This has to be the
greatest baroque/renaissance singing
out – or the most awfullest, and I doubt
if many listeners will take a middle
view. So let me explain.
Not so long ago I was
reviewing a reissue of von Otter’s solo
recordings, dedicated to baroque repertoire,
made in 1983 and now available on Proprius
PRCD
9008. I found it interesting that
in those days she was adopting the nasal
voice production typical of baroque
specialists, giving her voice a darker
sound than it came to assume later –
the sort of style that was later developed
by Sara Mingardo.
As we all know, her
voice became higher and lighter, gold
rather than velvet, allowing her to
embrace a wide range of repertoire.
If that early baroque record shows what
a good baroque singer she could have
become (not that she ever turned her
back on that repertoire) and her prize-winning
Sibelius album (to give one example
out of many) or her remarkable Chaminade
album show what a fine singer (even
a great one) she actually became, I
noted with some concern a propos
her recent Offenbach recital a tendency
to slither around which was to my ears
(though not to those of most of my colleagues)
unacceptably mannered.
Well, you’d think,
she hardly do that sort of thing here.
And yet she does. The opening piece
by Benedetto Ferrari – which will serve
as an entrance test, the faint-hearted
can stop here – is subjected to an expressionist
gamut of whines and whelps and chesty
grunts that would be over-egging the
pudding in a cabaret act let alone a
baroque recital. Quite honestly, this
is one of the most abominable displays
of bad taste I have ever heard.
And yet, for some people
it may bring the music to life as never
before though, for what it’s worth I
played this track to a friend who is
not much attracted by the baroque but
likes later classical music and loves
a good cabaret song, and she thought
it just as grotesque as I did.
Basically, this style
is adopted throughout the Italian part
of the recital. There are, to be sure,
moments where one can appreciate that
von Otter’s swift passage-work is impeccably
brilliant and that she now cultivates,
in this repertoire, a sort of virginal,
vibrato-less tone (though around E and
F, presumably the area of the break
between her middle and high registers,
she finds it difficult not to let some
vibrato in, as can be heard in the Strozzi
piece). But there is not a single piece
that is not affected by further examples
of absolutely foul (again, to my ears)
slithering.
Purcell’s more straightforwardly
vigorous style offers fewer opportunities
for this sort of exaggeration though,
forewarned, I found a few. It is the
Dowland pieces, however, which offer
a different, and rather more favourable,
slant on von Otter’s current baroque/renaissance
manners. Here she offers a very sweet,
girlish, apparently "untrained"
type of voice production, and maintains
this very intimate, pure and pianissimo
sound with remarkable control. It is
something of a vocal feat, especially
for a singer who doesn’t only sing
in this way, though after a time it
comes to seem unvaried. It also comes,
I think, into the category of "microphone
singing" since I really can’t imagine
that this sound would carry far in a
concert hall. Well, you may say, Dowland
wasn’t writing for a concert hall, he
didn’t even know what one was.
So the English part
of the recital is plausible, and the
interspersed solo items are neatly done.
But as for the Italian part, if von
Otter or her collaborators think they
have evidence that the music was really
sung in this way, then the acceptable
but not greatly informative booklet
note might have gone into this. Until
such proof is given me I shall continue
to consider this a grave blot on a distinguished
singers career (though coming after
that Offenbach, I fear it may be a downhill
slide rather than an aberration). And
if, listening to the opening item, you
think it sounds marvellous, then do
listen to something sung by Sara Mingardo
as evidence that a strong personality
and a truly liberated sense of interpretation
is not incompatible with correct vocal
manners.
The sound is excellent
and original texts are supplied, with
English translations of the Italian
pieces and German translations of everything.
Christopher Howell
Annie Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano), Jory Vinikour
(harpsichord, chamber organ), Jakob Lindberg (theorbo,
lute, baroque guitar), Anders Ericson (theorbo)
