2023-06-18 21:41:46
Entering her fortieth year of career, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter shares her passion for music and the recital stage in a repertoire ranging from classical to French variety.
Anne Sofie von Otter has sung on the greatest stages in the world, worked with legendary artists, interpreted the greatest operatic roles and she still has a desire to share her happiness on stage and to communicate it with the public. A wish fulfilled once more this evening for the mezzo-soprano sailing with joy from Reynaldo Hahn to Barbara via traditional Swedish and Scottish tunes.
The concert opens with the French melody from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century: “Since I put my lip” by Reynaldo Hahn followed by “L’Anneau d’argent” and “Ma première Lettre” by Cécile Chaminade, before Verlaine set to music by the unknown Charles Martin Loeffler in his Serenade for voice, viola and piano and Baudelaire in the score discovered in 2001, “Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du Charbon” by Claude Debussy, under the delicate fingers of pianist Christoph Berner, replacing Bengt Forsberg. Finally, in this first part, “La mort des amants” by Baudelaire set to music by Jean Musy and recited at the microphone by Anne Sofie von Otter on the refined arpeggios of guitarist Fabian Fredriksson offers a suspended poetic moment (microphone that she will keep for the last part of the program, “Douce France” dedicated to French song). After the intermission, the singer puts on bright pink sneakers to sing traditional Scottish tunes then a cover of Benny Andersson (one of the founders of the group ABBA): the mezzo-soprano hums, sings, stamps her foot and dances to the rhythm of the Bengan Janson’s popular accordion.
The singer with a crystalline timbre sings with elegance and clarity. The quality of his vowels conveys a French of great refinement whose audience savors the sound scent of each word. If, at 68, the voice has lost its power with somewhat dull mids, the highs have not aged a bit.
The concert also gives pride of place to purely instrumental works. Two small-format Sibelius works (False et Rondino) are interpreted with mischief punctuated by poignant silences by the Swedish violinist Malin Broman and the Austrian pianist Christoph Berner who fits perfectly into the Swedish group. In the melodies, he lays down a sound and rhythmic carpet listening to the singer. All its silences, its breaths and its organic rubatos (flexibility of tempo) support and serve the voice of Anne Sofie von Otter. In song, he finds the right sound and in jazzy music, he makes the piano resonate like a double bass or a brass band.
Storyteller, “la” von Otter calls the musicians on stage with infectious joy. The room is lit throughout the duration of the concert in order to maintain a direct link with the public. Even at the microphone, to sing Camille, Barbara, Moustaki, Léo Ferré (where the arrangement is however too extensive) in front of an audience unaccustomed to this type of concert in a high place of classical music, the popular soul of these melodies is the red thread and the success of this evening: the musicians are acclaimed and give three encores. As a testimony to a career with remarkable longevity, the mezzo-soprano continues to sing “La chansonnette” by Yves Montand while leaving the stage.
It is a triumph for the great artist Anne Sofie von Otter and her bet to bring together popular song and classical music on the same program.
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