Erwin Schrott - crítica

Há pouco tempo, por estas bandas, fiz referência ao primeiro registo a solo de Erwin Schrott, baixo-barítono uruguaio, cuja carreira tem dado muito que falar, por esse mundo fora.



Eis a primeira crítica ao trabalho do senhor:

«Erwin Schrott (bass-baritone), Orquestra de la Communitat Valenciana, cond Riccardo FrizzaDecca 478 0473, £12.99

The Uruguayan with the darkly soulful good looks (gratefully exploited by Decca's photo department) rightly attracted rave reviews for his feline, prehensile Don Giovanni at Covent Garden.
Yet Giovanni's two solos - always difficult to bring off out of context - are to my ears the least successful items on this rather haphazardly planned debut disc: the Serenade is half-crooned, larded with knowing little inflections, while the Champagne Aria verges on the garbled.
Schrott's virile bass-baritone, with its rich Italianate resonance, is heard to better advantage in a clutch of 19th-century arias. He is especially good in satanic mode, oozing honeyed malice as Mephistopheles (both Gounod's and Berlioz's), and in a rare aria from Meyerbeer's Robert le diable.
Impressive, too, are Schrott's grave legato in Banquo's aria of foreboding ( Macbeth ), and Philip's anguished monologue from Don Carlos, sung (in French) as an intensely private meditation. After Mozart, a long-term future in the Verdian basso cantante repertoire surely beckons.»


(Erwin Schrott )