Alfred Deller: Oh Ravishing Delight (Harmonia Mundi)
Alfred Deller was a countertenor before it was fashionable (or even acceptable in polite society) to be one, a visionary who revived a musical tradition which had lapsed for two centuries, and passed it to a new generation. Without him, today's superstar trio of Asawa, Daniels and Scholl might not be flying high in the opera charts, and this collection of English renaissance airs shows off his extraordinary voice at its most ethereal. A voice which, as the sleeve note puts it: "seemed to belong to a world of weightlessness, giving the impression of belonging to another universe . . . " Another word for it, of course, is just plain weird: and between that and the rather precious pleasures of Dowland, Campion, John Blow and Co, this CD, with its minimalist, spaced-out flavour, is definitely one for the countertenor connoisseur.
Arminta Wallace