UNEXPECTED SHADOWS
with composer & pianist Jake Heggie and cellist Matt Haimovitz
““An album of rich, raw immediacy...Barton, versatile and big-hearted, catching any shred of wit or sorrow, responds to the music’s every need, each syllable crystal clear.””
““Jamie Barton and Jake Heggie blaze forth...Unexpected Shadows makes the best possible case for the necessity and relevance of modern American classical song.”
”
“Recording of the Month ★★★★★ “ With Heggie and Barton, expect the unexpected. In the opening minute of her new album, sung entirely a capella, prize-winning mezzo Jamie Barton displays all her remarkable expressive and vocal skills. An exceptional talent...with lithe athleticism, creamy tone and an ability to raise your neck hairs...””
““An excellent new recording... “Unexpected Shadows,” featuring Jamie Barton performing songs by Jake Heggie, demonstrates why Barton has become one of the opera world’s essential artists. Accompanied by Heggie on piano, with contributions from cellist Matt Haimovitz, Barton’s rich-toned voice gives full expression to these songs...””
““Jamie Barton has gone from strength to strength in the last few years... and now, an exquisite new album of Jake Heggie songs. Unexpected Shadows is a superlative artistic achievement. It is so rare to hear an entire album of vocal music by a living composer, and rarer still to hear it performed by a singer of Barton’s caliber.
Barton gives this music her all, showcasing a formidable breadth of expressivity, perfectly suited to this repertoire. Vacillating between bluesy croon and silvery vocalise, Barton maintains a rich, opulent tone throughout, navigating even the most extreme changes in dramatic tone with flair and poise.
Every phrase is elegantly spun, every color delicately balanced and stylishly rendered. Even when shrieking “you sick, self-centered son of bitch!” on the album’s final track, Barton upholds a sense of sophistication and polish. To be able to sing with so much raw emotion and still maintain this degree of musicality is an impressive feat.
All in all, this is an outstanding recording. It may even be the best queer classical collaboration of the decade. If not, it’s certainly the must-have album of the year.””
““Instead of Unexpected Shadows, the album should be titled Unexpected Lights, because this new album really illuminates and surprises. Barton is a remarkable young Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano who dazzles with this tailored recital where she displays her extensive battery of resources. Just listen to Barton’s a cappella voice singing Music - from the Breaking Waves cycle that begins the album - to be mesmerized by the intrinsic beauty of her instrument and her wise handling of it. A true tour-de-force… Barton uses her velvet voice to charm and also amuse like a magician at the right time. She is an unleashed diva who does everything to convince, and convinces. An excellent display of Jake Heggie art by one of today’s best singers.””
““A captivating album in which every song is a gem. Jamie Barton is always expressive and together with Heggie she forms an outstanding partnership. An entertaining and pleasing disc.”
”
“Choral & Song Choice of the Month ★★★★★ “A dazzling rendition: Jamie Barton is on blazingly brilliant form. Barton has won admiration for her operatic roles as well as her advocacy for diversity within classical music (famously flying the Pride flag at the 2019 Last Night of the Proms). In her latest recording, Barton shows that she is also a dab hand at contemporary repertoire and artistry on a more intimate scale. Throughout this recital, Barton and Heggie move seamlessly from the dramatic to the droll, the mezzo-soprano’s tone clear as a bell.””
““A recording of American music that lifts the spirits and simultaneously celebrates exceptional women. “Unexpected Shadows” finds Barton at her best, bursting with her plush sound, vibrant characterizations, and luscious phrasing. Barton captures your attention with her ability to convey the music with both powerful emotion as well as plaintive restraint… a glorious interpretation. Barton is a marvel, whether purring like a cat or offering a snarling, sassy rebuke to a gawking museum patron in her persona as a headless statue.””
““Barton’s solo album is devoted to Heggie’s art songs and it’s a tribute to his output that he sustains the interest for over an hour with a variety that stands comparison with, say, Poulenc in the 20th century, lavishing sumptuous tone on the cycle written for Barton, The Work at Hand. Other works benefit from Barton’s relish of bluesy and cabaret-like idioms, and witty declamation of Gene Scheer’s sly words...””
“Shortlisted for Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2021 * Best New Classical Albums * Editor’s Choice
“Jamie Barton’s all-embracing talent – her powerful presence, her spectacular vocal equipment - has a whole lot of Heggie to get hold of here. But there’s a whole lot of motivation, too. When I speak of drama and humour. there’s no underestimating what a stage animal such as Barton can bring to a setting like ‘Winged Victory: We’re Through’. It’s an appetiser for Barton, of course, but she gives us the whole meal.”
”
“This disc is especially welcome because of the presence of star mezzo Jamie Barton. The collaboration between composer/accompanist and singer has obviously benefitted from a mutually sincere artistic connection. The auditory evidence for this is strewn throughout this recital in each song on the program.
Throughout the CD Barton employs her rich and gloriously velvet-textured tone with restraint and taste only to switch to delicious abandonment such as the concluding song where she sings with such gleeful relish as to make this one track alone worth the price of the entire CD. One of my choices for Recording of the Year.”
““Barton’s pristine diction relates the story. Her voice is both uplifting and ruminative, a powerful embodiment of the composer’s conception of music as transformative, healing, and humanizing. Barton’s interpretation is highly evocative – with her skillful changes in voice and character, we don’t need much more to get a vivid image of the song. She sings with so much conviction and excitement that it’s impossible not to be drawn in… Warmly recommended.””
“★★★★★ “A hugely enjoyable selection from mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton [who] is sensationally good at depicting proud female figures. American song is powering ahead. Leading the pack at the moment is Jake Heggie... [in] this hugely enjoyable selection from mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton with Heggie himself as accompanist. They have put together a brilliantly varied programme, including three song cycles on the theme of women. It is part of the DNA of American composers that they inherit the whole history of song in the US, embracing everything from musical theatre to jazz. Barton is sensationally good at that, as she is depicting a proud line-up of American First Ladies, including Eleanor Roosevelt and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in Iconic Legacies: First Ladies at the Smithsonian. This disc is surely in line to win awards itself.””
““Barton makes a dazzling debut on the Pentatone label with this all-Jake Heggie recital, accompanied by the composer. It’s clear from this collection that she loves singing Heggie’s music, in all its unbridled melodiousness, and that the composer continues to find fresh things to say within a predominantly conservative tonal language. The combination of joy and desperation is gripping…[and] Barton does some luscious crooning… A wide-ranging and thoroughly enjoyable collection.””
“Records To Live For 2021 “Even before his opera Dead Man Walking (2000), composer Jake Heggie was blessed to work with some of the finest artists of our time, such as Susan Graham, Jennifer Larmore, and Frederica von Stade. But no one has possessed the outsized personality, total embrace of life, and vocal heft of the remarkable Jamie Barton. Barton and Heggie (with support from Matt Haimovitz) transport you to a land of contemplation, tears, and side-splitting hilarity. This recital is a knockout.””