Anne Sofie Von Otter - Music For A While (Baroque Melodies) (2005)

Anne-Sofie von Otter's Music for a While finds her diving into geographically diverse songs of the Baroque period with the same flair and joyful curiosity that animate all of her projects. She shows a refreshing willingness to change her vocal sound and technique to suit the task at hand, leaving whatever operatic ego she carries with her at the door. Not that her work here would ever be confused with that of an early music specialist: listeners with strong opinions on the "correct" sound for this music may find themselves unable to accept the obvious warmth, flexibility, and potential amplitude of von Otter's sumptuous pipes. But it would be hard to accuse her of approaching this music with anything but respect, love, and the clear intention to realize it on its own terms. Anything else is academic.

The croony cooing, bent tones, and occasional chesty brashness of the opening track, Benedetto Ferrari's Amanti, io vi so dire (Lovers, I can tell you), should be enough to alert listeners that they're in for a different kind of Anne-Sofie experience; delivered over a danceable Baroque guitar ostinato (eventually joined by harpsichord and theorbo), it sets an amiable tone for the album. It also puts the energetic and finely textured playing of lutenist/theorbist Jakob Lindberg and harpsichordist Jory Vinikour on display; their inventive instrumental realizations are the sonic glue binding the entire album together. Among the solo instrumental selections they contribute, Giovanni Kapsberger's Arpeggiata stands out as particularly interesting, since it casts the theorbo in a very different light from that of its usual role as a basso continuo component.

Overall the album succeeds well on its own terms, although the Dowland songs and some of the Purcell selections sound too easygoing, too emotionally uncomplicated. The intimacy is present, but the intensity is often missing, undercut by the deliberately scaled down nature of von Otter's delivery. But her sense of phrasing and general affect is spot on, as is her English diction. ~ Allen Schrott