Anne Sofie von Otter’s new recording is a compelling journey across the landscape of Baroque vocal and instrumental music — 21 selections, 16 of them songs with instrumental accompaniment.
The range of composers is wide, including Monteverdi, Caccini, Frescobaldi, Purcell, Dowland and Robert Johnson, plus such lesser-known figures as Benedetto Ferrari, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, Barbara Strozzi and Bernardo Storace.
Although the compelling Swedish mezzo-soprano seems to have lost some sheen at the top of her range, it’s still a warmly beautiful voice, and her thoughtful, passionate involvement in the words and music carry her through the recital. Purcell’s “Music for a while” and “An Evening Hymn” and Dowland’s “What if I never speed?” are lovingly limned. The opening piece, Ferrari’s lusty, rapturous “Amanti, io vi so dire,” sets the interpretive bar very high for what is to follow.
Von Otter gets lively and sensitive support from a stylish ensemble of players that comprises the fine Chicago-born harpsichordist and organist Jory Vinikour, along with Jakob Lindberg and Anders Ericson on theorbo, lute and Baroque guitar. They do very nicely by the five purely instrumental pieces that round out this excellently recorded disc.
