Carolyn Sampson; Robert King: The King's Consort - Mozart: Exsultate jubilate! & other works

This recording presents a Mozartian showcase for the extraordinary talents of Carolyn Sampson, and is also something of a rarity, the repertoire all dating the composer�s time in Salzburg. Two Regina caeli settings (for soprano, chorus and big orchestra), written whilst Mozart was still only in his mid-teens, are extremely fine�but not so often heard and even less often recorded. This is superb music: triumphant outer movements and heartfelt, more introspective inner sections which find Mozart at his most ardent.Exsultate, iubilate has, of course, been performed and recorded widely, but usually in the �Milan� version; here we record the rarely heard �Salzburg� version, which has a different orchestration (delicate flutes instead of oboes giving a very different colour) and different words. It ends, of course, with the wildly famous, virtuosic �Alleluia�.These three works make substantial pillars for the disc. But there is much more! A series of shorter jewels, including three of the greatest movements for solo soprano taken from larger sacred works: the hugely famous �Laudate Dominum� from the Vesperae solennes de Confessore (which could be by Verdi, with its amazing soft chorus entry part of the way through), the utterly ravishing �Agnus Dei� from the �Coronation� Mass, and a cheerful and less often heard �Laudate Dominum� from the Vesperae solennes de Domenica with a cheery organ solo duetting with the voice.Finally we have a very rarely heard duet, Sub tuum praesidium, where, thanks to the wonders of technology, Carolyn duets with herself�surely no two sopranos have ever duetted more perfectly, and it is a glorious piece of writing.Reviewing the concert prior to the recording sessions for this disc, Geoffrey Norris wrote in The Daily Telegraph that The King�s Consort and Robert King displayed �an unerring understanding of Mozart�s sublime thrills� and that �Carolyn Sampson produced pure streams of coloratura�.