José Carreras - Granada (Decca Most Wanted Recitals)

I am actually listening to this as I review it. Has anybody had a voice like Jose Carreras. His sound is completely unique - a lyric tenor with a depth and warmth of tone that at his best was unsurpassed. His has to be the most beautiful voice of his generation, warmer and more golden that either of his famous three tenor's colleagues. Coupled with his innate understanding of how the lyrics should be phrased and interpreted make him for me at least the best of the best. This CD offers a wonderful selection of music, not operatic arias and there isn't one track that isn't wonderful. I do have my favourites Granada goes out without saying; it has become a Carreras calling card almost and the version here is one of the best I've heard. I am very fond of Ti voglio tanto bene and very surprised by O sole mio, a song thought of as being Pavarotti's but Carreras gives an excellent version here. Both versions of Core 'ngrato are beyond stunning. Carreras says he says he tries to make each individual person feel as though he sing just to them and say her with my headphones on I can say he certainly succeeded

Having just very favourably reviewed Carreras's song album from two years after this one, "O sole mio", I was faintly irritated to discover that this issue, purportedly "Granada", recorded in 1978, actually includes the whole of the later recital as a supposed bonus - which is daft, as the "bonus" album is in fact eight minutes longer than than "Granada" at 43 minutes dead, whereas "Granada" is only just 35'24". It's great that both albums are now included on this new "Most Wanted" CD but I wish that had been made clearer before I redundantly ordered both the original recitals.Having got that off my chest, I can only say that this finds Carreras in finest voice, with ringing B flats and a wonderful plenitude of tone, "tearing a passion to tatters" with abandon. As a result of the combination of the two albums, we get "Core 'ngrato" twice, and good as the 1980 version is, you can hear that there has been some slight wear in Carreras' voice in the interim since 1978; his B flat is freer and his tone fuller in the earlier recording with Roberto Benzi, the conductor of his first recital on Philips - which I treasure. Interestingly, Carreras drops the Neapolitan accent for the later version, so no "sh" in "Nun te scorda" - and the arrangement for the second recording is a little more rustic and less heavy-handed. The instrumentation for "Musica proibita" is too soupy, too, but the singing is divine.Not everything here is impeccable: his English is poor in "Be My Love", hence we hear "and weeth yoor keeses"; similarly his German is very Hispanic; otherwise, this is lovely stuff and we won't hear his like again.

Beautiful. A collection of mostly Neapolitan songs by Jose Carreras at his best.

Carreras at his very best. A reisue of Carreras at his zenith with clear, pure and powerful renditions of many popular songs. Highly musical.