• Performers: Andreas Scholl, voice; Academia Bizantina, dir. A. Tampieri
• Recorded: May-June 2022, Auhausen
• Producer: Dr. Ursula Adamski-Störmer
• Editing: Lutz Wildner
• Engineers: Carsten Vollmer, Thomas Hirschberg

It’s been some time that I auditioned a new recording by the countertenor Andreas Scholl. His sound for me always evoked a masculine character while dispensing with vibrato that others at the time might have used as part of their sound. Despite Scholl’s interest in modern music, his style for me always seemed to side with baroque music in its clarity and purity of sound.

This new album with violinist Alessandro Tampieri leading the Accademia Bizantina focuses on Italian music associated with the Virgin Mary.

I started with the most familiar work on the recording, the Vivaldi Stabat Mater RV 621 which I believe Scholl recorded earlier, maybe with Chiara Banchini? A quick search reveals I am correct: a Harmonia Mundi release in 1996. A quick comparison of the albums reveals what might seem obvious to some, an improvement in the new recording’s sonic character. My memory fails, however, with the sound of Scholl using a slight, but consistent vibrato. The older recording, to my ears, lacks any real bite with the words, without any emotional affect offered for what is being sung. The effect is something akin to an instrument playing the sung line.

Scholl also recorded the work again in a 2017 release under Bach Consort Wien with a live recording. Scholl’s voice has a far larger reach in this recording, filling a hall that sounds nearly empty. I appreciate the fact that there’s far more dramatic effect to his singing in this release.

Under Tampieri’s direction, the ensemble sound is thinner and smaller. (They utilize 6 violins and 2 violas and 2 cellos, so this isn’t one per part.) The playing is much tighter, which is a good thing (and perhaps easier with fewer forces). Scholl’s voice seems to appear in a more perfect balance with the orchestra, sounding clear with ample detail for appreciating dynamics and his diction. While he does vibrate, the effect is subtle and quite nice. The opening number is a dramatic one but this presentation is a little more serious and less flashy than others on record. I think the musicians here all struck a nice balance.

The sung pieces here are interrupted by a violin concerto by Pergolesi! Tampieri delivers here with a strong command of the solo part. The flavor is nearly Vivaldian, including its three movement design. The middle movement perhaps betrays the composer, evoking the style of his most famous vocal work, for which he is oft remembered.

Another instrumental work closes the recording, a solemn Sonata imitatio in Salve Regina, Mater Misericodiæ by Angelo Ragazzi. I imagine a piece like this could have acted as an introduction to a musical concert, getting the orchestra properly warmed up. The middle movement is straight out of a Corellian trio sonata with its sequence of suspensions. The movement almost works as background music, with the need of an improvised solo? I have no evidence for such a performance situation but Tampieri does emerge from the texture a few times with a flourish (or two) to let us know he’s there.

Nicola Porpora’s *Il trionfo della divina Giustizia ne’tormente e morte di Gesù Christo opens the recording, presented in three movements, the first an instrumental overture. This is where I soon appreciated Tampieri’s control of the string sound on this recording. It also reveals the album’s sound world with a generous reverb, which a small ensemble might be swallowed by, but in this case the sound engineers I think balanced the transparency of a small orchestra while simultaneously taking advantage of their performance space’s contribution.

The first aria, Occhi mesti is severe in its flavor, compared to the rather dramatic opening. Scholl’s voice comes into focus with vibrato applied; to me his approach comes off as a bit careful. The vocal line includes a few chromatic challenges. The third movement brings its own challenges in the way the composer provides some variation in styles, evoking a section with almost spoken interjections. Scholl navigates the curvy path with aplomb, but perhaps the dramatic environment supported by the orchestra left room for a more dramatic performance from the singer?

From Leonardo Vinci’s “Oratorio Maria dolorata” the orchestra presents with a dramatic orchestral number which is delightful. The next movement by Vinci pits the singer against a cello solo, until they come to sing in thirds together. Scholl’s voice mixes well with the cello playing by Alessandro Palmeri.

Finally, we are ahead in time and style with Pasquale Anfossi’s Salve Regina from 1779. To me this piece sounds quite pragmatic, the vocal part not being particularly virtuosic. I am not familiar with Anfossi but his contribution on this album sounds more operatic than religious in character to me. There’s a Mozartean energy to his writing but the effects from the orchestra sound so flamboyant compared to even the more sombre side of, say, Vivaldi. Scholl’s vocal character here for me doesn’t match the energy of the ensemble; I imagined these pieces rendered by an operatic soprano like Bartoli. Scholl comes across to me cautiously, and is anti-operatic in style. Perhaps this style helps ground the work as one for a church setting? In the 9th track his lower range is put to the test.

In all, I disliked the Anfossi work the most. The music’s far more classical-leaning style combined with the lack of dynamics in Scholl’s style left me in want of something more theatrical. Despite it not being an opera, per se, the style is unmistakable in what was left to us by the composer.

I really appreciated Tampieri’s playing and direction in this album; I’m not sure using a small ensemble best suits all this music, but more often than not today, that’s the economy of scale for classical music today, either in support or opposition to the historical practices.

Scholl’s voice is still quite capable in this repertoire. I might have liked something that pushed the singer in terms of virtuosity in the same context that the album’s director is challenged as the violin lead in the Pergolesi concerto. In terms of the VIvaldi, I think this is best rendition. While he does use vibrato, it is never anything as offensive as the rapist David Daniel’s sound in his recording of the Stabat Mater with Europa Galante under Biondi’s direction. Instead, Scholl uses the effect more as an ornamental contribution in longer-held notes. I like his style here.

The value in his album is probably the inclusion of lesser-known works. We may not really need another Vivaldi Stabat Mater but I also appreciate Scholl refining his singing for this rendition.