This CD is filled with beauty, but the program is so odd that at least one or two cuts are sure to confuse at least some segment of the listening population. Some of it is classical devotional music: Mozart’s Laudate Dominum from K. 339, sung with crystalline purity if a bit of detachment; Ravel’s Kaddish, more penetratingly intoned; Caccini’s Ave Maria, which is so kitschy and beautiful that it sounds holy just lying around; the Pie Jesu from the Fauré Requiem; and a bit from Gounod’s Messe Solonelle. But then there’s Maria Stuarda’s final scene and Pamira’s prayer from Rossini’s L’assedio di Corinto, which simply are lovely opera arias in which the characters are caught at prayer; and then there are bits from Johann Strauss II’s Casanova, Leonard Bernstein’s 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and Gigi, not to mention songs by Schubert and Strauss. And then there’s a simply ravishing “Amazing Grace”, sung a cappella, and a very brave “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child”, in which the singer sounds like a truly sincere Joan Baez. What to do with this? If you love Sumi, you’ll love it; but as either a devotional album or classical album, it’s all over the place.
