Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment reviews
Brahms: Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2 (Schiff/OAE)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/András Schiff (piano) (ECM)
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, K620
David Portillo, Sofia Fomina, et al; OAE/Ryan Wigglesworth (Opus Arte/DVD)
Handel's Last Prima Donna: Giulia Frasi in London
Prima donna Giulia Frasi (1740-74) was well known to London’s concertgoers.
JS Bach: Soprano Katherine Watson sings in two Mass in B minor sets
Hyperion added a ‘Bach in B minor’ to its catalogue as recently as 2014, and now here comes another – like Arcangelo’s, recorded after the experience of performing the work in concert. There the similarities end. Jonathan Cohen mustered a choir of 20.
Choir of Trinity College and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment perform JS Bach: Mass in B minor
Hyperion added a ‘Bach in B minor’ to its catalogue as recently as 2014, and now here comes another – like Arcangelo’s, recorded after the experience of performing the work in concert. There the similarities end. Jonathan Cohen mustered a choir of 20.
Mozart Heroines (Dessay)
Sopranos in Mozart’s day were expected to move easily between roles we would now label soubrette, lyric or coloratura. Today specialisation rules; and it is hard to think of any present-day soprano who could embrace the contrasting demands of these Mozart heroines as completely as Natalie Dessay. The evenness, agility and diamantine precision of her coloratura are phenomenal. But she never relies merely on technical virtuosity.
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
With a cast of singers such as the one chosen by René Jacobs for his new recording of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas it would be hard to imagine anything short of a triumph. Nor, in the event, was I disappointed, though opinions will surely differ over the solution offered by Jacobs for the end of Act II. It has long been thought that music for a concluding scene of the act has been lost.