Laudate! (cd april 2016)

In het afsluitende allegro “Amen” demonstreert de Nederlandse sopraan al haar virtuositeit. Bij Johannette Zomer is emotie en esthetiek gegarandeerd.”

*****Opera Nederland, mei 2016

“An all-Vivaldi programme built around the extended C minor setting of Psalm 113, Laudate pueri, certainly provides her with ample scope to demonstrate her undoubted excellence as a singer of this repertory, full, as it is, of brisk, virtuosic runs (which she executes with hugely impressive agility and clarity of articulation), demandingly high tessitura (which she manages with precision and wonderfully clear focus), quasi-dramatic recitatives (which she delivers with a great deal of poise) and long-breathed arioso lines (which she caresses with consummate care, notably in the serene Largo movement of the motet O qui coeli terraeque serenitas). But there is much more to it than merely a vehicle to display a voice singularly well-equipped to perform Baroque music.

She integrates with the instruments in a way which is rare indeed and makes for some utterly captivating performances; not least the enchanting duet with mandolin (Michiel Niessen) in the delicate aria “Transit aetas” from Vivaldi’s only surviving oratorio, Juditha triumphans. May we hear a lot more of Zomer and her Tulipa Consort in the years ahead.”

Marc Rochester, Music-web international, recording of the month (July 2016)

“Johannette Zomer dringt door tot het wezen van deze muziek en daardoor weet ze te ontroeren, het hart diep te raken. Zingen is ook overtuigen, met de techniek als de dienstwillige dienaar die dit alles mogelijk maakt. Een formidabele cd.”

Opus Klassiek, Aart van der Wal, april 2016