Donizetti: Songs

Gaetano Donizetti, who is best known as a prolific opera composer, also wrote almost 300 songs intended for intimate gatherings of friends, professionals and wealthy amateurs. Although Donizetti was seemingly indifferent to his songs, they are very interesting. Their melodic beauty and structural security are invariably captivating, whether in ballads or canzonettas, theatrical ariettes or poignant love laments. Setting poems from Pietro Metastasio to his contemporaries allowed Donizetti to explore a variety of themes with wit, feeling, long vocal lines and quasi-orchestral piano accompaniment. Mezzo-soprano Margarita Gritskova won the Luciano Pavarotti Singing Competition in Modena and the Villa de Colmenar International Singing Competition in Spain. She has already recorded solo song albums with music by Shostakovich and Prokofiev. Her "Russian Songs", again with the piano accompaniment of Maria Prinz, have been praised, especially her vocal technique with a smooth legato quality. "Maria Prinz provides excellent pacing for the program and brings out the dark textures of the piano composition," wrote the American Record Guide about the pianist. Margarita Gritskova has sung all the major mezzo-soprano roles in the repertoire of Mozart and Rossini, and after appearing as Masha in Eotvos' "Three Sisters", the composer dedicated his romance "Bitterness" to her.