The Love Songs Of Paolo Tosti: Gillian Zammit, soprano, Lucia Micallef, piano. GZCD1010, produced and engineered by Matthew Dilley. Recorded at The Menuhin Hall, Surrey, UK. HSBC Bank Malta p.l.c. Playing time 1:00:06.
Where song matters, the nearest to Schubert Italy produced was Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916). Born in Ortona he spent some time in Rome, moving to London in 1875. He was to spend more than half his life in England, moved in royal circles and the best salons and ended being knighted by King Edward VII. He diedin Italy after he moved back there in 1912.
Gillian Zammit is on very good form throughout and she ably and sensitively interprets and projects very well a wide variety of moods- Albert Storace
Tosti’s output of classical songs is a considerable one, having penned more than 350 of them: mainly in Italian with some in French, English and the Neapolitan dialect.
These songs are mainly concerned with love and its many aspects and facets with all the various emotions and feelings resulting from this state of being.
Tosti had the good fortune and sense to set his songs to excellent lyrics by both well-known and lesser-known but talented poets. It is no exaggeration to say that some of the latter are known mainly because of this connection.
Gillian Zammit is well-known in Maltese music circles and has always excelled and impressed audiences especially inchamber songs like these. Maltese audiences are mainly familiar with a handful of the oft-repeated Tosti songs in Italian, and the Neapolitan A Vucchella.
It was therefore an excellent choice on Zammit’s part not only to include war-horses like L’ideal, Non T’amo Più, Aprile, Malia, La Serenata and A Vucchella but also a few lesser-known ones. Besides, she included six songs in French, a good proportion out of the total 20 tracks recorded.
The singer is on very good form throughout and she very ably and sensitively interprets and projects very well a wide variety of moods.
Diction is clear and Lucia Micallef’s accompaniment is consistently sensitive and supportive, with the piano having the very last word, extending and complementing the feeling expressed by the voice.
April, to lyrics by Rocco Pagliara, is regaled with urgency and works to a very fine climax, Non T’amo Più (Carmelo Errico) is both reproachful and liberated and pathos reigns supreme in Chanson De L’adieu (Edmond Haraucourt).
The self-explanatory title of Tristezza (Riccardo Mazzola) has darker overtones underlined very well by the piano while Mattinata (Enrico Panzacchi) is happy and optimistic.
Je Pleure is sad and strongly indignant and the interpretation of Vorrei, to D’Annunzio’s lyrics is redolent with passionate desire.
The compact Pour Un Baiser (Georges Doncieux) is the shortest song and no less lovely for that, while D’Annunzio again gives vent to bitterness in In Van Preghi which voice and music evoke fully.
As in other songs there is a beautiful legato in La Serenata, full as it is with effusive joy as expressed in Giovanni Cesareo’s lyrics.
Vorrei Morire (Leonardo Corgnetti) concludes the selection with a very beautifully faded out pianissimo.