The recital of sacred arias is rarer than the disc devoted to operatic or art song selections, and it carries its own special challenge: in sacred material, the singer can't get away with relying on sheer vocal beauty to the detriment of communication of the text. This selection of arias from larger works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Mendelssohn thus is ideally suited to the talents of bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, who combines smooth, perfectly controlled technique with a broad, instantly attractive Germanic warmth. ...
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The recital of sacred arias is rarer than the disc devoted to operatic or art song selections, and it carries its own special challenge: in sacred material, the singer can't get away with relying on sheer vocal beauty to the detriment of communication of the text. This selection of arias from larger works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Mendelssohn thus is ideally suited to the talents of bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, who combines smooth, perfectly controlled technique with a broad, instantly attractive Germanic warmth. "Music is my religion," Quasthoff said, and indeed he includes a pair of selections from Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons), not conventionally considered a sacred work (for pagans, it works perfectly well as one). But listen to Quasthoff's rendition of "Mache dich, mein Herze, rein" (Make yourself pure, my heart) from Bach's St. Matthew Passion (track 6), which seems to proceed from a feeling of absolute conviction in its quiet mix of determination and sweetness, and from a basis of...
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