The Complete Recordings 1933-47, Vol. 1

COMPOSERS: Bach,Buxtehude,Dowland,Handel,Mozart,Tchaikovsky
LABELS: Danacord
PERFORMER: Aksel Schiøtz
CATALOGUE NO: DACOCD 451 ADD mono

Testament’s anthology features a priceless gem in Schubert’s ‘Vor meiner Wiege’, a haunting meditation on motherly love. Equally adorable is the first volume of Danacord’s ‘The Complete Recordings of Aksel Schiøtz’, which includes bench-mark recordings of Messiah’s ‘Comfort Ye’ and ‘Every valley’ in a programme that also offers us Bach, Buxtehude, Dowland, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. There’s a novel ‘extra’, too, where Schiøtz tries out a couple of arias from Handel’s Solomon and Acis and Galatea. This ‘first release’ was recorded during a 1945 rehearsal and although less than perfect (the voice occasionally stretches beyond its natural limits) gives us an invaluable insight into how a seraphic tenor limbered up.