Andreas Scholl: O Solitude – review

Andreas Scholl's foray into Purcell at London's Barbican last year with fellow counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky was disappointing, causing some to question whether he should be singing this music in the first place. Hearing his Purcell album, O Solitude, one's doubts recede a bit. He's in better voice here, with that famously otherworldly tone often breathtakingly in evidence. The programme, places the emphasis firmly on the quintessential Scholl mix of spirituality and wackiness, rather than on the erotic and suggestive, where he has never been entirely comfortable. His decision to tackle Dido's lament has generated controversy: in fact, his performance is extraordinarily haunting, and it's the disc's other exercise in gender-bending, Fairest Isle, from King Arthur, that sounds too masculine and chaste. Christophe Dumaux joins him for a couple of duets: O Dive Custos is arguably the disc's high point. The Academia Bizantina, meanwhile, are on fine form for Stefano Montanari, though there's also far too much orchestral padding. A couple more duets for Scholl and Dumaux would have been preferable.