Chen Reiss; L'Arte del Mondo/Werner Ehrhardt
Onyx
"Chen Reiss has been turning ears for a while now as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto. Her new CD reveals a singer as much at ease in Mozart's Vienna as in Verdi's Mantua as she performs an inspiring programme of arias and overtures by composers working in Austria at the end of the 18th century... All told, this is a beguiling combination of top-drawer musicianship and fresh ideas about opera in Enlightenment Vienna." - Christopher Cook, BBC Music Magazine.
"The singing would in itself have been wholly recommendable even if the programme had consisted of only old war-horses... Though I was eager to listen to the rarities here, I still started with Susanna's Deh vieni. 'What a voice!' I wrote on my pad. It’s beautiful and beauty of tone can provide satisfying listening, also when the interpretation is bland. Chen Reiss’s interpretation is anything but bland. It is a true reading of Susanna’s emotions in this exquisite aria. The young woman stands out as a warm, unsentimental, three-dimensional character. This is a singer with both voice and soul." - Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International.
"The singing would in itself have been wholly recommendable even if the programme had consisted of only old war-horses... Though I was eager to listen to the rarities here, I still started with Susanna's Deh vieni. 'What a voice!' I wrote on my pad. It’s beautiful and beauty of tone can provide satisfying listening, also when the interpretation is bland. Chen Reiss’s interpretation is anything but bland. It is a true reading of Susanna’s emotions in this exquisite aria. The young woman stands out as a warm, unsentimental, three-dimensional character. This is a singer with both voice and soul." - Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International.
Runners-up:
"Tragédiennes 3". Véronique Gens; Les Talens Lyriques/Christoph Rousset [Virgin]
"Live at the Metropolitan Opera". Anna Netrebko; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra/various [DG]
"Arias for Anna de Amicis". Teodora Gheorghiu; Les Talens Lyriques/Christoph Rousset [Aparté]
"Helden". Klaus Florian Vogt; Orchestra of Deutsche Oper Berlin/Peter Schneider [Sony]
"Helden". Klaus Florian Vogt; Orchestra of Deutsche Oper Berlin/Peter Schneider [Sony]
No disrespect to the worthy five here, but this was (as it usually is) the weakest category, which is to say the one with the fewest entries: 13 made the long-list, compared with 75 for Solo Vocal. Chen Reiss's win gives Onyx its first Award, and this year is the first in which this category wasn't won by one of the major labels.
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