Sophia WINTON
Come Away [4:12]
Ave Maria [4:54]
Sophia Winton (soprano)
Unnamed orchestral ensemble
rec. 2019, Abbey Road Studios, London
Private Release [9:06]
Courtesy of her website, I can relate that Sophia Winton is a classically trained singer, violinist and composer who has studied under Virginia Zeani Rossi-Lemeni, trained with Opera NZ and performed for English National Opera as a developing artist. She studied violin and composition at Victoria and Waikato Universities and aims to “popularise the beauty of the operatic voice and bring tuneful new classical music into the world”. That’s the background for her two singles under review.
Come Away (not Come away, Death but presumably Winton’s own poem) has suggestions in its pizzicati of Tango or even Passacaglia but it’s a richly voiced classically rooted song with sublimated drama irradiated by particular orchestral colours. The lyrics and the melody are both attractive and Winton’s full-voiced soprano, it struck me, would be well suited to something like Gorecki. Ave Maria is a kind of free working of Caccini and may sport a harp but is looser and freer than the companion work, with a gentle, lightly rock-percussion rhythm. In popular style, attractive and warmly expressive, her voice pushes high as well as ventures into the well supported depths. There’s also an opportunity for the solo violin lusciously to emote and decorate after her vocal – I assume she didn’t play it as an overdub, but she is a violinist too, so one never knows. For some reason it reminded me in a few places of Ennio Morricone.
Sophia Winton’s website provides more information about her accomplishments and biography, and I hope she’ll release more music in the near future.
Jonathan Woolf
