Having reviewed the very first concert of soprano Nicole Car’s national tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, I was interested to see whether my previous feelings would match up with my responses to it on CD. I wrote then that Car “shows herself to be an accomplished, detailed recitalist”, but expressed some reservations about her ability to fully inhabit the more dramatic arias in recital. Beethoven’s Ah! perfido was one such example – a tumultuous scena requiring a capital T tragedian with ferocity of attack and top-notch coloratura, I didn’t quite feel this was either in Car’s dramatic or technical compass at the time.

My feelings about her dramatic reading haven’t drastically changed,...