Daniele Rustioni

March 23, 2023 at PDT

Verdi: Rigoletto (Recorded Live at the Met - January 29, 2022)

35 Tracks

July 25, 2024 at PDT

Aigul

Aigul Akhmetshina is a great storyteller. The mezzo-soprano’s gift registers whenever she sings. It’s equally clear when she recalls her upbringing in a remote village in the Republic of Bashkortostan and her all-too-rare journey from impoverished teenager to star of the world’s leading opera stages.

Aigul’s eponymous debut album is built around her landmark roles, famous arias starting with Bizet’s Carmen, then Massenet’s Charlotte, Bellini’s Romeo, and Rossini’s Cenerentola and Rosina. Aigul closes with Nightingale, an enchanting slice of Bashkort folk heritage. “My grandma used to sing it to me,” she tells Apple Music Classical. “It was one of her favorite songs. It needs freedom. Which leads us to Carmen. Carmen needs freedom!”

Propelled by native talent, hard work, and good fortune, the 19-year-old became the youngest ever member of the coveted Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at London’s Royal Opera House. By spring 2024, just eight years later, she had set the record as the youngest Carmen to appear at Covent Garden and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, shown deep understanding of the tragic Charlotte in Werther, made her Salzburg Festival debut in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, and confirmed her place among the front rank of Rossini interpreters.

“I believe everyone has their time,” she comments. “It’s never late and never early. Everyone has, in some way, their own destiny. But you cannot predict how a singer’s career will go. It’s like this game of Russian roulette, when you never know if the bullet will get you.” Aigul admits there were times, not so long ago, when the possibility of singing for a living seemed remote.

“I was always singing as a child. It’s just something I couldn’t control. The music was always there. I'm half Tatar, half Bashkort, so I learned our Bashkort folk songs, which need flexibility like bel canto coloratura.” The village choir trainer introduced Aigul to classical singing. “I knew I would go that way when I was 12, even though I’d never sung or even seen opera.” Two years later, she moved to Ufa, Bashkortostan’s capital, and studied singing there with Neilya Yusupova.

Aigul’s progress was arrested after she failed the scholarship audition at Moscow’s Gnessin Academy of Music, then lost her voice in a car crash. “When I opened my mouth to sing after the accident, the first note sounded like a wounded animal. It was horrifying! And you understand that all the work you’ve done has gone.” Her teacher helped repair the damage and paid for Aigul to fly to Moscow for the New Opera World Competition. “I cracked the high note in Rossini’s ‘Una voce poco fa.’ But I still got first prize.”

David Gowland, artistic director of the Jette Parker program, heard the teenage sensation and invited her to audition. Aigul’s village helped fund her airfare to London. “There were 365 others auditioning, which was absolutely crazy. I’d never stood on an opera stage before and here I was auditioning at Covent Garden.” She made the Jette Parker shortlist, passed a second audition, and was soon on course for stardom. “My life story is very like Cinderella’s! Part of me thinks, ‘Oh, this is unbelievable.’ And another part thinks, ‘Well, I keep proving I can sustain this.’”

14 Tracks

January 25, 2024 at PST

Bizet: Carmen, Act I: Habanera. L'amour est un oiseau rebelle - Single

1 Trackfalse

March 21, 2024 at PDT

The Nightingale (Orch. Rachimov) - Single

1 Trackfalse

October 26, 2017 at PDT

Paganini & Wolf-Ferrari: Violin Concertos

Violinist Francesca Dego and the impressive Daniele Rustioni offer a pair of glorious Italian-violin concertos. The Paganini no. 1 is the better known, and Dego plays it with an impeccable technique and lashings of imagination—the CBSO make stylish partners. The Violin Concerto by Wolf-Ferrari is the curiosity here, and both soloist and orchestra play it with passion: it has the singing lines of a Puccini aria, but makes some fearsome demands on the soloist, especially high up in the stratosphere. Dega is unfazed and plays it with palpable love.

7 Tracks

May 31, 2012 at PDT

Arias

16 Tracks

February 16, 2023 at PST

Dvořák: Works for Cello & Orchestra

6 Tracks

March 16, 2023 at PDT

Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

6 Tracks

March 2, 2016 at PST

Bellini: Adelson e Salvini

40 Tracks

November 30, 2023 at PST

Verdi: Falstaff

The exploits of Verdi’s fat knight brought to delightful, comic life.

26 Tracks

April 6, 2015 at PDT

Brusa: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3

5 Tracks

March 9, 2023 at PST

Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21 II. Larghetto - EP

1 Trackfalse

December 3, 2020 at PST

Brusa: Orchestral Works, Vol. 4 (Live)

5 Tracks

February 9, 2023 at PST

From the Bohemian Forest, Op. 68, B. 182: No. 5, Klid - Single

1 Trackfalse

September 22, 2016 at PDT

Giorgio Federico Ghedini: Music for Orchestra

4 Tracks

April 26, 2018 at PDT

Daniele Rustioni - Petrassi: orchestral music

4 Tracks