There are various objections one might raise to this release by soprano Sonya Yoncheva, beginning with the concept. The album was recorded in Switzerland in the summer of 2020, during a lull in the coronavirus pandemic, and the "rebirth" of the title is said to refer to a hoped-for recovery from that disaster. Yet, although Yoncheva indicates that her intention was to make an album of Baroque music, many of the pieces would be more easily categorized as coming from the Renaissance ("rebirth") era. The program might also be ...
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There are various objections one might raise to this release by soprano Sonya Yoncheva, beginning with the concept. The album was recorded in Switzerland in the summer of 2020, during a lull in the coronavirus pandemic, and the "rebirth" of the title is said to refer to a hoped-for recovery from that disaster. Yet, although Yoncheva indicates that her intention was to make an album of Baroque music, many of the pieces would be more easily categorized as coming from the Renaissance ("rebirth") era. The program might also be seen as the rebirth of a dream for Yoncheva; if we are to believe her account, she had always wanted to make an album of early music, and indeed, she did often perform Baroque music early in her career. The program ventures beyond Baroque and Renaissance pieces into the folk music of Yoncheva's native Bulgaria, and it covers the music of Spain and England (with heavily accented English) as well as Italy (truth to tell, she has a bit of an accent in Italian as well). The English...
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