Musicians in Wellington

Last weekend I was captivated by two very different musicians. 

Simon O'Neill, the New Zealand tenor was one. He is one of those rare tenors who can sing Wagner repertoire. Since I heard him in 2014 his voice has deepened. It is now a rich and resonant treat. He sang the Wesendonck Lieder and his German diction was flawless. Congratulations Simon, it was a wonderful concert.

The NZSO, with whom he sang, played Bruckner's 4th Symphony after the interval. It is a long and demanding work but they played wonderfully well. . Bruckner is not my favorite composer, mainly because it is difficult to tune your digital player to play the alternating very loud and very soft music that characterises his work - if you adjust to hear the quiet parts the rest blasts you out of the room. In a concert hall however it is a different story and I loved the orchestra blasting out their forte parts - the audience vibrated with the music as the strings and horns threw themselves into the music. They must have needed masseurs the next day.

The other musician I saw on Sunday was very different. He was sitting at a painted piano on the Wellington (NZ) waterfront.  He played the way my self-taught father used to, with the left hand strumming time to the right. I found myself humming his tune all evening.


Addendum 23 June: Today I read that shortly before the Wellington concert, Simon recorded a lullaby in German and Te Reo Maori with the NZSO as a gift for the new baby of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. (More about the recording here.)

Schubert's Trout: Australia Piano Quartet and Guests

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin has a voice I would like to tune into every evening. On Saturday, accompanied by the Australia Piano Quartet, he sang Strauss' Morgen (swoon) at the Sydney Opera House Utzon room, then several works by Schubert including Die Forelle (The Trout). Muhamed Mehmedbasic joined the APQ to play the Trout Quintet (Piano Quintet in A major) after the interval.

Muhamed Mehmedbasic (double bass) plays with the APQ

I had been tired after a busy and stressful week but I knew this concert would sooth and revive, and I was right. I could have sat there happily for another three hours listening to this group and this tenor. Thank you APQ, Andrew Goodwin and Muhamed Mehmedbasic.

Watching Jonas Kaufmann sing

For those Australians who saw Jonas Kaufmann last week and need another little fix, try the link below.
The thing I found most fascinating about his live performance was being able to see (or perhaps feel) how he adjusts his body in preparation for singing. It is as if he adjusts the strings of his internal cello, holds it all in place, inhabits the role, then breaths - and suddenly the air carries vibrations of such beauty you feel like weeping.

Quite extraordinary ... and perhaps ones own body mimics his, because it makes you feel as if you are part of the performance in some odd way.

Jonas Kaufmann in Sydney

Jonas Kaufmann is billed as the world's hottest tenor and he seems to have been smoldering at me from all my Internet feeds recently -  obviously the internet bots know my viewing preferences. I saw the man sing in the flesh last night and the reality is even better than the promos.

His voice is rich, velvety, extraordinarily flexible and fills even difficult spaces like the Sydney Opera House concert hall. The man is a consummate artist, much nicer than the posed photos.

Sydney Opera House flowers

There were almost audible gasps as Kaufmann started singing ('Recondita armonia' from Tosca) and after this first song my seat neighbour turned to me and said "Well even that one song was worth the (considerable) price of the ticket."

As Kaufmann sang I noticed a tenor sitting in front of me mouthing the words with an ecstatic look on his face. He obviously knew just how much  hard work and dedication goes into delivering such a result. I had met this tenor earlier in the year and he told me he had bought an opera subscription just so he could get a good seat to hear Kaufmann sing. I am sure he was not the only one. 

Kaufmann inhabits each role he sings (he was singing arias from French and Italian operas and his characters inevitably die tragic deaths) but he was also refreshingly joyous as well.  Violinist and concert master Laura Hamilton played us a lovely 'Meditiation' from Jules Massenet's Thaïs and on his way to the stage afterwards Kaufmann plucked a rose from the huge vase to the side of the stage and presented it to her. [The displays of white flowers along stage front and in two big vases were so opulent I thought they must be fake ... but no, they were real.]

The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra was conducted by fellow German Jochen Rieder and I think this was the master stroke.  Rieder feels the songs just as Kaufmann does; he knows his singer and it showed.

Kaufmann sang three encores to a wildly clapping and stomping crowd at the opera house last night, two of them German popular songs.  I would love to hear him singing Wagner.  I might just have to follow him to wherever he sings Siegmund or German Lieder.

Addendum: excellent ABC interview with Jonas Kaufmann here .

Kaufmann talks Lohengrin

A fascinating interview with tenor Jonas Kaufmann about Lohengrin and about 'new' productions of 'old' operas. You can see why Kaufmann's performances are so memorable - he not only has a lovely voice he thinks abut what he is singing.

Siegmund's cheek

When I left home late in August I left my large painting Siegmund (portrait of the wonderful New Zealand tenor Simon O'Neill) sitting on my easel so that when I came back in October it would be the first thing I saw and I could decide if I liked it.

Siegmund's cheek

Now I'm back and I like the painting so much I have hung it on the studio wall. What is it that I find so appealing? Perhaps the painterly quality and colour balance?

Studio wall

You can see a close up of the painting at artsmitten though unfortunately it doesn't look nearly as good in the photograph as it does in real life.

Bryan Hymel

I just discovered the tenor Bryan Hymel through the mostly opera blog.  A voice like honey ... have a listen: