The Best of Andreas Scholl - Handel, Gruck, Vivaldi, Pergolesi, etc

This disc collects a great variety of performances recorded for the Decca label by German-born countertenor Andreas Scholl, who says that the high male voice in which he sings is something he produces naturally, not something he specially cultivates. He makes you believe it. The diverse program is logically organized, with Baroque arias of various kinds surrounding a central core of quieter material, and sonically Decca has made a convincing whole out of material with various producers and recording locales. So listeners in search of a sampling of the work of one of the world's A-list countertenors can buy with confidence. If you're buying by the track online, start with track 8, the aria "Cara sposa" (Dear fiancee) from Handel's opera Rinaldo. It offers numerous examples of Scholl's awe-inspiring lower register, which seems to rise mysteriously out of nowhere and envelop you like one of those clouds of galactic matter into which the Starship Enterprise would wander from time to time. Nobody else can make a held note sparkle and gleam with shifting surfaces like Scholl can. For those who've heard Scholl in the past, the album likewise offers a worthwhile overview. Several observations may strike Scholl fans. Scholl is masterly in varying his style slightly to match the particular Baroque composer he is working with; for Gluck he cultivates a creamy smoothness, while for the castrato arias of Handel's time he's temperamental and a bit petulant -- just right. He is very beautiful but just a little less entrancing in the traditional songs in the middle of the program -- for all his emphasis on beauty of sound, there's also a dimension of acting, of an interior world being communicated and made to match the significance of a text, to what Scholl does, and where he doesn't have access to that theatrical quality he loses something. (The most successful of the traditional songs is also the oddest choice -- the Korean song Ar ri rang, which like many other nationally emblematic songs has a quality of longing that gives Scholl what he needs.) The sacred arias by Vivaldi included here, on the other hand, are not exactly dramatic, but the fit between his voice and Vivaldi's vocal lines, which build up tension by covering a widening range, is something really rare and fine. It is also worth noting that Scholl is one of the few Germans who manages to sing English like a native. Strongly recommended to anyone who loves beautiful singing of any kind.