For Davidsen’s latest recital disc (with Mark Elder and the LPO), we are back in the sonic empyrean that Decca appears to believe is most flattering to her voice. “Spacious” is the positive adjective we can attach to it; “diffused” is the less flattering—more than the Fidelio, this is the recording, made in two separate locations in August and October of 2020, we would suppose had suffered from pandemic requirements. The best of it is the Wesendonck-Lieder, which (again setting aside Supersoprano expectations) is in the main compellingly sung. There are things to demur over, e. g., the soprano falling into the trap of whacking all the strong syllables at the opening of Stehe still! (“SAU-sendes, BRAU-sendes RAD der ZEIT“), then falling away on the weaker ones, rather than holding a steady, connected position against the orchestra’s pulse, or resorting to straight tone on the rising line of “Dass in selig süssem Vergessen” in the same song. But for the most part, the sheer loveliness of timbre and the allowance of a somewhat deeper set to the voice, as well as Davidsen’s obvious connection to the style and mood of these settings, make for satisfying listening—Im Treibhaus and Träume, especially, capture the essence of poem and music. This cycle is also where Elder and his forces are at their best, and the breadth of the sound is heard to greatest advantage.

Elsewhere, things are less happy. There’s another “Abscheulicher!,” still benefitting from lots of effective top, but slacker toward the bottom and less committed-sounding than the one on the complete set, and then there’s a series of Italian-language pieces, ranging from Beethoven and Cherubini to Verdi and Mascagni, in which the lack of chest register, of an ability to etch the pronuncia into the notes, or to fashion a continuous, vibrated line, along with Davidsen’s habits of pecking at notes or straightening them, is in sum very costly. Of course there are passages where the quality and reach of the voice tell, but they cannot compensate for these deficits. Parts of the “Pace, pace mio Dio” are almost amateurish, and worst of all is the detached stab at Santuzza’s “Voi lo sapete.” Think Lina Bruna-Rasa; then think the opposite. Elder and his orchestra are clueless here, too—the players of the LPO sound utterly buffaloed upon meeting up with this obscure stuff called “Verismo.” Davidsen has much work to do if she’s to take on Italian repertoire of any era.

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NEXT TIME: I will be hosting a guest column by Will Crutchfield on the subject of the dearth of good new operas, and some of the reasons therefore. It’s a piece he had progressed well into a few years back, then decided to withdraw but has now completed, and it packs the most sharp analysis and original insight into the most concise form of anything I’ve seen on this fundamental topic. That will be posted on Friday, December 17.

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