ALBUM REVIEW

Natalya Romaniw: Arion review — seduced and awed by this flowing, dark-toned voice

Also reviewed: Thomas Adès: Janacek
Natalya Romaniw’s new album is full of Slavic soul
Natalya Romaniw’s new album is full of Slavic soul

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Natalya Romaniw
Arion
★★★★☆

Thomas Adès
Janacek
★★★★☆

Reviewing a Guildhall School showcase ten years ago, I described Natalya Romaniw’s student voice as “robust”. As audiences at Britain’s opera houses are now fully aware, the vocal resources of this Swansea-born soprano of Ukrainian heritage have only increased in muscle. Lustre too.

Seconds into the first Rimsky-Korsakov song of her debut recording, you’re in her grip — seduced, awed, maybe even frightened by this voluptuously flowing, dark-toned voice, an ideal vessel for a recital called Arion: Voyage of a Slavic Soul. The excellent pianist, a perfect comrade-in-arms, is Lada Valesova.

Dedicated to the memory of Romaniw’s Ukrainian grandfather Dido, the album, perhaps inevitably with Slavic voyages, emphasises life’s sorrows rather than joys. It takes until