They were made at Polish Radio's Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio in 2009, 2011 and 2012.
The first CD, entitled Slavic Arias, features operatic arias by Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Rimski-Korsakov, Smetana, Arenski and Rachmaninoff as well as the Polish composers Moniuszko, Żeleński and Nowowiejski.
The other CD includes a selection of arias from operas by Giuseppe Verdi.
The Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw is conducted by Łukasz Borowicz.
The liner notes quote Beczała as saying: “These days many artists record CDs that are something along the lines of a Wunschkonzert, or a request show, as one German critic nicely put it, the main aim being to make the album a commercial success.
"I am not interested in such things. If I decide to make a recording, I have to be able to sing the whole operatic part and not just one of its most popular pieces.
"When I choose something new, more ambitious, I cannot do it as a last-minute thing – sing an aria or song and then spend time healing my voice. One has to select the moment when one is ready, and if not, keep on working and wait.”
Beczała’s forthcoming plans include several performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in the parts of the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto (to be premiered on New Year’s Eve) and of Lenski in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (March 2022).
(mk/gs)
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