Inferno E Paradiso

Simone Kermes has a special rapport with baroque music. Small wonder, then, that her latest album, "Inferno e Paradiso", abounds in arias by baroque composers that have long numbered among her absolute favourites, including George Frideric Handel, Johann Adolph Hasse and Antonio Caldara. This time the programme hinges on the 7 Deadly Sins and the 7 Christian Virtues, and Kermes has once again opened up entirely new avenues to baroque song through special arrangements. The pop and rock items in her selection, by Lady Gaga ("Poker Face"), Udo Jürgens ("Aber bitte mit Sahne"), Sting ("Fields of Gold") and Led Zeppelin ("Stairway to Heaven"), have all been transformed into baroque hits by the Finnish composer-arranger Jarkko Riihimäki. Or, as Kermes herself puts it, "Many an 'aria' by Sting or Led Zeppelin sounds as baroque as if it had lain beneath a layer of dust on a London bookshelf since the 17th century." Like the 10 original baroque arias in her selection, she has recorded these songs for Sony Classical with her period ensemble Amici Veneziani. In the case of Hasse's "Non ha più pace" the recording is even a world première.