Swedish mezzo-soprano
Anne Sofie von Otter first reached an international audience as part of the cast of
Georg Solti's recordings of
Bach's St. Matthew Passion and B minor Mass in the early '90s. Since then, however,
von Otter has stayed away from
Bach, preferring to explore a wide range of more recent repertoire from
Mozart through
Brahms to
Weill and beyond. Thus, when she did return to
Bach with this 2009 Deutsche Grammophon disc of arias and duets, it was inevitable that someone would say she was going back to
Bach.