Andreas Scholl, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Paul Dyer - Vivaldi (2000)

From the earliest planning stages for this recording, Andreas Scholl had only one orchestra in mind: the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. It's no surprise that Decca was skittish about the idea--there are, after all, many good baroque-instrument bands much closer to London--yet the star countertenor insisted that his rapport with this group was special and that it would be well worth the trouble to make the record in Sydney. Well, from the very first notes, it's clear that Scholl was right: conductor Paul Dyer and the ABO launch into the opening of Nisi Dominus with an energetic gusto that you'd sooner expect from Rinaldo Alessandrini's Concerto Italiano than from an Anglo-Saxon band. Scholl responds in kind: his vocalism is as smooth, clear, and assured as ever, but he goes beyond that--his innumerable subtle inflections of tone and timing are more reminiscent of a good orator than an opera singer. The up-tempo arias are exciting, with high-precision coloratura; Clarae stellae, a cheerful solo motet that lacks flashy vocal fireworks, gets a wonderfully insouciant little bounce. Yet the real magic is in the soft, slow arias, where Scholl and his colleagues create an almost palpable sense of wonder (slightly tinged with tension) and hold a listener in thrall as surely as an expert storyteller. Let's hope these artists make more recordings together--and that (with luck) they'll all be as marvelous as this one. -- Matthew Westphal