For some reason I have
totally missed Sophie Koch. For readers
who are in the same predicament I can
provide some information about her;
all the more important since the booklet
to this issue says not a word about
her. She is French, studied with Jane
Berbié in Paris and appeared
a lot in France before she made her
international debut in 1998 as Rosina
in Il barbiere di Siviglia at
Covent Garden. After that she has appeared
with most major European companies:
Dresden, Vienna, Munich, La Scala, the
Bastille and Châtelet in Paris,
Deutsche Oper in Berlin and la Monnaie
in Brussels. Among her roles are Rossini’s
Cenerentola, Mozart’s Cherubino, Dorabella,
Sesto and Idamante, Massenet’s Charlotte
in Werther, Gounod’s Marguerite
and Richard Strauss’s Composer (Ariadne
auf Naxos) and Octavian (Der
Rosenkavalier). She also appears
as a concert singer and recitalist and
she has recorded works by, among others,
Schubert, Wolf, Fauré, Chausson,
Massenet, Respighi, Grieg. What I hear
on this disc is a large, vibrant voice
with lots of warmth. I can easily imagine
her being well suited to many of the
roles listed above, information, incidentally,
that I culled from this year’s Salzburg
Festival, where she sang Dorabella in
Così fan tutte.
Sophie Koch has a large,
vibrant voice with a lot of inherent
warmth. It wouldn’t surprise me if within
the next few years she gradually moves
over to heavier parts than the mainly
lyrical ones on her current repertoire.
Carmen should already be within her
scope, a role that doesn’t necessary
require the most booming chest notes.
Teresa Berganza, for one, was a marvellous
gypsy with a voice smaller than Ms Koch’s.
As a Lieder singer the size of the voice
is of lesser importance, it’s the nuances,
the colouring of the voice and the insight
in the texts that count. In this programme
Der Nussbaum (track 3) shows
that she can scale down the voice to
very intimate dimensions without any
loss in quality. On the other hand the
second of the two songs from Goethe’s
West-östlichen Divan, beginning,
in translation "Don’t smack the
jug down / Under my nose like that,
you oaf" (track 6) – lines that
are delivered with biting intensity,
worthy of a Carmen or maybe a Fricka,
to stay within the German repertoire.
Die Lotusblume (track 7) offers
beautiful lyrical singing, while Talismane
(track 8) is full-throatedly dramatic.
Robert Burns seems
to draw a special vitality from Schumann.
Niemand (track 22) – or "Naebody"
in Burns’ own Highland idiom – is so
down-to-earth and full of life. "My
Heart’s in the Highlands" (track
13) is impressively dramatic while the
lullaby "Hee Balou" (track
14) is lyrically inward.
All through the recital
there is a strong feel of deep understanding
and communication and it can only be
regretted that Cascavelle didn’t give
us some more Schumann songs. The playing
time is parsimonious at just over 47
minutes. Nelson Goerner, whom I so far
have encountered only as solo pianist,
is a pliable accompanist and shows his
prowess in the many postludes. The recording
is well-balanced and the booklet has
a good essay by André Tubeuf
as well as the song texts in French,
German and English. I am looking forward
to hearing more of Sophie Koch in the
near future.
Göran Forsling
Sophie Koch (mezzo), Nelson Goerner (piano)
