Classical
Mozart in love
by Ian Dando
Mozart Arias. Kozena/Rattle DG Archiv 00289 477 6272. Young Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena, who designed this programme, unearths a most unusual Mozart selection. She mines that rare goldmine of his concert and insertion arias. The unconventionality of some blows your mind. Take the 10-minute Ch’io mi scordi di te K505 written for the farewell recital of a soprano whom Mozart deeply loved. It’s a coded love letter written as a double concerto. Decorative fortepiano writing caressingly encircles an intimate vocal aria accompanied by the 40-piece period instrument Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sir Simon Rattle. Another high-drama rarity is the femme in extremis aria on track seven. It leaps dramatically from the power lines to a bottomless chest register of low Gs, with the basset horn’s unusual four-octave range encircling her melody. Mozart’s insertion arias written for an opera by Soler (track nine) and Cimarosa (track 11) have an expressive potency that would blow apart any opera by those two. Sometimes Kozena sticks her neck out trying to be all three soprano roles in Così fan tutte. She hasn’t got the voice type for the sceptical man-hater Despina. Yet Kozena is a most perceptive Mozart stylist with a diva-esque delivery. Marry that to her discriminate choice of top Mozart rarities and you have a winner.
Tutto Mozart! Terfel/Mackerras DG 00289 477 5886. Of the mostly standard arias in bass-baritone Bryn Terfel’s tracks, nearly all are baritone roles that suit his ringing high register. He lightens the voice elegantly for the happy-go-lucky Papageno ones. He’s a seductive Giovanni in La ci darem. His snapped-out anger etches the aristocrat’s injured pride in the count’s Vedro mentr’io from Figaro. Terfel’s low Fs and Ds are weightless in the hugely powerful insertion aria Cosi dunque tradisci – the one true bass item. The other 18 show this name singer in peak form.
I Let the Music Speak DG 00289 477 5901. Seasoned Swedish diva Anne Sofie von Otter abandons the opera stage for her country’s Abba and its Swedish backing-band composer/arranger Benny Andersen. Six of the 12 items, including the sinuous melodic curves of the title track, are undated Abba classics. Apart from two in Swedish, the rest reveal Otter’s immaculate English. Her switch from opera to pop ballad chanteuse is impressively seamless. Don’t miss her extrovert “Money, Money, Money”. Recommended.
