Packaged Pyrotechnics

By Christopher Porterfield

PERFORMERS: KATHLEEN BATTLE and WYNTON MARSALIS

ALBUM: BAROQUE DUET

LABEL: SONY

THE BOTTOM LINE: A potent pairing, but the brilliance may be too much of a good thing.

To borrow a term from Hollywood, Kathleen Battle's recent albums have been very high-concept. Their glossy appeal can be pitched in fewer than 10 words: Kathleen Battle and ((another famous musician)) perform ((mainstream repertory)). Thus last year Battle teamed up with soprano Jessye Norman in a program of spirituals on Deutsche Grammophon that is still going strong as a crossover best seller. In January Battle released an all-Bach album with + violinist Itzhak Perlman, also on DG; it remains near the top of the classical charts. Now, in the new pairing with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, she has another best seller.

Is there anything wrong with this? Not exactly. Battle is our reigning lyric coloratura soprano, and Marsalis, a prodigy who continues to grow as both a classical musician and a jazzman, makes a worthy collaborator. It is hard not to be dazzled and delighted by the pyrotechnics they provide in these predominantly bright, florid selections from Handel, Scarlatti, Bach and others. Yet the album, like its predecessors, seems an event built as much on personality and packaging as on musical impulses. And the limitations of its formula are exposed by the nature of most soprano-trumpet duets: the nonstop bravura finally becomes a bit wearisome (the Bach album with Perlman comes off better in this respect).

Singers' careers are short. Battle is welcome to capitalize on her superstardom, and more power to her. But for her next recording it may be time for another approach: no marquee casting, and a choice of repertoire that would more fully challenge and stretch her marvelous gifts. Now there's a concept.