Mozart's Concert Arias
Mozart's Concert Arias
Gramophone Choice
Al desio di chi t’adora, K577. Alma grande e nobil core, K578. Ch’io mi scordi di te?, K505a. Vado, ma dove? oh Dei!, K583. La clemenza di Tito – Non più di fiori. Così fan tutte – In uomini, in soldati; Per pietà; È amore un ladroncello. Idomeneo – Padre, germani, addio!. Le nozze di Figaro – Non so più; Voi che sapete; Deh vieni non tardar.
Magdalena Kožená (mez) Jos van Immerseel (fp) Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Sir Simon Rattle Buy from Amazon
Archiv 477 6272AH (68' · DDD · T/t)
‘Singing Mozart is second nature to her,’ enthuses Rattle of Magdalena Kožená. ‘Each woman on each track is a completely distinct personality.’ Promotional hype? Well, in hyper-Beckmesserish mode you could say her legato in ‘Per pietà’ is not quite seamless, the tempo for ‘Deh vieni’ a touch too jaunty. But this is barrel-scraping. If anyone has recorded a lovelier Mozart recital in recent years, we’ve yet to hear it. In her early thirties, Kožená is consummate mistress of her art. Her liquid high mezzo, with its easy upward extension, combines warmth with the bloom and freshness of youth, while her coloratura, on display in ‘Al desio di chi t’adora’, is as brilliant and expressive as Bartoli’s, yet without the Italian diva’s intrusive aspirates.
Beyond this, Rattle’s claim is hard to refute. Cherubino (whose ‘Voi che sapete’ is sung in an embellished version published in 1810) and Dorabella (a blithe, flighty ‘È amore un ladroncello’) are the only roles here in Kožená’s stage repertoire. But she ‘lives’ each of these wide-ranging characters intensely, from the remorseful Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito (sorrow etched into the texture of her voice) via the tenderness and anguish of Ilia in Idomeneo to a delightfully sly, knowing Despina. The vivid, tangy accompaniments from Rattle and the OAE go well beyond mere good style, with a classy basset-horn obbligato from Anthony Pay in the Vitellia aria. Fortepianist Jos van Immerseel is an equally sympathetic partner in an impassioned yet intimate performance of Ch’io mi scordi di te?.
Additional Recommendation
Lieder and Concert Arias
Schwarzkopf (sop) Brendel, Gieseking (pfs)
LSO / Szell
EMI Références 574803-2 (72’ · ADD · Recorded 1955, 1968) Buy from Amazon
A classic disc – the fruitful collaboration of great artists. Schwarzkopf was 39 when she recorded the Lieder, mature in resources but still amazingly capable of the clarity of youth.
