Mozart Arias
DG
This is the first CD collaboration, we’re told, between Magdalena Kozená and Simon Rattle, known the world over as stars, musicians and lovebirds. Singer and conductor are inevitably paired on the cover, cutely posed on a sofa on a drought-free lawn. But Deutsche Grammophon’s disc offers a triangular drama, and it’s the third member of the trio, Mozart, who unwittingly causes a problem.
Kozená’s strengths as a Mozart performer are well known. Beauty of tone, understanding of the words, penetration of character, elegance, fire, humanity: listening to her immaculate Sesto in Charles Mackerras’s recent recording of La Clemenza di Tito it was hard to imagine anything missing.
Many of the tracks on this recital with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment do not disappoint, and the period colouring in the instruments — fortepiano, basset horn and all — add considerable riches. Sample her Cherubino arias from Le nozze di Figaro or her Dorabella from Così fan tutte: this is captivating singing.
But a mezzo soprano cannot conquer every role and register well. Trouble creeps up when Kozená chooses material — and she’s made it clear that she did the choosing — that takes her beyond her most comfortable range.
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One can understand why any genuine mezzo would crave the beauties of Vitellia’s aria Non più di fiori vaghe catene from Tito; but its low notes generate a coppery clang — not Kozená’s best advertisement — and she skates across the tortured character she’s supposed to be portraying.
Even when on solid ground, in Cherubino’s tumbling Non so più cosa son, her articulation can grow momentarily cloudy; has she already sung this little chestnut too much? There is a good side, though, to the disc’s adventures in repertoire. It’s a good mix: alongside the greatest opera hits we find insert arias, replacement arias and Mozart’s touching farewell piece for the singer Nancy Storace, Ch’io mi scordi di te. Jos van Immerseel’s fortepiano is a delight here; and throughout Rattle’s careful, polished shaping of the accompaniment brings lightness and dash to the textures.
The studio recording, made in London last December, keeps everything intimate. So: numerous things to enjoy. I just wanted it to be better still.