Brilliant Releases Complete Tosti Anthology

Paolo Tosti on the cover of the anthology of his vocal music (from the Amazon.com Web page for the recording being discussed)

Those still interested in maintaining physical collections of recordings probably know that Brilliant Classics has established itself as a major source of anthologies. For the most part these involve either the complete works or representative selections of the achievements of major composers, and these frequently serve as useful reference resources. The most recent of these was released almost exactly a month ago, a comprehensive survey of the complete vocal chamber music of Paolo Tosti under the title The Song of a Life. This collection consists of eighteen CDs; and the final track of the final CD consists of the song after which the album is named. Its catalog number of CS 250 suggests that it may have been Tosti’s final completed composition.

The release is the product of a celebration of the first centenary of the composer’s death on December 2, 1916. The recordings themselves were made between July of 2014 and August of 2018, and they involved the participation of a generous number of vocalists and accompanying pianists. Almost all of the selections are accompanied solo voice, but there are also several performances of accompanied duets. That said, I have to confess that, while I was aware of Tosti’s name appearing from time to time on the program of a vocal recital I attended, I cannot claim memory of any of those listening experience.

The fact is that Tosti’s reputation is, for the most part, a thing of the past. His music was championed by the likes of Enrico Caruso and Beniamino Gigli. Within my own lifetime his strongest advocate was probably Carlo Bergonzi. However, none of the contributors to this collection registered any familiarity.

Nevertheless, I confess to being impressed by the diversity of text sources for Tosti’s songs. Obviously, a generous share of those sources are Italian; and Tosti’s Wikipedia page explicitly cites his collection of fifteen Italian folk songs under the title Canti popolari abruzzesi. (One of those songs registered familiarity, probably because I recalled its appearance in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 45 “Capriccio Italien.”) However, in 1875, shortly before he turned 30, Tosti visited London, where he cultivated enough powerful friends that, in 1880, he was appointed as Singing Master for the Royal Family. As a result there is a more than generous share of settings of English texts, and “For Ever and For Ever” led to his becoming the most popular composer of songs in England in 1885.

If the songs in this collection are not as engaging as they used to be, they still reflect a well-disciplined craft, capable of working with text in French, as well as Italian and English; and, in the current context of art song, I would say that vocalists might benefit from bringing the fruits of that craft back into the light again.