Quiet Beauty

A beautiful recital by Anne Sofie von Otter called Music For a While - Baroque Melodies. Although not a baroque specialist, von Otter is versatile and a sensitive enough musician to do justice to the project. The programme divides between Italy and England with a small band of musicians accompanying as appropriate to each song. Some just have harpsichord or chamber organ, some a solo lute, others include continuo from theorbo and baroque guitar. Composers with songs featured are Ferrari, Frescobaldi, Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Purcell and Dowland. The programme is also broken up by a few instrumental interludes, a harpsichord piece by Storace, a couple for theorbo by Kapsberger and a lute solo by the English composer Robert Johnson ( wonder if he went down to the crossroads ? ). The entire programme is fairly restrained and quiet but it is cleverly paced so that it starts in the bright sunshine of the Mediterranean ( Ferrari ) and eventually winds down to the melancholy of an English autumn ( Dowland ). There is much beauty through the entire disk however.