On track: Sheer power and enchantment

By WILLIAM DART

Deborah Voigt's first solo album, Obsessions - a title that makes one think of perfume, lingerie and chocolates - proves there's more to the American soprano than dress size.

Doing what seems to come naturally, Voigt gives us an empress-size helping of Wagner and Strauss selections with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Richard Armstrong.

Familiar items, such as Elisabeth's Dich, teure Halle from Tannhauser, are enthralling. In fact, so captivating are Armstrong and his players that Voigt's triumphal entry could well startle the unwary.

For those who want to bask in the sheer power of the Voigt voice, there's a Straussian tsunami or two in Wehe, mein Mann from Die Frau ohne Schatten while, on the gentler side, Ist mein Liebster dahin sounds as if the diva is in an enchanted musical box.

In meatier extracts from Tristan and Isolde and Salome, the singer shows her dramatic heft, particularly in the final 17 minutes of high decadence in the court of Herod I. All in all, an obligatory purchase for operatic sybarites.

After last year's irretrievably terrible Quiet Place album, American countertenor David Daniels has gone French on his new CD, Les Nuits d'Ete.

Other countertenors have been here before, notably Dominique Visse, but who could rival the sheer vocal thrust of the bearish Daniels, striding his way through the pulsating harmonies of Berlioz' Villanelle or exploring the full dramatic range of a song such as Le Spectre de la Rose?

Ravel's Five Greek Songs seem hand-picked for the agile-voiced Daniels, especially the cocktail-sized Tout gai!, coyly translated in the booklet as "All merry!".

Three Faure chansons, including the whimsical Mandoline, all evocatively arranged by Israeli composer Gil Shohat, will appeal to collectors of curiosities.

John Nelson's Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, a group known for their espousal of unusual projects, are brilliant partners, with a recording to match, made in the Ircam's celebrated Espace de Projection.

Excellent as they are, however, it is debatable whether 20 minutes of instrumental offerings are justified, especially when they include a dull chug through Ravel's Pavane and (horrors) a noisy page-turn in the middle of Berlioz' Pantomime.

* Deborah Voigt, Obsessions (EMI 57681); David Daniels, Les Nuits d'Ete (Virgin Classics 54564)