#126 The Smell of Endless Return

No matter what: there's always a return. She can be exalted, she can be mad–she's always back. It's a painful, hurting way back. There's anger and wrath and fury, and they all subject to enigmatic love.

For von Otter, this is a one-off performance. Orchestra sound is suppressed, not important; everything is in the voice.

Composer: Kurt Weill
Work: Happy End, Surabaya-Johnny
Recording: Anne Sofie von Otter, NDR-Sinfonieorchester, John Eliot Gardiner

#104 The Smell of Dead Child

From the very first moment, here comes an irreversible tragedy of splendid power. The total passing of father and son, non-acceptance turned to non-existence. Primary narrative, sonorous, deafening.

Anne Sofie von Otter is magnificent in four different roles. She augments the predestination: The winner is known.

Composer: Franz Schubert, arr. Hector Berlioz
Work: Erlkönig
Recording: Anne Sofie von Otter, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Claudio Abbado

#94 The Smell of Fug

This is smell, literally. I smell fug, age, marasmus. It breathes with leather-bags: asthmatic, noisy panting. And in the same time, it goes high, very high. Or actually, it does not go: it's already there.

This recording is, above all, a recording by Monteverdi Choir. Utterly clear, pregnant sound, clean pronunciation. Together with unrivaled EBS, it's a masterpiece no one can match.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Work: Requiem, I. Introitus: Requiem
Recording: Barbara Bonney, Anne Sofie von Otter, Hans Peter Blochwitz, Willard White, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner

#89 The Smell of Curly Waves

From the whole album, this song fitted best my Amtrak way from Los Angeles to San Diego. Bright green grass with yellow flowers, small houses above cliffs, and indefinite calm ocean with irregular waves. I can smell the waves in the song, its rhytm is so floating, moving, and jumping–it's so curly.

Gefors is a Swedish composer living in Lund, the city I have a lot of memories of. Today, however, he and von Otter hit the mood of south California.

Composer: Hans Gefors
Work: Lydias sånger, V. Sfinxen
Recording: Anne Sofie von Otter, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Kent Nagano

#79 The Smell of Vaunt

The voice is fulfilled with the happiness, pride, and vaunt from the very beginning. It is saying: This is mine! That's all because of me! You don't need to understand the text to smell it.

Von Otter gives it a little twist, a pinch of irony. At the end, it's nur zu verkünden, isn't it.

Composer: Franz Schubert
Work: Geheimes, D.719
Recording: Anne Sofie von Otter, Bengt Forsberg