Performance Preview: Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg

Anne Sofie von Otter. Photo / Supplied

Back in 1985, a cold Chicago evening was immeasurably warmed for me by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart under Georg Solti. A young Anne Sofie von Otter delivered the Laudamus Te from the great C minor Mass with what I described to my readers (at the Listener) back then as "unaffected freshness and an astonishing security of tone and technique".

Now von Otter is cherished over the world for a CD catalogue that zig-zags over four centuries of music, from Monteverdi and Bach to her 2004 ABBAdventure, Let the music speak.

Talking with the Swedish mezzo on the eve of her first New Zealand visit, she now seems guarded about that project, despite dipping back into the ABBA songbook for Australian audiences last week.

"I'd set out with high hopes, but it wasn't easy to take those songs and do them in another way," she sighs. "The original songs are much better than my disc."

The programme for her Wednesday concert chamber recital intrigues. Alongside Schubert and Liszt Lieder is Scandinavian fare from Nielsen, Sibelius and her countryman Stenhammar because "even two minutes of a Swedish song can create a special atmosphere".

Pianist Bengt Forsberg is a soul brother. When they met 10 years ago, they "hit it off immediately. It was just fun and exciting," she says.

This man "with a huge library in his head" introduced her to Korngold, Chaminade and Percy Grainger, whose songs also feature on Wednesday's playlist. But their relationship goes deeper than mere repertoire.

"In my early days, I was shy and inexperienced and just wanted to go and hide," she says. "Bengt encouraged me with his confidence."

von Otter is especially thrilled to be singing a selection from Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne, with piano accompaniment.

"They're so colourful," von Otter says.

"And with orchestra they sound like slightly old-fashioned film music. I have suggested them to orchestras but many conductors are a little highbrow and just want to do Mahler. They were so popular in the 60s and 70s when they were sung by Anna Moffo and Kiri Te Kanawa, but somehow they fell out of favour in the 80s and 90s."

She is pleased that Auckland cinemas screened the recent Berlin Philharmonic concert in which she sang Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde under Claudio Abbado.

"It was very, very moving," she says. "Abbado's not young and he's been sick. I felt he really knew what that piece was about. It wasn't a soft performance but there wasn't a lot of muscle power; it was more transparent than any other time I've done it."

I can sense her smiling when I mention the handsome Jonas Kaufmann beside her in the Berlin Philharmonie.

"It was very nice to share the stage with him and he did very well. He's exceptional."

Art Channel subscribers were also given her recent Verbier Festival performance of the Canteloube songs, with Marc Minkowski.

The conductor joins her on her latest CD, revisiting Berlioz's Les Nuit d'Ete, which she first recorded back in the 90s.

"Marc loves Les Nuits d'Ete and I've grown to like these songs more and more," she says.

"I found them difficult, not only technically, but to understand them and get my head round them. This time, Marc has an orchestra of original period instruments and brings such a wonderful insight into Berlioz's mind."

On Wednesday, with Bengt Forsberg, she admits there will be none of the "marvellous luxury of a wonderful orchestra around me. I'm on my own. I'm the only one facing the audience.

"The pianist is looking at his music and facing sideways. It's a big challenge. If you put together a good programme and you're in good voice and get the audience's attention, this is a very satisfying thing."

Performance

Who: Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg

Where and when: Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, Wednesday at 7.30pm