MOZART opera arias (Die Zauberflöte, Die Entführung and Cosi Fan Tutte); also Exsultate Jubilate KV165
Aga Winska (soprano)
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra/Wojciech Michniewski
Rec. Warsaw Philharmonic Hall 1990
PAVANE RECORDS ADW 7289 [52.47]

With musical parents, Aga Winska studied piano and flute before transferring to vocal studies in 1983, where her natural abilities found their true métier as a coloratura soprano. It is very much in this demanding  fach that she is heard on this disc, recorded in 1990. Tracks 1 and 2 give us the two Queen of the Night arias from The Magic Flute and it is immediately obvious that Aga Winska is an artist of considerable ability. Yes, there are a couple of places where phrases are abbreviated and breath gets short, but she encompasses the stratospheric demands well; likewise in Konstanze's three arias from the Abduction from the Harem. The demands of Marten aller Arten have brought many a famous soprano down, but here Winska copes well with the high-lying tessitura and articulates the coloratura convincingly.

The demands of Fiordiligi's Come Scoglio from Cosi are different than those for Konstanze. The registers need to be well knit, the passagio not lumpy and the declamatory phrases secure in the chest register. Aga Winska meets these demands well and brings good characterisation to the phrases. In the Exsultate, where there is much high-powered competition on disc, she again shows confidence and vocal strength although I did catch some aspiration in the runs.

With vocal strengths such as exemplified here, it is no wonder that Aga Winska has found work under the batons of the likes of Harnoncourt, Cambreling and Östman. Given the short timing of the disc and her well supported 'mezza voce' with adequate heft, I would have liked to hear her as Susana and Pamina. On the basis of this disc I would have expected a developing career.

The recording is first class, well balanced between voice and orchestra in a true, clear and natural acoustic.

The brief notes are in English and French, one not being a translation of the other.

Robert J Farr

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