Bach without reverence, but very musically done
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 04/15/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is an interesting choice for von Otter, now 53. She has always been an extremely versatile singer, at home in Monteverdi or Mahler. But the voice is no longer as even and fresh as in earlier years, and the flexibility needed for Bach's long line, with its demand for ornamentation, isn't always there. Von Otter has tirumphed in Handel, though, and I expected her to treat these arias from an assortment of cantatas as well as the St. Matthew Passion, Magnificat, and B minor Mass, as opera. Instead, she's almost uniformly gentle; in fact, she barely raises her voice.
Miked very close, she doesn't have to worry about breath control or volume. Even though her vocal production isn't perfect (not that I even want mechanical perfection), von Otter possesses such artistry that she more than holds her own. The accompaniments from the Baroque Concerto Copenhagen are discreet, elegant, and of course in up-to-date period style. If you go back to classic Bach recordings from Janet Baker, you'll hear more panache and attack in the orchestral parts, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson turns this music into a much more moving experience emotionally -- von Otter almost completely avoids reverence, to her detriment, I think. Instead, she's as elegant and pointed as the chirping oboe d'amore and recorder behind her. (A cry from the soul like "Erbarme dich" becomes a languidly melancholy refrain.)
For me, Bach performances without religious fervor miss half of what Bach's art is about. But we are well into the era of dry, pointed phrasing and detached emotions in Bach styling, so I msut acknowledge that von Otter carries it off as well as any. Let British critics gush and "Unhelpfuls" rain from the sky.
"
Ohlala, where is the von Otter that I loved so much?
Abel | Hong Kong | 07/10/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I owned this album for some months, purchasing it with high hopes as I am a great fan of von Otter, and Bach's Cantatas had been in my closiest bossom for decades.
However, I regret it so very much that I could never hold my attention to the tracks in this album beyond 4 or 5 each time I put it in the playing slot.
There is some thing in the voice of von Otter that went missing and that was essential for these arias. Quite similar to Cecilia Bartoli in the recent years, the musical lines sound broken and unmusical, despite the fact that the listener is abundantly clear that the singer meant 100% to deliver those phrases. The simple fact is that - the voice could no longer deliver.
I fully understand that human voice deteriorates with use and age. Alas, Anne Sofie von Otter and Cecilia Bartoli fall squarely now within this 'used' category. And a bit too early, too. What a sad sad pity!"
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1