“The ink is still wet on Rachel Portman’s The First Morning of the World and DiDonato lightens her sound considerably to match the sweeping strings of the song. In the first of Mahler’s Rückert Lieder that she offers, DiDonato blanches her tone to apostrophise the simple beauty of the scent of linden. And for Copland’s I, Nature, the gentlest mother, she sings with purity in such a high tessitura that one would be forgiven for guessing her to be a soprano as she flutes against the intertwined woodwind. Likewise, ‘As with rosy steps the morn’ from Handel’s Theodora, where she provides a hushed reverence of line and decorates the second verse with a sense of purpose, cleverly maintaining the simplicity of the aria.”
05 Apr 2022
