(Note: Only available in the UK)
Arne Artaxerxes
…the more brilliant tone of Elizabeth Watts combines with her more vivid treatment of the words (try her first aria Fly, soft ideas) and the more forward recorded sound to make a stronger impression…Watts’s triumphant upper notes, while the ruthless virtuousity of her Monster away! carries all before it.
John Steane, Gramophone, April 2011
More praise for Handel Radamisto
More critical praise for Elizabeth:
HANDEL Radamisto, The English Concert, Harry Bicket, Barbican Hall, London
Elizabeth Watts outshone them both with her outstandingly communicative Tigrane, singing with bright conviction and conveying every emotional twist and turn with vivid clarity…showed how the repetitions in Handel’s arias can be made to feel dramatically essential.
Hugo Shirley, The Telegraph, 11 February, 2013
…the audience loved her for her gleaming singing as much as for her levity.
Erica Jeal, The Guardian, 11 February, 2013
With David Daniels, Luca Pisaroni and Elizabeth Watts in leading roles, it’s hard to imagine a better cast for Handel’s drama.
Rupert Christiansen,The Telegraph, 9 February, 2013
Elizabeth Watts, Publicity shot
Brahms Requiem
Brahms German Requiem
“This… was big, slow and overwhelming. The choral singing was wonderfully intense, and soloists Elizabeth Watts and Stéphane Degout were both outstanding. The long silence at its close, which no one dared to fracture with applause, was testament to its impact. ”
– Tim Ashley, The Guardian
Critical acclaim for Elizabeth’s release of Bach Cantatas
“a performance which mixes sumptuousness and refinement with impeccable poise and style… Watts is as authoritative and compelling a Bach soprano as you will find anywhere today… A most rewarding and satisfying disc in which an excellent band of players under a superb director are crowned by a voice of real magic.”
Marc Rochester, International Record Review, February 2011
and for Artaxerxes too…
“The Soldier tir’d… is resplendently delivered by Elizabeth Watts.”
George Hall, BBC Music Magazine
Elizabeth wins Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award
Elizabeth has won a prestigious 2011 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. The Trust aims to help outstanding young musicians develop and sustain international careers with awards that fund tailor-made projects.
Two new recordings
Elizabeth’s next two recordings will be released in January: a disc of Bach Cantatas and Arias with The English Concert on 31st January and a studio recording of her acclaimed performance of Mandane in Arne’s Artaxerxes on 24th January. Get pre-ordering!!!
Elizabeth will be performing Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater
Elizabeth will be performing Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at the Royal Albert Hall on September 2nd. The concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 at 10pm and will be available for 7 days after on the BBC iPlayer.
Evening Standard review for Bach concert
Another rave review for Elizabeth, this time from Barry Millington in The Evening Standard for her concert of Bach at the Spitalfields Festival:
Things really caught fire with Jauchzet, however. Watts is a terrific communicator, her demeanour as engaging as her vocalism. Constantly varying both her tone and expression, she and Bennett threw off the semiquaver runs and top Cs with dazzling aplomb.
To cap it all, they offered as an encore Handel’s Eternal Source of Light Divine, in which soprano and trumpet unfolded lines of ravishing beauty, immaculately controlled.
The concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 1st July at 7pm