Document

  1986
    March 1986
        Choral and Song
                Mozart Sacred Music.

Mozart Sacred Music. ^a Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (sop) ^b Elizabeth Bainbridge (contr) ^b Ryland Davies (ten) ^b Gwynne Howell (bass) John Constable (org) London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra / Sir Colin Davis.

Philips (Full price) (CD) 412 873-2PH. Also issued as (Cassette) 412 873-4PH. From 6500 271 (4/73).

Vesperae solennes de confessore, K339^ab . Kyrie, K341. Ave verum corpus, K618. Exsultate jubilate, K615^a.

An admirable record from all points of view, it may well owe its reissue, first on LP (in 1983) and now on CD, to the identity of its soprano soloist. In 1972, Dame Kiri was a new but already outstanding member of the Covent Garden opera company, with her great international success still to come. This record showed the promise clearly enough, yet it hardly suggested, as her appearances at the Royal Opera in Le nozze di Figaro at about the same time certainly did, that here was a star in the making. A voice of great warmth and purity, particularly beautiful in the upper range, with an uncommonly sure technique in both lyric and florid music: this is evident. In the tranquil "Laudate Dominum" of the Vesperae and the andante middle aria of the Exsultate she is entirely lovely. In the opening of the cantata and in the "Alleluia" something more sturdy, more outgoing and spirited is wanted. Now, with a dozen years of stardom in between, the pattern is still recognizable, for all the growth in assurance and achievement.

There are, of course, plenty of other good reasons for the record's survival. Davis conducts strong performances, the selection of Mozart's religious music is an attractive one and the recorded sound, better defined on the CD, is natural and uncongested.

JBS



		An admirable record from all points of view, it may well owe its reissue, first on LP (in 1983) and now on CD, to the identity of its soprano soloist. In 1972, Dame Kiri was a new but already outstanding member of the Covent Garden opera company, with her great international success still to come. This record showed the promise clearly enough, yet it hardly suggested, as her appearances at the Royal Opera in Le nozze di Figaro at about the same time certainly did, that here was a star in the making. A voice of great warmth and purity, particularly beautiful in the upper range, with an uncommonly sure technique in both lyric and florid music: this is evident. In the tranquil "Laudate Dominum" of the Vesperae and the andante middle aria of the Exsultate she is entirely lovely. In the opening of the cantata and in the "Alleluia" something more sturdy, more outgoing and spirited is wanted. Now, with a dozen years of stardom in between, the pattern is still recognizable, for all the growth in assurance and achievement.



		There are, of course, plenty of other good reasons for the record's survival. Davis conducts strong performances, the selection of Mozart's religious music is an attractive one and the recorded sound, better defined on the CD, is natural and uncongested.