A Wasted Opportunity

What could have been a truly exceptional disk ended up being undermined by a failure of nerve on the part of either the artist or record company. The album in question being Mysterium - Sacred Arias by soprano Angela Gheorghiu. The first quarter of the disk is devoted to performances of four Romanian pieces from the Orthodox tradition accompanied by the Romanian National Chamber Choir "Madrigal" conducted by Marin Constantin. She is obviously fiercely proud of this tradition and in conjunction with this recording made a documentary for BBC tv about the extraordinary painted churches of Romania. If the entire disk, or even just a more substantial part of it, had been dedicated to this unusual and soulful repertoire it would have been a major achievement but sadly the remainde of the record is given over to operatic style performances of such chestnuts as Schubert's Ave Maria, Pie Jesu from Faure's Requiem, Mendelssohn's Auf Flugeln des Gesananges and Brahms's Wiegenlied, together with arias of dubious worth by Mascagni and Niedermeyer. These items are supported by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Ion Marin and very mainstream middle of the road support it is. I had forgotten that the disk concludes with an over the top rendition of Adeste, Fideles which sounded out of place now the festive season is over. Well, it isn't quite twelvth night yet. Gheorghiu's star seems slightly on the want now, making it unlikely that she will get the opportunity to fully revisit the Romanian repertoire.