Baroque Journey (2007)

performed by Axel Eberat (tenor), Sumi Jo (soprano), Royal Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra
composed by Antonio Vivaldi, George Frederick Handel, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Henry Purcell, Johann Sebastian Bach

It has been awhile since CD consumers have heard from the great Korean coloratura soprano Sumi Jo, who has been out of the record market but maintaining a busy concert schedule, particularly in Asia and Europe. Baroque Journey is Jo's full-length foray into Baroque repertoire, although some of her previous albums have contained material culled from the Baroque, particularly La Promessa (1998), The Christmas Album (1999), and Prayers (2000), so she is hardly a stranger to the medium of the Baroque aria. Partnered by the ... Read More

It has been awhile since CD consumers have heard from the great Korean coloratura soprano Sumi Jo, who has been out of the record market but maintaining a busy concert schedule, particularly in Asia and Europe. Baroque Journey is Jo's full-length foray into Baroque repertoire, although some of her previous albums have contained material culled from the Baroque, particularly La Promessa (1998), The Christmas Album (1999), and Prayers (2000), so she is hardly a stranger to the medium of the Baroque aria. Partnered by the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra under Henk Rubingh, though accompanied only by anonymous lutenist on Purcell's Music for a while, these recordings were made in late 2005 in Hilversum, but are only making their way out in late 2007. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since Prayers; Jo's old label, Erato, has disappeared from view and Atlantic Classics, which used to administer it, is gone, too, reorganized as Warner Classics & Jazz. In a way, Jo is lucky that the successor firm is... Read Less