Christiane Karg is an up-and-coming German soprano who has released a wonderful album of 18th century opera arias. It is so wonderful, she deserves to be heard outside her homeland.
The musical pleasure is doubled by her accompanists, the 2-year-old British chamber orchestra Arcangelo, led by young British cellist-turned-conductor Jonathan Cohen. Cohen gets a lively, balanced, transparent sound out of his players.
The overall audio quality from this recording made in St Jude’s, Hampstead, in London, is gorgeous, inhabiting the sweet spot between clarity and spaciousness.
The arias, all from the later half of the 18th century, represent three different composers all concerned in some way with pushing the boundaries of opera: Mozart (1756-1791), Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) and André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry (1741-1813). The Mozart contributions are all from his youthful efforts, not from the great Da Ponte operas.
The “Amoretti” of the album’s title come from Mozart’s childhood effort, La finta semplice. But it’s a beautiful aria, rendered simply by Karg and her accompanists.
It’s a pleasure to hear some fine music by Grétry, who has been nearly forgotten, as well as great, dramatic arias from Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, Il Parnasso confuso, Circe and Iphigénie en Aulide.
The booklet includes all the texts.
You can find out a bit more about the album here.
Here is a substantial sample from the album, “Sacre piante,” from Parnasso:
John Terauds