The first collection under review covers the second half of Dame Joan Sutherland’s recording career and also straddles the change from analogue to digital recording. That affects the sound: early Decca digital recordings (in the early-mid 1980s) tended to have a sharp glare in the treble and little if any warmth, affecting the voices and orchestras (notably violin sections). On the other hand, sound is very clean and clear.

Arguably, Sutherland hit her prime earlier than this. By the time of the first recording here, Verdi’s Rigoletto (1971), she had adopted the swooping phrasing and covered consonants that many people criticised. By 1982, when the recording of Bellini’s La Somnambula was made, she was addressing these matters to some extent, but by 1988 when Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur was recorded her vibrato has widened, and her lower and mid-range sounded thin and wobbly. Her extraordinarily strong and flexible top range never suffered. Those purchasing this set should be aware that the great soprano was in fresher voice in her earlier recordings of Rigoletto, La Traviata, Bellini’s Norma and Donizetti’s Lucia de Lammermoor (available in the preceding collection).

Generally, the supporting singers were weaker in the earlier versions, with the notable exception of Traviata, where Joan co-starred with Carlo Bergonzi as Alfredo and Robert Merrill as Germont.

Of course, there are many pluses here. Sutherland’s vocal quirks are strongest in the bel canto operas, but in other works she doesn’t indulge them much at all. Examples are Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann (with the young Placído Domingo), and the iconic Puccini Turandot conducted by Zubin Mehta, where she is joined by Luciano Pavarotti and Montserrat Caballé.

Another point of interest is the repertoire. It was during this period that Sutherland, by dint of her vast fame, was able to resurrect forgotten operas that are rarely performed and never recorded today. Among the rarities are Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda (with Pavarotti and James Morris) and Anna Bolena (with Samuel Ramey and Jerry Hadley), Massenet’s Esclarmonde and Le Roi de Lahore, Leoni’s L’oracolo (with Tito Gobb), Verdi’s I masnadieri, and Ambrose Thomas’s Hamlet.

As well, there are excellent performances of works you may not associate with her: Turandot (already mentioned), Puccini’s Suor Angelica (with Christa Ludwig), Handel’s Rodelinda (100 percent inauthentic), and John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. The latter boasts a cast of actor/singers that includes Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Regina Resnik, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Angela Lansbury, and Warren Mitchell.

Clearly, this set offers great singing aside from Sutherland. The young Pavarotti did his best work in these pre-Three Tenors years, especially in Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Il Trovatore. The Canadian mezzo-soprano Huguette Tourangeau proves a sympathetic partner in several operas. Not so, unfortunately, the great Carlo Bergonzi, who was brought in as a last-minute replacement in Adriana Lecouvreur when Pavarotti turned up not knowing his part. Bergonzi shows real signs of strain on his top notes here, and indeed the recording sat in the can for two years.

If anything, this set is as much a tribute to the work of Richard Bonynge, Sutherland’s husband and mentor. His conducting in this repertoire is second to none: pliable, vigorous when required, and completely supportive of the singers. For Australian listeners, many beloved names from the old Australian Opera days pop up: Isobel Buchanan, Clifford Grant, Graeme Ewer, and Margreta Elkins among them.

A must for lovers of French piano music

Pascal Rogé, who turns 75 this year, was a child prodigy. Born into a musical family, he played part of Ravel’s Concerto in G at the age of eight in front of Marguerite Long, the pianist to whom Ravel had dedicated the work.

Later he spent three years mentored by Julius Katchen, the powerhouse Paris-based American pianist. Jeremy Nicolas’s note reminds us of how excited critics were when first confronted with Rogé’s pianism. Listening to Rogé’s record made at age 18 of the Liszt Piano Sonata, you hear the exhibitionism of a young artist with something to prove, but also pinging clarity in the top register of the piano, tonal warmth and easy lyricism in melodic lines, and a touch of French reserve in the bold statements.

While the young pianist had a soft spot for Brahms, he preferred the French repertoire over the Germans and the Russians. Apart from the Quintet for Piano and Winds, there is no Beethoven here; no Rachmaninov, and none of the Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Schumann, or Prokofiev concertos. There are few concertos in this set, in fact – two by Mozart, one by Franck (twice), four by Poulenc and the five by Saint-Saëns, plus an early flirtation with the three Piano Concertos of Bartók.

The performance of Bartók’s immature Rhapsody is the best on record, more playful than Zoltán Koscis, and Rogé is completely at home in the coupling: his first recording of Franck’s Symphonic Variations, here with Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra.

His early Ravel is a little tentative. Happiest in Jeux d’eau and the classical restraint of Le Tombeau de Couperin, Rogé has the technique for Scarbo from Gaspard de la Nuit but not the temperament. Le Gibet is insufficiently detailed, whereas in Ondine he is completely on form in recreating Ravel’s watery textures.

The Piano Concertos are brightly recorded in the spacious Montreal acoustic (with Dutoit conducting). In the G major Concerto, Rogé is limpid in the slow movement, and not inclined to put quotation marks around every expressive nuance in the manner of today’s young pianists. The outer movements are buoyant, and his finger-work in the finale shows no sign of struggle or rushing.

His Debussy, Saint-Saëns and Fauré performances are also top-notch, but the set is defined by his complete Francis Poulenc selection: three discs of solo piano music, duo-piano works with Jean-Philippe Collard, and the concertos with Dutoit (this time with the Orchestre de Paris). The duets are despatched with aplomb, and we hear impressive performances of the Flute, Clarinet, and Oboe Sonatas with Patrick Gallois, Michel Portal, and Maurice Bourgue respectively – all big names in their area.

Included are four packed discs of Poulenc’s mélodies, with François de Roux, Gilles Cachemaille, Catherine Lubosc, and the late Dame Felicity Lott (who gets an entire disc to herself). For anyone remotely interested in French piano music, Rogé is a very worthwhile investment.

Joan Sutherland Decca Recordings Vol. 3: Complete Operas 1971-1988
Joan Sutherland s, Luciano Pavarotti t, Marilyn Horne ms, Various orchestras/Richard Bonynge
Decca 4851355 (46 CD)
Music by Bellini, Donizetti, Puccini, Verdi et al.
****

Pascal Rogé: Complete Decca Recordings
Music by Bartók, Debussy, Poulenc, Satie et al.
Pascal Rogé p, Various orchestras and conductors
Decca  4871861 (43CD)
*****