| |
 |
| |
| Recordings |
| |
|
| |
| Monteverdi Scherzi musicali (HMC901855) |
| |
| SUNDAY TIMES CLASSICAL CD OF THE WEEK |
| "I shall be surprised if this one doesn’t feature in my Christmas list." |
| Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times – 24 July 2005 |
| |
| "delightful" |
| Kate Bolton, BBC Music Magazine – July 2005 |
| |
| "Maria Cristina Kiehr's cool, androgynous tones are most impressive in the simplicity of Si dolce e'l tormento and the Lettera Amorosa. The instrumental solos are superb." |
| Anna Picard, The Independent on Sunday – 3 July 2005 |
| |
| "The dulcet tones of Maria Cristina Kiehr combine beautifully with the potent bass-baritone of Stephan MacLeod in these charmingly refined works, under the expert baton of Jean-Marc Aymes." |
| Anthony Holden, The Observer – 10 July 2005 |
| |
| "this is a delightful disc that no Monteverdian should miss." |
| Andrew O’Connor, International Record Review – July/August 2005 |
| |
| "one of the most uplifting releases of the summer so far." |
| Simon Heighes, CD Review, BBC Radio 3 – 16 July 2005 |
| |
| "Maria Cristina Kiehr's crisply enunciated singing perfectly captures every shade of feeling from agony to amorous ecstasy and sparkling high spirits, and brings out all this music's expressive subtleties." |
| Elizabeth Roche, The Daily Telegraph – 23 July 2005 |
| |
| "Kiehr makes wonderfully expressive use of shading to bleach her voice of all colour at one moment and make it seductively honeyed the next, and is supported with sparky instrumental playing by the members of Concerto Soave." |
| Andrew Clements, The Guardian – 5 August 2005 |
| |
| "Gorgeous singing from María Cristina Kiehr captures the sensuous pleasures of Monteverdi’s exquisite miniatures. Highly recommended." |
| Andrew Stewart, Classic FM Magazine – September 2005 |
| |
| D’India Madrigali e Canzonette – Harmonia Mundi – HMC 901774 – 2003 |
| |
| "María Cristina Kiehr, accompanied by a colourfully varied range of continuo instruments, is clearly inspired by the musical invention here. Her voice is deceptive, at once cuttingly clean, yet subtly responsive to every emotional nuance. Concerto Soave adds five brief instrumental interludes, creating a disc which I revelled in at a single sitting." |
BBC Music Magazine – March 2003
Performance ***** Sound **** |
| |
| "All the pieces in this first-class selection from his five books of solo songs are of the highest quality......Maria Cristina Kiehr rises superbly to all its technical and expressive challenges, from bitter vituperation and wild despair to the chill of approaching death." |
| The Daily Telegraph – 1 March 2003 |
| |
| "Interspersed with instrumental pieces by D'India's contemporaries, Trabaci, Mayone and De Macque, this selection, made by the soprano Maria Cristina Kiehr, shows the musical variety and expressive range of the composer's work. Whether in strophic arias, simple canzonettas or elaborate madrigals, Kiehr's singing is effortlessly lush and nicely emotionally understated." |
| The Guardian – 7 February 2003 |
| |
| "With the Concerto Soave under Jean-Marc Aymes, the Argentinian-born soprano Maria Cristina Kiehr proves herself a true mistress of the genre." |
| The Observer – 2 March 2003 |
| |
| "An arresting recital" |
| The Independent on Sunday – 9 March 2003 |
| |
| Scarlatti Cantatas - Harmonia Mundi - HMC 901725 - 2002 |
| |
| "Kiehr projects the affecting tale of Daliso and Eurilla with all the expressive sensitivity we have come to expect. But the unearthly beauty of that extraordinary voice makes its mark right from the start of Bella Madre, with an exquisitely dolorous melisma on 'il pianto'. The opening Sinfonia, too, with its ravishingly squeezed suspended dissonances, betokens supremely stylish and sympathetic playing from Concerto Soave." |
BBC Music Magazine - March 2002
Performance***** Sound***** |
| |
| "Maria Cristina Kiehr does full justice to this beautiful music, responding with apparent effortlessness to its considerable technical and interpretative demands." |
| The Daily Telegraph – 9 February 2002 |
| |
| "The three cantatas recorded here are all first-class representatives of the genre to which Scarlatti contributed hundreds of examples….Kiehr, her soprano seductively coloured with an underlying fruitiness, relishes as much as the half-dozen members of Concerto Soave the elegantly expressive intensity of each work, and controls every nuance immaculately." |
| The Sunday Times – 20 January 2002 |
| |
| "Kiehr’s recitatives are persuasive throughout, her arias deliciously languid." |
| The Independent – 20 January 2002 |
| |
| Canta La Madalena - Harmonia Mundi - HMC 901698 - 2000 |
| |
| "A ravishing collection of early seventeenth century Roman lamenti. Kiehr's thematic focus shifts from the Virgin Mary to Mary Magdelene at the foot of the cross to often spellbinding effect. Emotionally direct, vivaciously monodic and anticipating the elegant rature of bel canto, the lamenti invite singing that is focused and expressive and Kiehr more tha delivers." |
Classic CD - July 2000
Performance***** Sound***** |
| |
| "Her voice is androgynous yet voluptuous, here and there echoing mannerisms of her teacher Rene Jacobs. Above all, Kiehr imbues this music with a sense of spiritual rapture, combining naivity with sensuality to suggest the character of the Magdelene Concerto Soave provides some inspired continuo realizations… harder to imagine how this music could be realised more beautifully." |
| BBC Music Magazine - July 2000 |
| |
| Monteverdi Pianto Della Madonna - Harmonia Mundi - 1999 - HMC 901680 |
| |
| "She has an arrestingly lovely voice, with shining purity of tone, exemplary steadiness (her ability to sustain a note is literally breathtaking) and a manner that is sincere and infectiously joyful..." |
| BBC Music Magazine - August 1999 |
| |
| "Yet Kiehr is no drama queen prone to crawling over Monteverdi’s more demonstrative outpourings: she exudes a contemplative sensuality in Salve, O Regina utterly befitting this masterpiece of Venetian Marian devotion, and generally she gravitates towards simmering nobility and a contained fervour, as in the fetching Currite populi, which is shaded significantly by her dark Latin vowels....The bona fide Vesper pieces are largely an unalloyed pleasure with Kiehr in glorious full flight in the ‘Confitebor’ of the Messa a quattro. Here, and in the ecstatic Exulta, she demonstrates an elevated rhythmic control and sustained tonal focus, agreeably if uncharismatically supported by Concerto Soave. In sum, a recital of considerable quality." |
| Gramophone - August 1999 |
