vfreyer's Full Review: Voice of an Angel by Charlotte Church
Charlotte Church recorded "Voice of an Angel," her first album, in 1998 when she was twelve years old. Her exceptional accomplishment is as much a testament to her intelligence and personality as it is to her natural singing ability.
Her agent at the time was Jonathan Shalit, whom she let go early in 2000. (He later filed suit against her for four million pounds claiming that he was unfairly sacked by her mother.) Despite Shalit's utterly disastrous 1994 compilation, "Glory of Gershwin," on which artists such as Sting and Elvis Costello sang Gershwin favorites, he managed to work the star-making machinery perfectly and propelled this talented young Welsh soprano into the international limelight.
The Music
The album opens with Miss Church's signature piece, the Pie Jesu movement from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requeim. Pie Jesu is an exquisitely beautiful and simple musical offering in which the two-phrase theme is repeated three times. The musical interest comes from the performer's ability to introduce subtle nuance that makes each iteration unique and special. Despite the beautiful tonal quality of her voice, Miss Church's rendition, with its clipped phrasing, unconventional diction, and uniform intensity, sadly fails to satisfy.
Panis Angelicus, a movement from a Messe solennelle by Belgian-born composer Cesar Franck, is presented in a lush setting for solo soprano, men's chorus, harp, and orchestra by Julian Smith. Miss Church's approach to the work has an openhearted sincerity that makes one feel ungracious for daring to listen critically. That notwithstanding, compared to more mature performances her phrasing is disconnected, with one phrase seemingly unrelated to the next. Her light soprano voice only once approaches the redeeming passion of the text.
Jarringly (philosophically, not musically) placed between Panus Angelicus and The Lord's Prayer is the movement In Trutina from German composer Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. In a soaring melody, the soprano considers the merits of modesty versus pleasures of the flesh. (The translation in the album conveniently overlooks the Latin word lascivus, making the text appear rather more innocuous than it is.) Here the innocence of Miss Church's voice makes this track the most poignant two minutes on the entire CD.
On The Lord's Prayer Miss Church gets off to a tentative start with some minor intonation problems that only settle down around the twelfth bar. It's in the closing phrase, when she's really projecting, that her voice has the fullness to portray the strong convictions of the piece. When she's good, she's really, really good.
(If I keep writing at this rate this review will be so long that nobody will read it! I'll just hit the high and low points on the rest of the album.)
I Vow to Thee, My Country - Miss Church's diction was not very crisp on this one. Without knowing the tune I wouldn't have understood a word.
Danny Boy - Where Panis Angelicus may have been over-scored, David Seaman's orchestral reduction of Danny Boy so drastically changed the character of the accompaniment that Miss Church often seemed unsupported.
My Lagen Love - Captivating! Miss Church seems comfortably in her element on this traditional Irish air. The sweet longing that she conveys made my heart melt. I could listen to this all day.
The album closes with When at Night I Go to Sleep from Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck. The transparency of Miss Church's voice made this perennial favorite absolutely luminous.
Overall
Charlotte Church has a beautiful voice that conveys the same guilelessness as the voice of a boy soprano. Unfortunately, on this recording she does not as yet display the range of tonal color and expressiveness needed to make a collection of songs such as this consistently interesting.
Sometimes I sound like such a pompous jerk. This girl has a very pretty voice and thanks to her age she has developed a following among teens who might never have otherwise heard any classical music. I wish her the greatest success and I look forward to buying her albums in another ten years when she will be absolutely stunning.
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