This recording presents a Mozartian showcase for the extraordinary talents of Carolyn Sampson, and is also something of a rarity, the repertoire all dating the composers time in Salzburg. Two Regina caeli settings (for soprano, chorus and big orchestra), written whilst Mozart was still only in his mid-teens, are extremely finebut not so often heard and even less often recorded. This is superb music: triumphant outer movements and heartfelt, more introspective inner sections which find Mozart at his most ardent. Exsultate, iubilate has, of course, been performed and recorded widely, but usually in the Milan version; here we record the rarely heard Salzburg version, which has a different orchestration (delicate flutes instead of oboes giving a very different colour) and different words. It ends, of course, with the wildly famous, virtuosic Alleluia. These three works make substantial pillars for the disc. But there is much more! A series of shorter jewels, including three of the greatest movements for solo soprano taken from larger sacred works: the hugely famous Laudate Dominum from the Vesperae solennes de Confessore (which could be by Verdi, with its amazing soft chorus entry part of the way through), the utterly ravishing Agnus Dei from the Coronation Mass, and a cheerful and less often heard Laudate Dominum from the Vesperae solennes de Domenica with a cheery organ solo duetting with the voice. Finally we have a very rarely heard duet, Sub tuum praesidium, where, thanks to the wonders of technology, Carolyn duets with herselfsurely no two sopranos have ever duetted more perfectly, and it is a glorious piece of writing. Reviewing the concert prior to the recording sessions for this disc, Geoffrey Norris wrote in The Daily Telegraph that The Kings Consort and Robert King displayed an unerring understanding of Mozarts sublime thrills and that Carolyn Sampson produced pure streams of coloratura.
