Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Josef Krips, John Pritchard :: Mozart: Opera Arias

A Mozartian Unsurpassed Since.

Abel | Hong Kong | 02/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These arias were recorded when ES was still quite young.

What a voice! What singing! What devotion!

It is interesting to have ES singing Cherubino as well as Susanna and the Countess Rosina in Le Nozze di Figaro.

Her Donna Elvira is always a killer.

But my greatest admiration in this album goes to her aria from Il re Pastore, the great Rondo of Aminta.

The great beauty of her singing - a duet with the solo violin, with well-controlled coloraturas, well-paced tempo supported by seamless breathing - her performance is simply unsurpassed, not even by Joan Sutherland in the other recording of the same aria, and certainly not by others available (like Renee Fleming or Ann Murray). ES never over-did those coloraturas like Cecilia Bartoli does these days, and that in itself is a big 'pro' in the enjoyment level of her Mozart arias.

Although the recordings are old and not really in state-of-the-art accoustics, the sheer beauty of ES's singing makes up for any lack that there may be in the sound."