KEY POINTS:
From the arresting first phrase of its title aria, there is no resisting Ah! mio Cor, Magdalena Kozena's new collection of Handel arias.
The Czech mezzo catches the volatile moodswings of the sorceress Alcina and the persuasive playing of the Venice Baroque Orchestra under Andrea Marcon makes them the perfect partners.
Kozena has said she wants to break away from any preconceptions that Baroque music should be unstintingly lovely. Would not Verdi, centuries later, stipulate that Lady Macbeth should sing in a voice that was considerably less than beautiful? And so does Kozena when she hurls herself through Where shall I fly from Hercules.
Images of scorpions and snaky whips bring on the full vocal armament, and the fury evoked by the Venetian players is terrifying. Perhaps Kazena's English pronunciation might have been a little smoother, but then the mittel-European tang does add a certain gothic quality to the occasion.
One reflects here on what a skilled dramatist Handel was. How effectively the composer uses silence and pauses in the introduction to Agrippina's Pensieri, voi mi tormentate, with Stephanie Haegele's oboe wailing like an instrument from another, darker world.
The lovely Cara speme from Giulio Cesare, performed with just lute and Francesco Galligioni's eloquent cello, glows with apt and shapely ornamentation.
For jubilation bordering on the manic, try Oh! had I Jubal's lyre, far from the starchy (and considerably slower) versions one might expect on the oratorio circuit.
In general, Kozena chooses the lesser-known Handel, although her shattering Ah! Stigie larve!, shifting from snarl to choking sorrow at the turn of a bar, might well tempt some across the Tasman when Opera Australia mounts Orlando next year, to hear the aria in context.
The collection ends with a favourite. Lascia chio pianga provided the most moving scene in the film Farinelli and is an unavoidable aria on Handel anthologies.
Kozena makes it a rare emotional experience, especially when the ornamented line takes her into her vibrant lower register.
This is an exceptional recital disc from one of the most individual singers of our time, with an instrumental ensemble that could not be bettered. No further recommendation needed.
* Magdalena Kozena, Ah! mio Cor (Deutsche Grammophon 477 6547)
