Granados: Tonadillas: No. 3, La maja dolorosa

“It looks like a standard song recital, yet it's played on the viola. …the opening excerpt from Falla's Seven Popular Songs… turns up later in its usual context to hypnotic effect: slower than would be singable, and so contemplative that it sounds like Arvo Pärt. The sense of concentration, with minute inflections of line and timbre in which the pianist is caught up too, continues into the ensuing Granados set.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 *****

“The performances deceive the ear into thinking these idiomatic arrangements are instrumental originals.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2007

“…extrovert in manner, DiDonato relishes the richness of her voice and spins some gorgeous, purely vocal moments in Falla's Seven Popular Spanish Songs. She is aided by deliciously playful accompaniment from Julius Drake.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2007

“Is there anything that Joyce DiDonato can't do?” The Times

“The two Respighi songs are magical performances – Stornellatrice, with the golden voice at its richest and E se un giorno tornasse, a study in subtle shading of tone, a dialogue between a mother and her dying, jilted daughter. For those two brief items alone, superbly transferred, this collection is an essential for all admirers of this singer, but there's much more. Handel's 'O had I Jubal's lyre' in German rather than English may be odd, but the performance sparkles and among the Lieder it's good to have not just 'Der Nussbaum' – the Schumann song which was always special to her – but two previously unpublished, 'Widmung' from the Myrthe songs and 'Ich grolle nicht' from Dichterliebe.
Through the whole collection the superb transfers capture the full–throated glory of los Angeles's voice at the beginning of her career.
The 1942 recordings of two Hungarian folk– songs, previously unpublished, may be rough and limited – made when the singer was only 18 – but they amply demonstrate that already the voice was fully developed in its beauty. No fewer than 18 of the 27 items are of Spanish songs, and though in one or two instances los Angeles was destined to make even more idiomatic readings later with a Spanish accompanist, these ones with Gerald Moore as her partner have a freshness and brilliance that has rarely been matched in this repertory. In particular it's good to have her first recording of the encore number which she made her own, Clavelitos.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010