Search - Johann Christoph Bach, Johann Christian Fischer, Johann Michael Nicolai :: Sacred Songs of Sorrow

The best solo recital in years

hcf | 07/30/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the first solo recital from the young Chilean tenor Rodrigo del Pozo. It really deserves your attention. The program is very well chosen. These are songs by some of the "lesser" German composers - hence they are not frequently recorded. The relative obscurity of these songs is reason number one to buy this CD. Reason number two: the singer. Rodrigo del Pozo started his early music career as a lutenist. It so happened, however, that in 1990 he won a scholarship to study voice with the celebrated British tenor Nigel Rogers, and so, luckily for all of us, Rodrigo switched to singing. Among tenors, Rodrigo's voice is one of the most beautiful and easily the most unusual. Not only is his voice meltingly sweet and luminous, but it also boasts an unusually wide range, spanning two adjacent registers - alto and tenor - with no register break. The pieces on this disc (some of which are in the low alto range) show Rodrigo's amazing vocal versatility. All of the pieces here are sung with elegant graces and, even more importantly, with keen attention to the meaning of the text. The most effective piece - by any measure - is Johann Christoph Bach's Ach daß ich Wassers g'nug hätte, exploring the full amplitude of human sorrow and hope, from the brooding beginning ("Oh, if only I had enough tears to lament my failings), to the emphatically pounding syllables on "denn der Herr hat mich voll Jammers gemacht," to the slowly dying note on "Am Tage seines grimmigen Zorns," to the lyrically floating repetition of the first stanza. The result is haunting. I can practically guarantee you that this piece will be etched in your memory for ever. --gggimpy@yahoo.com"

A rare pleasure

Michael Rigsby | Madison, CT USA | 10/30/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Add to the growing list of admirable recent recordings of seventeenth century German vocal music, this offering by the instrumental ensemble Charivari Agreable with tenor Rodrigo del Pozo. Consisting primarily of works by lesser known composers, this recording would deserve a place in the collection of lovers of this art regardless of the performances. Happily, these are first rate. Rodrigo del Pozo is new to me, and his voice is certainly hard to categorize. Never mind. He is a wonderfully senstive musician with great feeling for the texts and the style. The prominace of viols in the ensemble lends a generally dark tembre which is appropriate to the settings and which complements del Pozo's plaintive tone."