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Only an Ocean Away (Single)

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Reviewed by Gramophone - 1997:
Bodil Arnesen is a young lyric soprano with just the right freshness for these open-air songs (as so many of them are) of spring and hope. She is entirely firm, has a healthy glow on the upper notes, shows a nice feeling for nuance, and knows how to make the voice smile…
The choice of songs is fine, so too the programming, in which the sequence (not chronological) is sensible and satisfying. For a proper conspectus of Grieg’s songs it is necessary to have the Haugtussa cycle… It is compensation, however, in the charming Bjornson settings (Op. 21), the two songs of Solveig, and others such as The Princess and “With a primrose” which are among the best of all. Erling R. Eriksen accompanies sympathetically, the balance of voice and piano is well judged and the booklet provides useful and attractive companionship.
Reviewed by Recordings Direct - 1997:
The creamy and exquisite voice of Bodil Arnesen...being absolutely ideal for these works. And even Grieg himself may have modified his statement that "the only genuine interpreter of my songs is my wife”, if he had the opportunity of hearing Arnesen.
Reviewed by Amazon.com Contributors:
A Dream (Top Rated - 5 of 5 Stars), November 2006
To me, Grieg's music is very special. He uses so much color in his music like a great painter. Listening to his music makes me see the beautiful fjords and the mysterious mid-summer night of Norway. It also gives me a taste of the lives and emotions of the people lived there. His songs are treasures of art song literature. He is definitely the greatest composer Norway has ever offered.
This is my first CD of Bodil Arnesen (Soprano) and I just love her voice! It is clear, soft, colorful, warm and with a bit of melancholy. She sang with deep emotion and very good technique. I think her voice and the way she sings suit very well to Grieg's songs. On the piano is Erling R. Eriksen, who beautifully created the atmosphere of each song. I liked the interpretation very much and also the collection of songs. The CD has been very useful for me to understand… Grieg's songs. I really recommend Grieg music lovers to get this CD. - Nachtigall, Germany.
Beautiful voice, Delightful music (Top Rated - 5 of 5 stars) July 2000
I bought this CD based on good reviews I'd seen elsewhere on the Internet. These little songs are delightful, and the piano accompaniment is clean and lively. The real treat here, of course, is Bodil Arnesen's voice - strong and gutsy on track No.7 (Tak for ditt Rad), soaring on track No.10 (Solveigs Sang), and joyous on No.22 (I liden hojt deroppe). Naxos has included a huge set of liner notes with all the texts in Norwegian and English. That's a nice touch. 70 minutes of beautiful singing, and at a bargain price. Another winner for Naxos, and I hope to hear more from Bodil Arnesen in the future. - Vic Spicer, Canada

Reviewed by BBC Music Magazine - 1998:
Twenty-eight of Christian Sinding’s fine songs - late-Romantic with an occasional folksong flavour- are offered here… including settings in German as well as his native Norwegian. The pure-toned soprano Bodil Arnesen is affecting and sometimes radiant… - Keith Potter
Reviewed by Amazon.com Contributors:
Danish, Norwegian and German songs (4 of 5 Stars), October 2000
This is a fine recital and anything less than three stars would be churlish. The fact that Naxos, as earlier in Arnesen's Grieg recital, have provided original texts in Danish, Norwegian, New-Norwegian or German (as well as translations in English), at a super-budget price, earns the fourth star... The only reason it doesn't get five stars is the presence of the Deutsche Grammophon (DG) Grieg recital by Otter in the catalogues. However price is a factor, and given the choice between 1 CD of Grieg from DG, and 2 CD’s of Grieg and Sinding from Naxos, a lot of people will have no hesitation in going for the two Naxos discs. - "A Customer"

Reviewed by Gramophone - 1996:
This is a collection of chips from the great man’s workbench, some of them thin shavings but none of them without some interest. Perhaps the weirdest assemblage is the incidental music for a drama called Leonore Prohaska, a play about a girl who dresses up as a man and sets off heroically - but do not be misled by comparisons with any other Beethoven Leonores: this one appears to have been a Sweet Polly Oliver who fought and died as a soldier in the Wars of Liberation. Censorship silenced the play, but not before Beethoven had composed four numbers for it. There is a vigorous “Warriors’ Chorus”, quite a pretty “Romance” for soprano and harp (nicely sung here), and a melodrama for the maddening combination of reciter and glass harmonica (an instrument once believed to be literally maddening).

Reviewed by Classical.Net - 1995:
These "two" (more truly describable as one, since the second follows the first in meaning and style) cantatas have always been something of a Beethoven by-way. They are very early works (Beethoven was only 20 when he wrote them) and not particularly well conceived as a whole, being too slow for too long at the beginning.
However, both cantatas are full of interesting anticipations of later developments. Beethoven was accused at the time of having used every weapon in his instrumental armoury; it's true that it was not until over ten years later that he was to use such sounds in his music again. It is also interesting to note that though these cantatas are capable of a "death and resurrection" gloss, they are essentially almost pagan paeans to an anti-Catholic god of the Enlightenment, and as such another anticipation of Beethoven's later thoughts.

These rarities need persuasive performing, and they certainly get it here. Karl Rickenbacher creates a suitably solemn tone (until the expected brighter days of Leopold II), but with ample care for telling orchestral details, and the soloists and choir do the music proud.

Reviewed by BBC Music Magazine - 1998:
This curious little hybrid fleshes out the bones of a Singspiel left unfinished by Strauss at his death in 1949. It was commissioned in 1947 from the 82-year-old composer by the headmaster of his grandson’s Benedictine school as ‘an outline of your musical world... an initiation to your greater works’. Strauss’s sketches were duly completed by the school’s music director, Karl Haussner, and first performed there in 1964. For this premiere recording, Peter Ustinov links the musical numbers with his own droll account of Wieland’s satirical tale of a legal squabble about whether anyone paying for a donkey ride is also entitled to its shadow without further payment.

There are intimations of Straussian joie de vivre in the overture and 14 little numbers, especially in the judge’s waltz-time oration, but Rickenbacher’s orchestra sounds uncomfortably larger than the chamber ensemble envisaged by Haussner. Delightfully sung by an excellent adult cast, you’re left wondering how the work could ever be performed by children. Full marks for notes reproducing Strauss’s correspondence with the school and his two librettists.

Reviewed by Aftenposten (Norwegian newspaper) - 1994
Bodil Arnesen does not only open a treasury-chest, but the way she does it is so convincing that one could offer her a respectful bow. She combines words and music with a rare naturalness. Her voice is smooth and without any pressure. Her pronunciation too is first class...

Discography:

	Songs from the Heart January 19, 2011 1 Oh What a Beautiful Morning 2 You'll Never Walk Alone 3 Climb Every Mountain 4 You Raise Me Up		La Boheme : Si ,mi Chiamano Mimi - Single Released: Dec 19, 2010 ℗ 2011 Voice Music

	Julens Beste - The Best of Christmas Valens Solistensamble, The Valen Soloist Ensamble,Norway Bodil Arnesen,soprano Sverre Valen ,conductor BD7037		Det er Jul Bodil Arnesen Produsent Ragnar Bjerkreim Lynor 0118

	Fader Vår, mine beste salmer Bodil Arnesen Kammersymphonie Berlin Dirigent Jürgen Bruns Lynor 0306		SINDING: Songs (1998) Naxos Classical - Catalogue No: 8.553905 Total Playing Time: 00:56:12 - 28 Tracks. All compositions by Christian Sinding. Soprano Bodil Arnesen, with Erling Ragnar Eriksen on Piano.

	GRIEG: Songs (1997) Naxos Classical - Catalogue No: 8.553781 Total Playing Time: 01:10:10 - 28 Tracks. All compositions by Edvard Grieg. Soprano Bodil Arnesen, with Erling Ragnar Eriksen on Piano.		GRIEG: The Very Best Of (2006) Compilation CD - Various Artists Naxos Classical - Catalogue No: 8.552123-24 Total Playing Time: 02:16:41 (Double Album) Track 04 + 13 CD-1 and Track 02 + 13 CD-2 by: Soprano Bodil Arnesen, with Erling Ragnar Eriksen on piano.

	Con Sentimento (2006) Soprano Bodil Arnesen together with Gisle Krogseth on guitar Recorded in Herdla Curch, Askøy (Norway) April and June 2006. Vest-Norsk Plateseskap - Dag Fluge (VNPCD200668		Music Together (2004) Compilation CD - Various Artists Naxos Classical - Catalogue No: 8.557363DX Total Playing Time: 56:10min - 18 Tracks. Track 10: Sinding, Song of a Little Sunshine, Op.85 No.6 by: Soprano Bodil Arnesen, with Erling Ragnar Eriksen on Piano.

	Voices in Harmony (2004) Compilation Album (4 CDs Box Set) - Various Artists Label/Publisher: Compact Disc Club (Greece) 4 CDs Box Set Collection of 69 Tracks Track 13 on CD 2: GRIEG: Solveig's Song (Peer Gynt, Op.23 excerpts) by: Soprano Bodil Arnesen, with Erling Ragnar Eriksen on Piano		Visions - 4 Works (2003) Ragnar Bjerkreim with Various Artists MTG Music (Norway) - Catalogue No: TR2 Music by Ragnar Bjerkreim, Lyrics on Track 02; Alfred Hauge Total Playing time: 48:30min. (4 Tracks) Bodil Arnesen contributes vocally on the second track; Track 02 Prayer for the Year 2000

	R. Strauss: Early Orchestral Works, Vol.2 (2000) Koch Schwann (Universal) - Amazon ASIN: B00004T2EW Soprano Bodil Arnesen performs on the track “Romeo and Juliet, Incidental Music, Op. 86 (TrV150, AV86)”. Other solo performers on this album: Karl-Heinz Steffens and Sebastian Hess. Total Playing Time: 65min. Bamberg Symphony Orchestra with Bamberg Symphony Chorus – Conducted by Karl Anton Rickenbacher		R. Strauss/Beethoven: The Ruins of Athen (2000) Two Strauss Beethoven adaptions; Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, The Creatures, Op.43 + Die Ruinen von Athen, Op.113. Koch Schwann - Catalogue No: 36536-2 Total Time: 60min Bodil Arnesen: Soprano, Yaron Windmüller: Baryton, Franz-Josef Selig: Bass. Bamberg Symphony Orchestra; Bamberg Symphony Chorus – Conducted by Karl Anton Rickenbacher

	G. F. Händel: Messiah (1999) Classico: ClassCD 300-1 Bodil Arnesen: Soprano, Ulla Kudsk Jensen: Alto, Michael Kristensen: Tenor, Hans Lawaetz: Bass. Recorded in London, England. Conductor: Morten Topp - with Academic Choral Society, Copenhagen.		R. Strauss: Der Bürger als Edelmann (1999) Koch Schwann - Catalogue No: 3-6537-2 Peter Ustinov: Narrator, Bodil Arnesen: Soprano, Christa Mayer: Mezzosopran, Florian Cerny: Bariton. Conductor: Karl anton Richenbacher Munchener Kammerorchester and Via-nova-Choir.

	WEYSE: Christmas & Easter Cantatas (1998) Da Capo - Catalogue No: 8.224049 Double Album (51:42min.) - All compositions by C.E.F. Weyse Bodil Arnesen: Soprano, Dorthe E. Larsen: Soprano, Kirsten Dolberg: Alto (Mezzo Soprano), Peter Grönlund: Tenor, Stephen Milling: Bass Conductor: Michael Schonwandt With the Tivoly Concert Choir and the Tivoly Symphony Orchestra		R. Strauss: The Donkey`s Shadow (1997) Koch Schwann - Catalogue No: 365482 Peter Ustinov: Narrator, Bodil Arnesen: Soprano, Mette Ejsing: Alto, Eberhardd Büchner: Tenor, Clemens Bieber: Tenor, Jochen Schmeckenbecher: Bariton, Oscar Hillebrand: Bariton, Andreas Kohn: Bass, Ralf Lukas: Bass. Conductor: Karl Anton Rickenbacher Rundfunk - Symphony Orchestra Berlin and Rundfunk - Choir Berlin.

	Beethoven: Works for Chorus and Orchestra (1995) Koch Schwann - Catalogue No: 314852 Bodil Arnesen: Soprano, Helga Lehner: Narrator, Renate Erxleben: Harpe, Konstantin Restle Glass: Harmonica Conductor: Karl Anton Rickenbacher Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra and Rundfunk Choir, Berlin.		Beethoven: Emperor Cantatas (1995) Koch Schwann - Catalogue No: 3-1435-2 h1 Bodil Arnesen: Soprano, Markus Scäfer: Tenor, Alan Titus: Bass Conductor: Karl Anton Rickenbacher Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra and Rundfunk Choir, Berlin.

	Missa Caritatis (1995) R. Bjerkreim with Various Norwegian Artists Lynor Records (Norway) Catalogue No: LYNORCD9501 10 Tracks - Total playing time: 53:53min All Songs composed by Ragnar Bjerkreim Bodil Arnesen contributes with vocals on two of the tracks; Track 05 Hymne til kjaerleiken + Track 09 Velsigning (Til Benedicte)		ALNÆS: Songs (1994) Simax Classics - Catalogue No: PSC1110 28 Tracks – All compositions by Eyvind Alnæs. Soprano Bodil Arnesen, with Erling Ragnar Eriksen on Piano.

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