Magdalena Kozená - Enchantment

***

Stunning Voice, Sometimes Perpexling Performance 11 Feb 2007

Magdalena Kozena's voice is a wonder to listen to: her control, tone and range of colours are a real pleasure to enjoy, and her communication with the listener draws the listener in immediately.

This disc is a selection chosen ostensibly by Kozena herself and which brings together a broad range of composers: Bach to Britten would be a fair description. The bias is towards the baroque, certainly the first of the two discs consists largely of early muisc, and even the second disc, which features Shostakovitch, Britten and Dvorak, still contains a substantial chunk of catgut and low pitch (by this I mean the instruments, and not the voice).

My abiding impression of the disc is that it doesn't quite hang together. It was not conceived as a recital, and as such there is no link between the tracks other than that of the soloists, which means that one lurches from Gounod to Bizet to Mozart Handel (to take the opening four tracks of the first disc). In addition, some of the performances themselves are a little odd: Bach's wonderful aria "Vergnuegte Ruh" is taken at a bafflingly quick pace, which belies any sense of pleasant rest, and leaves the listener faintly seasick. That said, Kozena's performance of "Voi che sapete" from "Figaro" is worth the purchase alone. For me the greatest pleasure is to be found in the selection of songs which make up the second half of the second disc: these works are new to me, and Kozena performs them with consummate skill.

Can I recommend it? Yes, I can, but I would suggest rather that you look out for Kozena as a soloists on complete works, rather than opting for this not entirely felicitous compilation.