DIETREICH BUXTEHUDE - CANTATES ET SONATES AVEC LE VIOLE DE GAMBE
Ensemble Baroque de Limoges
Direction: Christophe Coin
"The story of Bach's 260-mile trek to hear him play has long guaranteed Dietrich Buxtehude a modicum of fame among devotees of the organ. But it's only in the last decade or so that his vocal and chamber works have started to appear regularly on CD, making clear the extraordinary scope and richness of his music.
Coin's choice of a French-style haute-contre voice for Jubilate Domino is a surprise (the work is usually sung by a countertenor) - but a pleasant one, as Rodrigo del Pozo sings with graceful fluency." Graham Lock
Goldberg • 2003
Coin's choice of a French-style haute-contre voice for Jubilate Domino is a surprise (the work is usually sung by a countertenor) - but a pleasant one, as Rodrigo del Pozo sings with graceful fluency." Graham Lock
Goldberg • 2003
ANTONIO SARTORIO - L'ORFEO
Teatro Lirico
Direction: Stephen Stubbs
"Mais c'est principalement le trio masculin Del Pozo, Cabré, Van der Kamp qui apporte à l'enregistrement sa profondeur. Notre petite réserve ira sans doute au manque de fougue, de fantaisie face à la retenue générale qui enveloppe cet Orfeo, notamment dans la réalisation orchestrale."
Opera International • February 2003
Opera International • February 2003
"Curieusement, les airs les plus ornés sont pour basse, Van der Kamp assurant superbement ceux d'Esculape et de Pluton, tandis que le timbre mixte de del Pozo fait merveille en Achille. "
Goldberg • September 2002
Goldberg • September 2002
ANTONIO DRAGHI - LA VITTA NELLA MORTE
Ensemble Baroque de Limoges
Direction: Christophe Coin
"Dans l'ensemble, on jugera sa direction compassée, raide, bien peu italienne. Pourquoi s'interdit-il le moindre ornement dans les strophes "Io muert peggio si"? Pourquoi si peu de lyrisme dans l'air de Madeleine, accompagné du baryton? C'est dommage, car COin Bénéfice du chant magnifiquement androgyne et émouvant de Rodrigo Del Pozo, hautre contre "à la française" idéal, comme il s'en trouve si peu."
Diapason - Le compacts du mois • July 1998
Diapason - Le compacts du mois • July 1998
"The performance, is first-rate. As ever, Christophe Coin draws a loging sound from his instrumentalists, while the singers all show a keen declamatory sense in recitative and sensitive musicality in their short arias. I particularly enjoyed the contributions of ROberta Invernizzi and Antonio Abate, but the star is undoubtedly Rodrigo del Pozo as Humanity, a tenor with a light and agile voiec, but with an exquisite and affecting quality of his own (it would be good to hear him singing Monteverdi's Orfeo)."
Gramophone - Awards issue • 1998
Gramophone - Awards issue • 1998
SACRED SONGS OF SORROW
Rodrigo del Pozo - Charivari Agréable Simfonie
"The Chrivari Agréable group from Oxford plays all this music with considerable intensity and expressive warmth, with Rodrigo del Pozo, a high tenor (high enough to pop up quite often well into treble regions), who is soft in timbre, clear in diction and both unassuming and eloquent in manner. The result is a disc decidedly out of the ordinary."
Gramophone • May 2000
Gramophone • May 2000
"Here, as throughout the whole record, the Chilean-born tenor Rodrigo del Pozo sings with mellifluous tone and great sensitivity to the words."
International Record Review • 2000
International Record Review • 2000
"Weeping, wailing and gnashing of chromatic teeth from J.C. Bach’s ‘Ach, dass ich Wassers’ sung by Rodrigo del Pozo with Charivari Agréable Simfonie. That’s new this month from Signum on a CD called ‘Sacred Songs of Sorrow’ … you’ll be shedding tears by the end of it; there are also some things of great beauty hidden away here."
BBC Radio 3 - CD Review • 2000
BBC Radio 3 - CD Review • 2000
"Chilean-born tenor Rodrigo del Pozo has chosen a selection mainly of mid-Baroque German sacred songs for his programme. These are interspersed with instrumental pieces for varying combinations of strings (violins, viols, keyboards and theorbo) played by the Oxford-based ensemble Charivari Agréable Simfonie. It is not difficult to sense in the spirit of these sorrowful texts the aftermath of the Thirty Years War, during which Germany experienced not only savagery but also disease. Basso continuo, concertato techniques and monody, imported from Italy provided 17th-century composers such as Kindermann, who is well represented here, with a wealth of means by which to express the Lutheran faith. A single exception is afforded by a Tenebrae Lesson from a set which Belgian Catholic composer Fiocco composed in 1733. He is, furthermore, the only 18th-century composer to feature here. The best-known piece in this affecting programme is Johann Christoph Bach's lament 'Ach, dass ich Wassers g'nug hätte'. Full of bold and heart-rending harmonies by the most expressively gifted of J.S.Bach's forebears, it never fails to touch my innermost sensibilities. Del Pozo discloses many subtle nuances in his singing, while the instrumental playing - the gamba part is wonderfully rich - is full of rhetorical gesture, imaginative and sonorous. This is, for me at least, the highpoint in a fascinating, emotionally satisfying programme, several of whose songs were quite new to me. A rewarding release."
BBC Music Magazine • June 2000
BBC Music Magazine • June 2000
MUSIC OF HERNY PURCELL
Les Arts Florissants at Brooklyn Academy of Music
Direction: William Christie
"Les Arts Florissants, the distinguished French ensemble, specializing in music of the 17th and 18th centuries and founded by American conductor William Christie, is now 20 years old. Entitled "Odes and Anniversary Songs," the concert at BAM consisted of "Come ye sons of Art, away!" an ode for the birthday of Queen Mary, and "Hail! Bright Cecilia," an ode for St. Cecilia’s Day. The outstanding virtue, as always, of this ensemble of polished lyric voices and players, under Christie, was its refreshing, vital approach to music too long considered, at best, precious and, at worst, bloodless.
The admirable solo quintet was made up of soprano Rachel Elliott, countertenor Stephen Wallace, tenors Rodrigo del Pozo and Joseph Cornwell, and bass Clive Bayley.
The brightest spots in the birthday ode were the spirited celebratory introduction, entrusted to Cornwell and acquitted nobly; the stirring responsive duet "Sound the trumpet," proffered with flair by Wallace and del Pozo; and "Strike the viol," the Chilean-born del Pozo’s dulcet solo.
Highlights of the ode to music’s patron saint were the florid "Hark! Hark! Each Tree its silence breaks" with the contrasting agile instruments, in striking synchronization, of Wallace and Bayley; the peaceful "’Tis Nature’s Voice" and more vigorous "And lofty Viol," illuminated by del Pozo’s bright, limpid high tenor, with its skillful voix mixte; the airy "Thou tun’dst this World below," estimably dispatched by Elliott; the quietly exultant "In vain the Am’rous Flute," mellifluously limned by del Pozo and Cornwell; and the coloratura martial aria "The Fife and all the Harmony of War," ringingly delivered by Cornwell. The full choral complement’s moment of greatest glory was "Hail! Bright Cecilia, Hail to thee!" the jubilant climax.
Played as encores were the Grand Passacaglia, "How happy the lover," and joyous drinking song, "I call, I call, you all to Arthur’s hall," from King Arthur, the latter boasting del Pozo’s florid solo, and "To the hills and the vales," the final chorus of Act One of Dido and Aeneas."
Classical Music Reviews • Bruce-Michael Gelbert • February 1998
The admirable solo quintet was made up of soprano Rachel Elliott, countertenor Stephen Wallace, tenors Rodrigo del Pozo and Joseph Cornwell, and bass Clive Bayley.
The brightest spots in the birthday ode were the spirited celebratory introduction, entrusted to Cornwell and acquitted nobly; the stirring responsive duet "Sound the trumpet," proffered with flair by Wallace and del Pozo; and "Strike the viol," the Chilean-born del Pozo’s dulcet solo.
Highlights of the ode to music’s patron saint were the florid "Hark! Hark! Each Tree its silence breaks" with the contrasting agile instruments, in striking synchronization, of Wallace and Bayley; the peaceful "’Tis Nature’s Voice" and more vigorous "And lofty Viol," illuminated by del Pozo’s bright, limpid high tenor, with its skillful voix mixte; the airy "Thou tun’dst this World below," estimably dispatched by Elliott; the quietly exultant "In vain the Am’rous Flute," mellifluously limned by del Pozo and Cornwell; and the coloratura martial aria "The Fife and all the Harmony of War," ringingly delivered by Cornwell. The full choral complement’s moment of greatest glory was "Hail! Bright Cecilia, Hail to thee!" the jubilant climax.
Played as encores were the Grand Passacaglia, "How happy the lover," and joyous drinking song, "I call, I call, you all to Arthur’s hall," from King Arthur, the latter boasting del Pozo’s florid solo, and "To the hills and the vales," the final chorus of Act One of Dido and Aeneas."
Classical Music Reviews • Bruce-Michael Gelbert • February 1998
JEAN-JOSEPH CASSANÉA DE MONDOVILLE - GRANDS MOTETS
Ensemble Baroque de Limoges
Direction: Christophe Coin
"The soloists on this recording sing beautifully, with a lightness of style and tasteful amount of vibrato that could hardly be bettered. Because the liner notes do not list which soprano sings where, I cannot give full credit where credit is due. Rodrigo del Pozo is a major asset, with a crystal-clear, vibrant instrument that is the perfect embodiment of the classic haute-contre voice. Christoph Coin leads his excellent choir and orchestra with an appropriate lightness of touch and understanding for the somewhat desultory nature of the music, and the ensemble is presented in transparent, spacious sonics."
Continuo Magazine • February 1998
Continuo Magazine • February 1998
"...general agitation in the virtuoso "Forty years I was grieved" (a spectacular performance by a real haute-contre, Rodrigo del Pozo)...
Of the soloists, the bass is allotted an impressive sound picture at "In the sun hath he set a tabernacle", and del Pozo again distinguishes himself"
Gramophone • Dicember 1997
Of the soloists, the bass is allotted an impressive sound picture at "In the sun hath he set a tabernacle", and del Pozo again distinguishes himself"
Gramophone • Dicember 1997
HENRY PURCELL - MUSICK'S HAND MAID
The Harp Consort
Direction: Andrew Lawrence-King
"Four singers, five pluckers (lute, guitar, theorbo, cittern and bandora) and two bass viols directed by Andrew Lawrence-King playing harps, harpsichord or organ. The pieces are grouped in suites, by key. There is a solo song in each group, without exception beautifully sung, but none more so than 'Music for a while' performed by the high tenor Rodrigo del Pozo."
Early Music Reviews • 1997
Early Music Reviews • 1997