Anja Harteros - Verdi: Aida - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Chopin Preludes; Impromptus by Composer Frdric Chopin (1810 1849) Artist Arrau, Claudio [Piano] When this reissue of Claudio Arrau's 1973 recording of Chopin's preludes was released by Philips, it was the third reissue of that particular recording released that year. PentaTone, the astoundingly clean Dutch tag, had released a disc coupling Arrau's 1973 recording of Chopin's preludes with his 1974 recording of Schumann's Papillons, and Philips, the great Dutch tag itself, had released an eight-disc set of all Arrau's postwar Chopin recording for them. Of course, Arrau's preludes are uniformly ineffably beautiful, perhaps a little slow sometimes, but with such effortless technique, such tonal opulence, and such poetic soulfulness that it only serves to grant the listener more time to contemplate the heights and depths. The sound from all three issues presents different aspects of recorded perfection the PentaTone may be somewhat clearer, but all three incarnate in their zillions of zeros and ones in breathtakingly real representations of a real piano in a real room in real time.

Critics and audiences alike have nothing but rapturous praise for the voice of Anja Harteros. Some experts even regard her as the greatest female singer of the present day. With her broad palette of vocal colours, she is the ideal interpreter of Romantic songs for voice and orchestra. The fin de siècle atmosphere of Berg's Seven Early Songs, Wagner's Tristanesque conjuration of love in his Wesendonck-Lieder and Mahler's focus on a world of private introspection in his Rückert-Lieder offer Anja Harteros ample scope for her multifaceted musical sensitivity.

Anja Harteros - Von Ewiger Liebe [COMPACT DISCS] date 10/13/2009