Viva! Simone Kermes sings Vivaldi

"On the level of sheer vocal beauty and virtuosity, this is a staggering disc. Throughout, the gorgeous Kermes voice glints like the finest gold picked out by a shaft of sunlight, unfailingly on the note, and negotiating every run and ornament incorporated in Vivaldi’s virtuoso writing with a consummate ease that at first takes the breath away, but then comes to seem almost routine. It isn’t routine, of course, and commands the utmost admiration and respect. Slow movements, all taken very slowly indeed, are spun on the richest of threads, with much use of a floated mezza voce (one of the principal weapons in the Kermes armory) that time after time ravishes the ear. --Fanfare, 7/2007

An object lesson in putting together a Baroque opera arias recital disc

"Exhilarating" and "dazzling" are only two of the words critic David Vickers uses to describe this smashing release. In a brilliantly put-together programme, Simone Kermes blazes a trail through more than a dozen Vivaldi arias. There are vocal fireworks aplenty, alongside a rapt concentration in the slower pieces. Essential listening. --Gramophone, 5/2008