title:

Sentimento

release date: 

2002

record company:

Philips

order number

CD: 470 400-2

MC: 470 400-4

 

UK/JAPAN only: 

CD 473410-2

MC: 473 410 -4

Limited edtion: 300 398-0

 

 

Sentimento

... is a fantasy of dreams and love;  the tenderness and passion of love’s pleasure; and the melancholy and tragedy of love’s pain.  It encompasses all the emotions of being in love.  This is a very beautiful and romantic collection of music.

 (Andrea Bocelli)

 

 

Tracklisting with audiofiles from decca classics (click on the track!)

unreleased: "oh quand tu dors ..."

trackliste with audio samplers and lyrics also at www.andreabocelli.com - 

including a video clip !!!

 

Recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra at the BBC's London Studios der BBC, Autumn 2000

 

Andrea Bocelli, tenor

 

Lorin Maazel, solo violin und orchestrator

The violin used by Maazel for this recording dates back to Cremona, Italy 1722 – the home of the renowned Antonius Stradivarius.  For many years it was the solo instrument of the famous virtuoso, Alexandre Artot (Alexandre Joseph Montagney Artot, born 1815 in Brussels, died 1845 in Paris), hence its name, The Artot.  After changing hands many times, it has since been acquired by Maestro Maazel.  It is one of the most beautiful violins of the Stradivarius Golden Period, its tone is of exquisite quality and it possesses great carrying power. 

 

all you need to know about Sentimento and much more at

www.sentimento.info

Extracts from a conversation with Andrea Bocelli & Lorin Maazel about Sentimento:

 

 

AB:  “The original idea was to record a CD that revived the fashion for performing violin/voice duets, a long abandoned style of performance, which was so popular many years ago with famous tenors like Caruso.  What we wanted to do was try this again with the orchestra.  Once we had finalised the list of titles we realised in fact that all these songs have a common theme, which is Love.”

 

LM:  “It had always been my dream to orchestrate this extraordinary repertoire, giving the colour and the shine and shimmer of an orchestral accompaniment as an underpinning to the tenor voice, plus the violin obligatto which for some reason, in terms of colour, seems to suit the tenor voice so well.”  (Lorin Maazel)

 

AB:  “Working with Maestro Maazel was a pleasure and an honour for me.  I already knew of his extraordinary talents as a composer and orchestrator, through all he has achieved in his remarkable career.many achievements.  Each of his orchestrations for Sentimento reflects the style of the piece, each one radiates an extremely different mood, which all helps to make this album very varied.’

 

LM:  “This music is very inspiring.  It makes everyone happy, it’s just beautiful to listen to.  There isn’t a note that isn’t fun and isn’t a joy to the ear, for musicians and the public at large.  It’s amazing, it’s the kind of music that appeals to everyone.  And so our sessions were full of life and sparkle.”

 

AB:  'Aranjuez has a haunting quality and a sadness which is beautiful and entrances everyone who hears it.  Maestro Maazel's magnificent orchestration gives Aranjuez the grandeur it deserves, it was with great happiness that I sang to it'

 

AB: “I decided to rewrite the text of the famous melody to Lizst’s Liebestraum No 3, and all in all I’m very happy.  It is like a dream come true when I least expected it.  Sogno d’Amore is a love song and it speaks of a love affair that has ended but is still very much alive, painfully alive in the protagonist’s mind.”

 

LM:  ‘I am very pleased with the way Sogno d’Amore sounds.  Liszt was a marvellous orchestrator himself and I think he would have been very pleased with what we did.’ 

 

AB:  “Plaisir D’Amour is very popular for the simplest reason that it’s extremely beautiful and a thing of beauty is a joy forever.  Beautiful things, like all the wonders of this world, earn their place in history and are forgotten by no-one.” 

 

LM:  “Plaisir d’Amour is one of those songs that typifies the whole collection of songs that we’re offering.  It’s about a moment of joy and passion and then it’s gone.  Love is passing, like everything else, like life itself.  And Andrea has that quality in his voice and I think perhaps the violin I’m playing, which is an old Stradivarius, which has a very deep and sensuous sound, just suits the material and subject matter.  In short, I think the combination of the two voices, the voice of the violin I have the pleasure of playing and the natural instrument that is in Andrea’s throat, that interaction is amazing….something very vibrant, very intense and very passionate.”

ANDREA BOCELLI

 

"I don’t think that one really decides to be a singer. It’s decided for you, by the reaction of those around you. Perhaps one shouldn’t say ‘listen to me, I want to sing for you’, but if people say ‘please sing for us’, well...."

A passionate desire for Andrea Bocelli’s voice has spread across the world like wildfire. For Andrea Bocelli possesses a truly remarkable voice. A voice as palpably powerful, as it is almost ethereal. Not simply an extraordinary voice which displays such power and fragility, but a potent instrument of emotion and sensitivity, which touches the heart, like music itself.  Andrea Bocelli’s voice has made him an international phenomenon.

Andrea was born in 1958, in Lajatico, rural Tuscany. He cannot remember life without a passion for music. He recalls his early fascination with the great Italian tenors, such talents as Del Monaco, Gigli and especially his idol Franco Corelli. Enflamed by the music of the opera, Andrea’s lifelong dream and ambition was to become a great tenor, and the great operas were learnt by ear and heart. Approaching his teens Andrea won a number of singing competitions. However as adult life approached, youthful ideals of a life devoted to music were to be undermined by doubts and more down-to-earth concerns.

Andrea travelled to Pisa to attend university, taking a degree in Law. Throughout, he enjoyed playing in local piano bars, performing the classic tunes of such vocal greats as Sinatra, Aznavour and Piaf. Occasionally, Andrea’s deepest musical passions were revealed with the performance of a favourite aria.

Learning that his childhood idol Franco Corelli was to take master classes in Turin, Andrea apprehensively approached the maestro. Remarkably the first aria Andrea sang for the great tenor was from Puccini’s La Bohème, his favourite opera from his youth and the first complete opera he has now recorded so many years later. Corelli, recognising a natural beauty in the voice, which recalled qualities of several legendary Tuscan tenors, took on the young man as a pupil and his legal career was suspended. Life was now devoted to music studies by day and performing in piano bars by night.

In 1992, Italian rock star Zucchero required a tenor to assist in the preparation of a demo of a unique duet, "Miserere", to be sung with the great Luciano Pavarotti. After fruitless auditions, a young man performing in local piano bars appeared and captured the very essence of the song. Italian music industry figure Michele Torpedine flew to Philadelphia to play "Miserere" to Pavarotti. The great man was stunned by the way the tenor took to the song.

Back in Italy, Andrea was approached in 1993 by Caterina Caselli Sugar, president of the Sugar label, one of the country’s longest established music companies, when she heard him singing "Nessun dorma" at a private party. She invited Andrea to visit her office, to hear an unpublished composition entitled "Il mare calmo della sera" and insisted that the song must be recorded by his beautiful and powerful voice.

For the following years, Caterina, Michele and others worked hard to introduce this unique talent to the world, including securing an invitation for him to take part in the annual San Remo Song Festival, an event that demands almost universal attention from the Italian media and public.

In 1996, the melody of "Con te partirò" (written by Francesco Sartori and Lucio Quarantotto) and its duet arrangement "Time To Say Goodbye", with Sarah Brightman, beguiled the European public. In 1997, the debut international album Romanza on Polydor/Sugar, enchanted first Europe, then countries beyond. The passion of Romanza inflamed the world, Andrea’s voice touching hearts unfamiliar with the Italian language, but utterly fluent in the language of emotion.

Alongside his career in popular music, Andrea has pursued his operatic passions with stunning success and remains one of the most successful artists in the Philips catalogue. His first operatic recording Viaggio Italiano (which was made in 1995, but not released, except in a few European territories, until a few years later), was his personal tribute to the musical tradition of the Italian tenor, not just the greats who inspired him, but to the Italian immigrants and local heroes who celebrated and popularised opera in their adopted homelands. The 1998 debut international classical disc, Aria, became one of the most successful classical albums ever, dominating classical charts and sensationally scaling international pop album charts. The success of Aria was surpassed by the follow-up Sacred Arias in 1999, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, and consisting of various sacred compositions by Bach/Gounod, Mozart, Schubert and Rossini.

In autumn 2000, Andrea added two more classical recordings to his discography, a selection of Verdi Arias (Andrea’s tribute to the great composer whose centenary of his death was commemorated in 2001) and a complete La Bohème with Barbara Frittoli, both conducted by Zubin Mehta. Indeed, this was a dream come true for Andrea who fell in love with this opera the very first time he heard it. He went on to record Verdi’s Requiem with Renée Fleming, Olga Borodina and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, conducted by maestro Valery Gergiev, which was released spring 2001and has since recorded Tosca, Il Trovatore and very recently Pagliacci and Cavelleria Rusticana for future release.   

More and more of Andrea’s live performances are devoted to classical music. Galas and concerts with the world’s greatest operatic stars like Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and José Carreras have taken him to France, England and Israel as well as throughout his native Italy and to the Vatican.  He has also broadened his stage experience with performances of La Bohème, Werther, Macbeth, The Merry Widow, L'Amico Fritz, and Verdi’s Requiem.  He is currently rehearsing and performing Madama Butterfly in Torre del Lago, Italy.

This year, Andrea was awarded a highly-coveted UK Classical Brit award for Outstanding Contribution, he has performed for President Bush and sung with Pavarotti at the annual Pavarotti & Friends concert.

Despite living in a world of frenetic change, Andrea approaches life with a serene outlook, enjoying life’s simple pleasures and undertaking each challenge with a will. Ever optimistic, Andrea suggests that his philosophy on life might be summed up by a quote by French novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupery; "One only sees clearly with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eyes".

Video Links (requires real player!)

 

Sentimento Electronic Press Kit (60 secs) - LOW SPEED

Sentimento Electronic Press Kit (60 secs) - HI SPEED