Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer: Regula Mühlemann
Orchestra: Kammerorchester Basel
Conductor: Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Sony
Size: 1 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Idomeneo, K. 366, Act III: Solitudini amiche.Zeffiretti lusinghieri (Ilia)
02. Le nozze die Figaro, K. 492, Act IV: Giunse alfin il momento… Deh vieni non tardar (Susanna)
03. Lucio Silla, K. 135, Act II: In un Istante… Parto, m’affretto (Giunia)
04. Il re pastore, K. 208, Act II: L’amerò, sarò costante (Aminta)
05. Die Zauberflöte, K. 620, Act II: Ach, ich fühl’s (Pamina)
06. Zaide, K. 344, Act I: Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben (Zaide)
07. Un moto di gioia mi sento, K. 579
08. La Finta semplice, K. 51: Amoretti (Rosina)
09. Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle, K. 538
Soprano Regula Mühlemann is releasing her second album of Mozart arias with the Basel Chamber Orchestra on the Sony Classical label on September 4, 2020. The Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann released her debut album on the Sony label in 2016, when she chose a selection of opera and concert arias by Mozart.
The response was overwhelmingly positive. One reviewer spoke of being “in a Mozartian heaven”, while BR-Klassik hailed the depth of the singer’s interpretative powers and the bell-like purity of her voice, which was said to retain its wonderful natural warmth even at the very top of its range: “This combination makes Regula Mühlemann an outstanding Mozartian” was the reviewer’s conclusion. Mozart Arias won the German Record Critics’ Prize.
Since then it is not just as a Mozartian that Regula Mühlemann has conquered the world’s opera houses and concert halls, she has also released two other albums on the Sony Classical label, both of them equally well received: Cleopatra and Lieder der Heimat. She has additionally appeared twice at the ZDF Advent Concert and as a prizewinner at the 2018 ZDF Opus Klassik Gala.
For her latest album – and adopting the motto “Never change a winning team!” – she returns to Mozart with the Basel Chamber Orchestra under the direction of conductor Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli. She has now chosen nine of her favourite arias, numbers as virtuosic as they are emotionally affecting and including arias from Die Zauberflöte, Il re pastore, Lucio Silla, Zaide, La finta semplice and Idomeneo as well as a concert aria Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle K538 and an insertion aria Un moto di gioia K579.
Regula Mühlemann admires Mozart’s deep understanding of the human soul, in addition to which his music is a challenge for every singer, as the soprano herself stresses: “Many people think that Mozart’s music is easy. But the more experience I have as a singer, the more convinced I am that his works are some of the most difficult that a singer ever has to deal with. Behind the ostensible simplicity, the honesty and the authenticity, there is absolutely no room for uncertainty or insecurity on either a technical or an interpretative level. Unless you invest 100% of your thoughts and feelings in Mozart, everyone notices this at once.”
On her latest album Regula Mühlemann is also heard as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. As she once admitted in an interview, this was not only her first Mozart opera, which she heard as a teenager in Zurich, it was also the opera that made her want to become a singer. “I was so moved and filled with such happiness, all I could think of was that I wanted to sing something as beautiful and that I absolutely had to do so.”
Regula Mühlemann was due to sing Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the 2020 Salzburg Festival, but this production has now been postponed to 2021, so that she is looking forward even more to her forthcoming performances in another Mozart opera at the Vienna State Opera, where she will sing the role of Blondchen in Hans Neuenfels’s eagerly awaited new production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail under the direction of Antonello Manacorda.