-
Deutsche Grammophon5
freezing
Emily D’Angelo, mezzo-soprano; Sophia Muñoz, piano; Bruno Helstroffer, electric guitar; Jonas Niederstadt, synthesizer & bass guitar
Deutsche Grammophon, 2024
The album freezing is Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo’s second release for Deutsche Grammophon, following on the success of 2021’s enargeia. That album explored a wide range of composers spanning Hildegard von Bingen through Missy Mazzoli, in tracks one would still categorize as classical. In freezing, D’Angelo pushes the envelope of what we conventionally expect from a contemporary, trained opera singer. She explores old folk songs, newer works that sound folksy and truly old pieces where the mezzo’s expression of text is in a folk, storytelling vein.
I can think of no higher praise for this album than to compare it with For the Stars, Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter’s 2001 collaboration with Elvis Costello. Both singers are masters of bending a still-recognizable classical vocal technique to deliver pop or folk repertoire in the most natural way. When she needs to, D’Angelo can still pull out a floated high note as she does in Walter MacNutt’s “Take Me to a Green Isle” but, for the most part, pares down her vocalism to suit the disc’s straightforward—but by no means simplistic—texts and melodies.
Crucial to their communication are the song arrangements, variously for piano, electric guitar, synthesizer and bass guitar. A pre-release interview rightly points out how well the purity of the electric guitar complements D’Angelo’s clean, direct tone. Bruno Helstroffer started out as a guitarist before taking up the theorbo, which explains why his electric accompaniment of D’Angelo in John Dowland’s Renaissance gem “In Darkness Let Me Dwell” sounds so natural.
The disc’s title song by Philip Glass to Suzanne Vega’s text was originally recorded by Linda Ronstadt, who gets a nod from D’Angelo in the interview: “Maybe I shouldn’t touch it because it’s Linda Ronstadt!”. But reframed as it is here with a different instrumentation for piano, electric guitar and bass, the Canadian mezzo stamps it with her own personality.
D’Angelo’s eclectic programming includes newer works by two Canadian composers. Indie/country artist and operatic tenor “Adrian Ira” Kramer’s “Quietly Waiting” is a haunting tune with a Chris Isaak vibe. Cecilia Livingstone is represented by “Snow” and “Silver,” each betraying an intriguing kinship with the Renaissance music on the disc.
DG has chosen to release this as a digital-only download without any accompanying texts or background essays. A shame, given the carefully chosen tracklist. Nevertheless, highly recommended to listeners craving a creative, modern take on the song recital.
