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St Matthew Passion and ‘Schliesse, mein Herze’ from the Christmas Oratorio, the alto voice functions as a kind of theological trump card, punctuating significant moments in their respective huge structures (the musicologist Ernst Koch even goes as far as to argue that in Bach’s Germany the alto voice represented the Holy Spirit). Here the countertenor Zoltan Darago has collected together some of Bach’s lesser-known alto movements (with the exception of the famous opening aria of Cantata No 170, Vergnügte Ruh). Almost all of the arias date from Bach’s early years in Leipzig.
Director Christophe Rousset conjures a fine atmosphere in many of these movements. Take the Brandenburg Firstlike timbres and joyful innocence of ‘Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde’ (from Cantata No 83), with its sweet writing for solo violin and gurgling horns, or the warmth of the oboe and strings in ‘Du machst, o Tod, mir nun nicht ferner bange’ (from No 114). Unfortunately Darago does not mesh well. His vibrato feels too shrill in these environments, and his tendency to project beyond what is required means that he is often a hair’s width behind the ensemble. While here we’re treated to a gloriously shaped long note, elsewhere sureness of facility comes and goes. In ‘Was mein Herz von dir begehrt’ (from No 108), Darago is noticeably short of breath and struggles with tuning. Indeed, there are too many instances of ambiguity between vibrato and slightly off intonation for my liking.
There are also moments where Rousset misses a trick. The pizzicato backdrop of ‘Wie furchtsam wankten meine Schritte’ (from No 33) could be given far more prominence given its relative rarity as a texture in Bach’s music. Moreover, are these Christian’s footsteps on the slow side? Similarly, the stranger grammatical features of Bach’s writing in ‘Geist und Seele wird verwirret’ (from No 35) could be highlighted – though splendid obbligato organ-playing, presumably from Rousset himself, more than makes up for this middle-of-the-road characterisation. |
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