Andreas Scholl - A Musicall Banquet

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Music reviews of Andreas Scholl - A Musicall Banquet

Music Review: Absolute Scholl
Rating: 5 Stars

These are not easy songs for a singer to do well but Andreas Scholl is ready for them, now: his voice bigger, deeper and more resonant than formerly. His thoughtful approach to text shines, as usual. His ornamentation in all the songs is just ... so. Not too much, and nothing is wanting.

He imbues In Darkness Let Me Dwell with an incredibly dark sound and a powerful intensity that I don't think he could have executed as well in earlier years. The final bars of To Plead My Faith are wrenchingly sad. The Spanish songs are spectacular in his live performance, especially Vuestros Ojos, which, live, he takes at one hell of a lick, to the immense pleasure of the audience; a fraction slower on the recording, but still very exciting. The coloratura tour de force of Sta Notte Mi Sognava is accomplished with almost throw-way ease. The genteel innuendo of Lady If You So Spite Me is done with sardonic humour and energy alternating with pathos - quite a combination. In Go My Flock, Go Get You Hence, he sounds about seventeen and full of teenage desperation: at `No, she hates me!' you can imagine the infatuated teenager flinging his arms about. The final track, O Bella Piu, is a little miracle of interpretation. Apart from the sheer perfection of voice and delivery, he does `pining' so well! He begins with quiet adoration; `non piu dolore!' is a gnat's whisker from a sob but without any loss of control or musicality - no extraneous funny business - moving into pleading in the first `Pieta!', and sheer desperation in the second. A heart-stopper.

The accompanying instrumentalists are all first rate. Christophe Coin's bass viol solo in O, Dear Life When Shall It Be is fascinating. Edin Karamazov - a star in his own right if ever there was - is a perfect match for Scholl and he also gets a short, beautiful lute solo. All the performers are on top form, as are the recording engineers. The whole CD is distilled pleasure from start to finish: each song is fully revealed and brought to vibrant life. Andreas Scholl's singing on this recording is peerless - but `Lieber erstmal Lieder', as he would say (he puts the music he sings before what he calls, self-deprecatingly, the present cult of his stardom) and on this CD he certainly lives up to his motto.

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