BBC Cardiff Singer of the World - Day One, 15/06/2015

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015
Concert One - 15th June 2015

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thomas Søndergård

Well, we enjoyed ourselves so much four years ago, we decided to give it another go!  So off we sped to Cardiff, for a week of talented young singers competing for one of the top international prizes available.

Jongmin Park (bass, 28, South Korea) : Nun scheint in vollem Glanze der Himmel (The Creation, Haydn), Lyubvi vsye vozrasti pokomi (Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky), Come dal ciel precipito (Macbeth, Verdi)

This was a decent quality, sonorous bass voice, and the Haydn seemed like a reasonable start, until it became evident that the orchestra was having rather more fun with its part than the soloist was.  The delicious raspberry from the contra-bassoon, representing the tread of the "heavy beasts" quite overshadowed Park.  In truth, the real first prize of this evening belonged to the National Orchestra of Wales and Thomas Søndergärd, for consistent excellence and genuinely inspirational playing.  Meanwhile, Park launched into Prince Gremin's aria from Eugene Onegin at a sepulchrally slow pace, and completely lost our attention in the process.  He did managed to regain it slightly with Banquo's aria from Macbeth, but not enough.

Ingeborg Gillebo (mezzo-soprano, 32, Norway) : Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle (Roméo et Juliette, Gounod), Smanie implacabili (Così fan tutte, Mozart), Wie du warst (Der Rosenkavalier, Richard Strauss), Flicken kom ifrån sin älsklings möte (Op. 37 No. 5, Sibelius)

This was a nicely chosen programme, however, again, Gillebo came across as a nice quality voice, but not a whole lot else.  Muddy French obscured Stéphane's teasing aria, "Smanie implacabili" completely failed to get to grips with Dorabella's histrionics, the Rosenkavalier extract was an odd idea, as it kind of peters out at the end, sounding rather uncertain, and it was only in the Sibelius that we got finally got some real feeling.

Sebastian Pilgrim (bass, 30, Germany) : Ella giammai m'amò! (Don Carlo, Verdi), Hier sitz ich zur Wacht, Götterdämmerung, Wagner), Wer ein Liebchen hat gefunden (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart), Mein Herr und Gott (Lohengrin, Wagner)

Philip II's great monologue from Don Carlo is always a bit of a challenge for a young singer, not just because it's demanding, but it requires a depth of emotion rarely available to performers at an early stage.  Pilgrim has sung it before on stage, however, and he delivered a very thoughtful, very introspective reading that was certainly not without interest.  However, he showed a tendency to throttle the held upper notes a little at the start, before allowing them to bloom, which was disconcerting.  As he launched into Hagen's Watch Song, though, we were listening to quite a different singer, and a clear, born-Wagnerian, with that strong grain in the voice to carry the sound through the orchestra, and a real sense that the voice had truly found its place.  The Mozart was suitably dead-pan and subterranean, while King Henry's prayer rang out nobly.  Only the fact that the programme was somewhat one-sided - and a demonstration of versatility is usually part of the requirements - mitigated the response to Pilgrim's performance.

Marina Pinchuk (mezzo-soprano, 32, Belarus) : Acerba voluttà (Adriana Lecouvreur, Cilea), Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix (Samson et Dalila, Saint-Saëns), Sily potajnye, sily velikie (Khovanshchina, Mussorgsky)

This was a more typical Eastern European mezzo, a smokier timbre than Gillebo's bright sound, and the repertory chosen accordingly. No adolescent parts here, but passionate and determined women.  Unfortunately, she wasn't entirely convincing in the first two parts of her selection.  Her Princesse de Bouillon was a little drowned out at times, while although her Dalila was better, I found her phrases tended to be cut slightly short, instead of carrying the line through.  On the other hand, Marfa's Prophecy, from Khovanshchina gave us a whole other perspective on this singer.  As I mentioned above, diversity is encouraged in the competitors, but it is always good that they sing at least one number in their native tongue.  For the space of a few minutes, they can forget about having to worry about exact pronunciation, about their comprehension of the text, that's coming naturally to them, and they can focus on the sound, and on the interpretation, which is exactly what happened with Pinchuk in this evocative, simmering number.

Oleksiy Palchykov (tenor, 29, Ukraine) : Dies Bildnis (Die Zauberflöte, Mozart), Unis dès la plus tendre enfance (Iphigénie en Tauride, Gluck), Il mio tesoro (Don Giovanni, Mozart), Kuda, kuda, kuda vi udalilis (Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky)

After all these low voices, Palchykov's tenor seemed like a promise of something brighter, and he delivered, in spades.  Given the nature of his voice, a tenore di grazia, Palchykov had chosen his programme carefully, exploiting a range of languages, but staying mostly within the Classical era repertory.  First came a stylish and simple "Dies Bildnis", then a particularly elegant Gluck aria, whose French could have been a little clearer, but which nevertheless sounded stylistically right on the mark.   Followed Don Ottavio's "Il mio tesoro", with its long runs and demands for faultless breath control, which Palchykov again delivered quite successfully, along with a degree of fire that Don Ottavio sorely needs but all too rarely gets.  Finally, Lensky's monologue from Eugene Onegin, reserved but moving, the voice opening right out at the climax before sinking back to a desolate murmur.  Everything was beautifully calculated, and rendered.

There were only two real options tonight, Pilgrim or Palchykov, and because of the variety of the programme, I was opting for the latter.  The jury took a fair bit of time to make up its mind, but eventually came to the same conclusion, to the evident delight of the public.

On a side note, the competition has gone back to its early days regarding the selection of candidates for the Final on Sunday.  Whereas, in previous years, the five Finalists could be selected across the board, regardless of who won the individual rounds, now the four round winners will automatically qualify for the Final, with a fifth wild card to be selected (by the jury) by the end of the week.  So Palchykov will be appearing on Sunday, and if he produces a programme as skilfully chosen and interpreted as tonight's one, and delivers the goods on the night, I would think he stands an excellent chance of carrying off the title.

[Next : 16th June]