Mimi Ezust wrote:

>I just spent several hours comparing three versions of the B Minor Mass. I
>promise to answer Andry's question as fully as possible for me

Thanks for this, Mimi.  Just got to my CM-List folder and had not seen it
for days due to other things.  Your care to detail is really appreciated.

>me by quibbling with my terminology here), and I especially wanted it
>because the Bass arias are sung by Thomas Quasthoff.

I agree, he's spectacular in anything I've heard by him.

>Moving over to the aria <Agnus Dei> and still discussing Chance...
>Chance still lets my attention wander because his support drops out of his
>phrases.

I've always been enraptured by the difficult things he -does- do
exceptionally well, in this piece, of course.

>Allow this metaphor: Chance's voice reminds me of a person of great talent
>playing on a very fine viola. But Andreas Scholl has a Stradivarius of a
>voice, and he is in perfect control of it. The difference is IMMEDIATELY
>apparent to me. The colors of Scholl's voice are much more vivid than any
>I have heard in a countertenor. It's like watching the sun light up an
>otherwise gray winter world.

Beautiful description.  I heard Scholl in samples from the Handel and, as
you know, I was discomforted by his style of vibrato in that particular
album, which reminded me of the heady style I heard in Esswood, which was
a favorite of yours but someone I avoided where I could (I love a laserdisc
set of Poppea with Tappy, Yakar, and Salminen(!) but have never been able
to enjoy Esswood's fluttery sound)...

So, different likes in tone production and use of vibrato there.  A
favorite disc was one of Countertenor duets of Blow and Purcell, with James
Bowman and Michael Chance.  But I've heard breath and support problems from
most countertenors, maybe because it's just not the most natural mode for
male singers?

Another countertenor I enjoy very much is Daniel Taylor, from his "On the
Muse's Isle" -- though his pitch falls badly on my favorite lament "Music
for a While"

Scholl is powerful, dramatic, ultra musical, and so he can be very moving.
I heard excerpts from the St.  Matthew Passion and there he used less of
the strong fast-vibrato he had in the Handel and I preferred this for sure.
This is an album I'll be getting when I see it on a big special somewhere.

>Many people are turned off by the countertenor sound. I admit that I was
>also, till I learned to love the cantata singing of Paul Esswood.

And, had he been the last one I heard I would have stayed away:) Alfred
Deller had the same fast vibrato, and so does Drew Minter (who also
sometimes has pitch problems) but Alfred's son Mark seemed to sing with
less of that.

>to the whole thing, and I have found NOTHING AT ALL to quibble about on
>the Herregweghe cd. From beginning to end, I am thrilled over and over.

I will just have to buy this set when I find it on a big special, as I say.

Again, thanks VERY much for the level of detail.  You've certainly
convinced me to get them someday!

Andrys in Berkeley
http://www.andrys.com/books.html
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