts dem Zufall überlässt. Was vermutlich der Grund ist, warum sein Tenor mit dem Alter immer besser zu werden scheint: Die Höhe leuchtet noch intensiver als vor einigen Jahren, der metallene Kern hat einen noch wärmeren Mantel bekommen – und doch ist die Stimme bei allem Kraftzuwachs elastisch geblieben (…) Auf diesem Fundament kann sich dann die strahlkräftige Höhe entfalten, die bei dem polnischen Sänger derart bombensicher sitzt, wie bei kaum einem anderen Tenor. Der beste Moment gelingt ihm allerdings, wenn er die Stimme zur delikaten Begleitung der Harfe ins Mezza voce zurücknimmt. Betörender kann man das kaum singen!“
“Ohne Stimmkrisen oder Ehedramen ist er fast eine Ausnahmeerscheinung in der sensationsgierigen Opernwelt! Das bewährt sich auch jetzt in seinem stilsicheren Ausdruck, der strahlenden Höhe mit der berühmten „Träne“in der Kehle, den Farben und der Wärme der Stimme.”
„I brani di “Tosca” e “Adriana Lecouvreur” inquadrano subito le doti di Beczala. Le splendide qualità timbriche, unite a un registro acuto sicurissimo e squillante, un sapeinte controllo del fiato, una levigatezza della linea musicale (testimonianza della rigorosa formazione mozartiana), ma soprattutto una precisa volontà di non fare mai nulla che sia contrario alla precisione musicale.”
„Weryzm to dla Beczały szlachetność i mimo wszystko wewnętrzny spokój. Silne emocje obecne w tych drobiazgach potrafi kontrolować. Bez przerysowań i nagłych spięć, za to z uczuciem i miłością do dźwięków. Płyta, od której trudno się oderwać.”
„Piotr Beczała na novom CD spieva výborne: krásne otvorený tenor sa spoľahlivo nesie ponad orchester; všetky árie obdaril sýtou farbou hlasu, voľným hrdlom, bohatým jasným a zlatým zvukom, eleganciou i vrúcnou emóciou.”
