MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Amor Sacro - Vivaldi Sacred Motets

"If any doubts still linger among readers concerning Vivaldi's originality in the setting of sacred texts, then this recital should dispel them once and for all. Simone Kermes is an agile singer with a wide vocal range who is comfortably able to negotiate Vivaldi's virtuoso writing with technical panache and warmth. Highly rewarding."
(Five Stars BBC Music Magazine April 2007)

"This, is one of the most exciting discs I've heard in ages. It forms the debut solo album of German soprano Simone Kermes. A great singer, she's quite simply unique. If you try to imagine one of the ultra-pure-toned Mozart divas of yesteryear - Teresa Stich Randall, say, or Gundula Janowitz - performing the kind of violently florid music usually associated with Cecilia Bartoli, then you will have some idea of the effect she makes. Dubbed "Amor Sacro", it contains four of Vivaldi's sacred motets written between 1713 and 1733; vertiginously difficult, they are effectively concertos for voice and orchestra. Kermes delivers them with a combination of staggering technical dexterity and textual passion that will leave you awestruck, and there's some brilliant conducting and playing from Andrea Marcon and the Venice Baroque Orchestra, too." ***** 5 stars out of 5 GUARDIAN.CO.UK

…Simone Kermes… proves more than a match for Vivaldi's typically athletic vocal demands - indeed adds to them in a number of tessitura-extending cadenzas - and makes much of the music's bold contrasts. The orchestra is forthright and exciting, with a satisfying full, organ-enriched sound... Gramophone