Joseph Newsome names Jamie Barton’s new All Who Wander the “Best Vocal Recital Disc of 2016”!
“With her début solo recital disc All Who Wander, this insightfully-conceived, expertly-engineered, and lovingly-presented Delos release, Barton crushes any doubts about her rôle as one of today’s vocal superheroes. If the flame flickers, deprived of the life-giving oxygen of great singing, her voice is the flint needed to rekindle the musical conflagration.… Barton has in recent seasons assumed a place among the sparsely-populated ranks of young singers who are fulfilling the promises of their early potential.… In her journey on All Who Wander, she is accompanied by a like-minded fellow traveler, pianist Brian Zeger, a collaborative artist whose own musical curiosity has led him to a level of esteem among his peers that is rightly reserved for the best among them. … The exceptional nature of the interpretive synchronicity that he contributes to the disc is indicated by the fact that one might think that Barton is playing the piano—a robust-toned Steinway concert grand—herself. Zeger’s sensitivity to the most minute details of Barton’s interpretations of these songs contributes indelibly to the impression that…she has lived with this material for many years. Greatly blessed is the singer who enjoys such an organic connection with her pianist in the setting of her first recording of art songs. Equally blessed is the listener who has the privilege of hearing the products of that connection.… There are aspects of Jamie Barton’s artistry that recall a number of singers of the past: the burnished sound of her lower register recalls Ernestine Schumann-Heink and Clara Butt, her determination recalls Kathleen Ferrier, her dramatic instincts recall Irene Kramarich, and her range and stylistic versatility recall Giulietta Simionato. Whether following the paths of Ferrier in music by Mahler or Simionato in rôles like Giovanna Seymour in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, she is nonetheless emphatically her own artist. All Who Wander is a testament to Barton’s artistic individuality—and, equally importantly, to the depths of her talent. …what a gift we have been given in Jamie Barton.” —Joseph Newsome, Voix des Arts
