Bach: Cantatas

Anne-Sofie von Otter (Artist), J. S. Bach (Composer), Lars Ulrik Mortensen (Conductor), Concerto Copenhagen (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Concerto Copenhagen
• Conductor: Lars Ulrik Mortensen
• Composer: J. S. Bach
• Audio CD (April 14, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B001U2QENE
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #189,967 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review

She possesses one of the most flexible and natural vocal instruments of any living artist. --Opera Now (London), November 2008

Product Description

Born to sing J. S. Bach, Anne Sofie von Otter brings elegant style, richness of voice, and career-long commitment to Baroque music to this glorious recording of alto and soprano arias she herself selected. Featuring beloved staples like the moving Erbarme Dich from the St. Matthew Passion and the Agnus Dei from the B minor Mass, this follow-up to her successful release of Music for a While includes lesser-known repertoire to entice the most jaded lover of voice, Baroque or Bach. Lars Ulrik Mortensen leads Concerto Copenhagen, the acclaimed Scandinavian Baroque ensemble, in instrumentations of fascinating variety unusual in Bach solo vocal albums.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uh la la - Anne Sophie Otter Delivers, July 3, 2010

By 

Cort Johnson "Cort Johnson" (San Diego, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bach: Cantatas (Audio CD)

After reading an earlier review I had to catch myself; was that the same disc I had thoroughly enjoyed earlier that year? Worn out voice? I just couldn't imagine...so I took another listen and there was that superlative artistry again and the lovely voice I remembered..perhaps not as strong as earlier in her career (how could it be?) but informed by so much more experience and so much intelligence really. I love Anne Sophie's attention to detail and the little twists and turns she brings to pieces that I don't hear from some of the 'big voices'. There are times I'm on the edge of seat wondering just what she'll deliver or what turn of phrase will get me this time.

I checked out a review of the disc and it seems at least James Leonard agrees - this is a fabulous disc.

"Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter first reached an international audience as part of the cast of Georg Solti's recordings of Bach's St. Matthew Passion and B minor Mass in the early '90s. Since then, however, von Otter has stayed away from Bach, preferring to explore a wide range of more recent repertoire from Mozart through Brahms to Weill and beyond. Thus, when she did return to Bach with this 2009 Deutsche Grammophon disc of arias and duets, it was inevitable that someone would say she was going back to Bach.

But von Otter is less about going back to Bach as it is about getting down to Bach. In the nearly 20 years since her previous Bach recordings, her voice has darkened and deepened. But, it must be added, it has also grown lovelier. Mixing selections drawn from cantatas as well as the B minor Mass, the Magnificat, and the Matthew Passion, von Otter's choices show off her voice to best effect. With her technique still in fabulous shape, she negotiates the music's procedural and expressive difficulties with ease, phrasing her lines with graceful effortlessness and making Bach's music sound timeless in the best sense of the word. With the expert accompaniment of the Concerto Copenhagen under the direction of conductor and organist Lars Ulrik Mortensen, von Otter turns in a disc that will please her many fans along with anyone else who enjoys Bach's vocal music. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide Performances"

[...]

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bach without reverence, but very musically done, April 14, 2009

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bach: Cantatas (Audio CD)

This is an interesting choice for von Otter, now 53. She has always been an extremely versatile singer, at home in Monteverdi or Mahler. But the voice is no longer as even and fresh as in earlier years, and the flexibility needed for Bach's long line, with its demand for ornamentation, isn't always there. Von Otter has tirumphed in Handel, though, and I expected her to treat these arias from an assortment of cantatas as well as the St. Matthew Passion, Magnificat, and B minor Mass, as opera. Instead, she's almost uniformly gentle; in fact, she barely raises her voice.

Miked very close, she doesn't have to worry about breath control or volume. Even though her vocal production isn't perfect (not that I even want mechanical perfection), von Otter possesses such artistry that she more than holds her own. The accompaniments from the Baroque Concerto Copenhagen are discreet, elegant, and of course in up-to-date period style. If you go back to classic Bach recordings from Janet Baker, you'll hear more panache and attack in the orchestral parts, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson turns this music into a much more moving experience emotionally -- von Otter almost completely avoids reverence, to her detriment, I think. Instead, she's as elegant and pointed as the chirping oboe d'amore and recorder behind her. (A cry from the soul like "Erbarme dich" becomes a languidly melancholy refrain.)

For me, Bach performances without religious fervor miss half of what Bach's art is about. But we are well into the era of dry, pointed phrasing and detached emotions in Bach styling, so I msut acknowledge that von Otter carries it off as well as any. Let British critics gush and "Unhelpfuls" rain from the sky.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ohlala, where is the von Otter that I loved so much?, July 10, 2009

By 

Abel "AMY" (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bach: Cantatas (Audio CD)

I owned this album for some months, purchasing it with high hopes as I am a great fan of von Otter, and Bach's Cantatas had been in my closiest bossom for decades.
However, I regret it so very much that I could never hold my attention to the tracks in this album beyond 4 or 5 each time I put it in the playing slot.
There is some thing in the voice of von Otter that went missing and that was essential for these arias. Quite similar to Cecilia Bartoli in the recent years, the musical lines sound broken and unmusical, despite the fact that the listener is abundantly clear that the singer meant 100% to deliver those phrases. The simple fact is that - the voice could no longer deliver.
I fully understand that human voice deteriorates with use and age. Alas, Anne Sofie von Otter and Cecilia Bartoli fall squarely now within this 'used' category. And a bit too early, too. What a sad sad pity!