When I saw the theme for October, my mind went to all the usual powerhouse mezzos I love listening to – Rachvelishvili, Bumbry, Borodina, Obraztsova. And then I remembered how much I love Cecilia Bartoli who was a major star when I first got into opera in my teens and remains so today. This Schubert scena captures her in splendid form, the voice rich and beautiful and still benefitting from all its youthful facility. She really does make a mini opera out of it, deploying so many colors from simpering sweetness to anger to absolute fear and desperation.

Her dramatic performance is matched by the incisive musicianship of Andras Schiff and together, the two of them create something really quite amazing, steadily building the tension and the drama to a terrifying climax. I’ve never heard an actual soprano sing this but I feel like it actually benefits from the fact that the tessitura is on the high side for a mezzo.