After a great, trilled ''Freude'', the tone dies away and, bar by bar, the words sag into place for Mozart's pious An die Freude. Barbara Bonney is clearly less than happy here, and it is a pity that she chose a song in which she seems less than convinced with which to start her recital.
Things do get better. Her voice is sweet and circumscribed enough to match the scale of this selection of Mozart Lieder. She enjoys leaning lightly on the tranquil appoggiaturas of Ridente la calma, sighs in fresh sympathy with Das Veilchen, and brings a live, wide-eyed faux naivete to An Chloe and to the coy secrets of Der Verschweigung.
One would welcome a little more smile in the voice for Mozart's Zither song, and a greater darkening of tone for Sei du mein Trost, but Geoffrey Parsons makes good the expressive shortfall. Bonney herself wakes up for the mischievous tale of Der Zauberer and kindles a vocal flame or two to help Louise burn her faithless lover's letters. Her light soprano is agile and true enough for every hop, skip and jump of Das Kinderspiel, and both she and Parsons between them have the weight of Sehnsucht nach dem Fruhling, Mozart's late spring song.'