Customer Reviews

Jochen Kowalski sings Baroque Aria

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Some say that Herr Kowalski is countertenor; some say he is alto. Never mind - it is enough that in this album taken from recordings over more than a decade since the mid-1980's, we hear an alto voice that is so rich, expressive and beautiful as well as so musically intelligent that nothing else really matters.
Some say that Kowalski is the 'predecessor' of Andreas Scholl. I do not quite agree. However lyrical is Scholl's timbre, he does not have the shades and colours of Kowalski's voice, and may be not even the latter's agility, who tosses off coloraturas with ease and accuracy that few countertenors could.
Kowalski's strength lies in the fact that he is capable of great serenity (as in the Bach Cantata excerpts here), as well as high dramatic demands (as in Telemann, Graun and Agricola's arias). By comparision, the great countertenor Alfred Deller had an equally serene voice, but nowhere as dramatic as Kowalski's. Russell Oberlin, on the other hand, has a dramatic voice but nowhere as pure and serene as Kowalski or Deller's.
I don't think Kowalski sings with period instruments here - which means that he is perhaps singing a semi-tone higher than the modern day 'period' ensembles. The instrumentation is fuller in sound and more colorful. While period enthusiasts may be lukewarm, non-enthusiasts will find great satisfaction in this set of recordings.