Watercolors: Swedish Songs

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Anne Sofie Von Otter is a born singer of songs, and this collection of Swedish miniatures dating from about 1910 to the 1950s are easy to relate to both in their Romanticism and the direct, unaffected manner in which the fine mezzo puts each across. In Ture Rangström's "En gammal dansrytm" (Old Dance), she uncharacteristically slides into the song in a sultry fashion; it makes you sit up and listen. She rarely brings any darkness into her tone. In keeping with the CD's title, we get soft, Northern light in both her tone and pianist Bengt Forsberg's--and by so avoiding any false sense of drama, each song's subject, particularly the ones about nature are, well, natural. But when something else is called for, as in Bo Linde's "Är jag intill döden trött" ("I Am Tired to Death"), von Otter knows how to emphasize the text amost conversationally. This lovely collection of pastels occasionally threatens to evaporate, but close attention reveal true delights. The mezzo is in fine voice, with no "opera diva" behavior to get in the way of the songs' charms. A specialized collection, perhaps, but one which reaps fine rewards. --Robert Levine

Tracks:

Kiss Of The Wind
Grass Sings Under Wandering Feet
The Cloud, The Flower And The Lark
Peonies
Take My Heart
On The Reef
Amazing Day
The Song Of The Sea
Old Dance
A Moment In Time
The Anemones
If I Could Be Tears
On The Sea
When You Close My Eyes
You Make Everything Beautiful
Blessed It Is To Wait
From The Depths Of My Soul
You Are My Aphrodite
Like A Wave
The Meadow Where You Kissed Me
Apple-trees And Pear-trees
And The Knight Rode To The Holy Land
To A Rose
Winter In My Heart
What Do I Want?
The Judgment
A Summer Morning
Serenad
The Amazon
I Am Tired To Death
Is It You, Most Beloved Child
Take Me
May We Be Happy

Amazon.com

Anne Sofie Von Otter is a born singer of songs, and this collection of Swedish miniatures dating from about 1910 to the 1950s are easy to relate to both in their Romanticism and the direct, unaffected manner in which the fine mezzo puts each across. In Ture Rangström's "En gammal dansrytm" (Old Dance), she uncharacteristically slides into the song in a sultry fashion; it makes you sit up and listen. She rarely brings any darkness into her tone. In keeping with the CD's title, we get soft, Northern light in both her tone and pianist Bengt Forsberg's--and by so avoiding any false sense of drama, each song's subject, particularly the ones about nature are, well, natural. But when something else is called for, as in Bo Linde's "Är jag intill döden trött" ("I Am Tired to Death"), von Otter knows how to emphasize the text amost conversationally. This lovely collection of pastels occasionally threatens to evaporate, but close attention reveal true delights. The mezzo is in fine voice, with no "opera diva" behavior to get in the way of the songs' charms. A specialized collection, perhaps, but one which reaps fine rewards. --Robert Levine

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