Customer Reviews

A glorious celebration of a singer's and composer's art - By: Mr Richard Fitzsimmons, 11 Sep 2008
This is a long-awaited Bach disc from David Daniels. We are more accustomed to having him sing heroic Handel operatic roles, branch out into American folk songs, or even into Berlioz, but somehow it was inevitable that he would end up recording the Bach arias he has often sungin concert performances of the Passions, the B Minor Mass or Cantatas. And what a disc it has turned out to be. I had never heard him sing Bach before so this disc was a revelation to me. Andreas Scholl has received notable & deserved praise for the purity of his tone & somewhat restrained [Church] interpretation of Bach cantatas for alto, but Daniels' performances here are a different animal, as you would expect from an experienced operatic singer. But these are not vocal fireworks for the sake of it, far from it: just as sensitive to the texts as Scholl, Daniels somehow draws you into the melodic lines with dramatic intensity, carefully colouring the vocal line with shades of light & dark, accenting certain wordsin a way that some countertenors would have hammed up. His voice has lost the luscious soprano tone of his earlier recordings, but he has gained so much morein many waysin the lower & middle reaches of his voice, & his ability to float the line & long-held note is gorgeous. Daniels believes every word he is singing, his interpretation almost making you feel that you are the one singing the words. For him the Word is made flesh.

Inevitably, one picks out highlightsin a disc such as this. Daniels' singing of two movements from Ich Habe Genug - Ich Habe Genug & Schlummert Ein - are worth the price alone, & his Erbarme Dich from the St John Passion is heart-rending. I had not, until listening to this disc, really felt all that much affinity with the Bach Cantatas or Passions, but Daniels has won this listener over with his careful caressing of every phrase. He has revealed greater depthsin this music than I have heard from other countertenors or contraltos singing this repertoire, & there cannot be any greater praise for an instinctive & under-rated interpreter than that.