Cardiff Singer of the World 2015

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Some predictably negative stuff about the presentation, but at least each tv programme has been 90 minutes long with complete arias broadcast rather than little snippets. And we have Mary King as expert guest... and she really is an expert in talking about voices. The Beeb has also dispensed with the facile 'Frockwatch' feature!

And the singing? Some excellent performances - Round 3 was especially strong.

My thoughts on BBC Cardiff Singer and voice competitions in general: http://bachtrack.com/voice-competiti...nger-june-2015

[Nick Armstrong]

I don't know La Rondine at all. Is there really a written piano part as at the start of the aria this evening? Or was it filling in for something exotic and unaffordable??

Yes there is - it's part of the action. The scene, near the start, inhabits a very similar world to Richard Strauss's Capriccio: arty people, posh soirée, a poet giving his latest oeuvre, accompanying self at the pianoforte, you know the sort of thing...

The whole thing is the closest Puccini got to Strauss (actually there's a musical wink across the Alps at one point). It's one of the (very) few Italian operas I love!

Yes, there most certainly is! I think there is a very good RCA CD of it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rondine-Pucc...rds=la+rondine

This is the one I know. Pretty special:

[french frank]

Some predictably negative stuff about the presentation, but at least each tv programme has been 90 minutes long with complete arias broadcast rather than little snippets. And we have Mary King as expert guest... and she really is an expert in talking about voices. The Beeb has also dispensed with the facile 'Frockwatch' feature!

And the singing? Some excellent performances - Round 3 was especially strong.

My thoughts on BBC Cardiff Singer and voice competitions in general: http://bachtrack.com/voice-competiti...nger-june-2015

Interesting piece, as usual, IGI - thanks very much. Yes, it is 'predictable' that people react to the presentation (usually, quite rightly). Perhaps, though, we are getting to the stage where television is the medium 'for everyone', and even BBC Four no longer is 'arts specialist' - a point I made about the Proms a few days ago (instantly dubbed 'ridiculous'). But in this case, more coverage on Radio 3 would seem next best, with good presenters as well as expert commentators. All that said, at least it's been on BBC Four all week in a key slot …

[Dave2002]

I'm struggling with this competition and the TV programmes, some of which I recorded, and some watched on iPlayer. I've got a way to go yet.

I'm afraid that I am coming round to the view that it is rather poorly presented - pieces not played in full, and discussion manages largely to avoid any sensible discussion of the music, the technique, etc. Really it is not good.

However, I did learn about one piece tonight, which is the opera Susannah, by the American composer Carlisle Floyd - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susannah It wasn't, of course the programme which informed me - gave me virtually no information at all - but as I thought it sounded very like Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 I rewound the video to spot the caption, and then looked it up, and have now learned about a work and a composer I hadn't heard of.

Perhaps the BBC expects us all to sit with computers on looking up every detail which they really can't take the trouble to explain, or maybe they think that everyone in the TV audience is well aware of this opera and its composer. Alternatively, maybe they really just don't care!

[Dave2002]

Sound technical query

Despite my earlier criticism of the presentation of this competition I am watching the final, and rather enjoying it.

One technical query I have relates to the sound of the solo singer. It looks as though there's one microphone (mono/stereo?) about 3-5 feet in front. I wonder if the solo channel is dynamically compressed. I've felt this before in this kind of presentation, as it seems to me that sometimes a singe is really "going for it", yet the volume level as I perceive it is harldly changed.

Am I wrong, or is this a general feature of TV music presentations? Could it also be a characteristic of the microphones used?

Tonight there has been a comment from one of the panel that the live experience in the hall is likely to be somewhat different from what we will experience via the TV broadcast. There have also been comments about the weights of some of the voices - and again we can't really tell via the broadcast - and also some vocal limitations which we might not detect in a broadcast.

[DracoM]

Well, I'm listening on R3, and I have take it all back about Ian Burnside & Co. Less is more.
For me, the second lady - Belarus? - wins. Don't go for these huge barrel-sounding SE Asian make voices. Too much in their comfort zones, unadventurous?

[edashtav]

Amartuvshin Enkhbat Mongolian Bass
What a wonderful organ – but does he need to be dragged reluctantly into the 21st century. A very old-fashioned, stand & deliver approach. The Wagner was poor and almost came to a standstill. Better in Italian opera and at hisbest in I Pagliacci.

Bags of potential – but needs to attend a European Opera Boot Camp.


Laurin Michelle (American Girl)

Likeable character. Small, rather silvery voice. Can produce some wonderful hushed pp phrases. I loved her Marietta’s Lute-Song Die Tote Stadt – one of my favourite arias. Needs to watch self-indulgent tendencies. Difficult to conduct. Unfinished business. Not a winner.




Oleksiy Palchykov Tenor (Ukrainian-German) – Inadequate – tends to end phrases parlando fashion rather than singing through supporting to the end. Clear enunciation. Not as warm a sound as I want, singing to the crowd rather than the heart. Trumpet-like when I want tender. Cheap ‘n cheerful with little variety of tone. VERY MUCH NOT TO MY TASTE


(I’ve not heard a winner, sofar!

Nadine Koutcher(Belarus)

Too much vibrato for my taste in the song final on Friday, although I much enjoyed her Rachmaninov Vocalise.

I admire her high register in the Mozart – light and beautiful, when she doesn’t force her tone. Was it nerves that cause her to release her big bazookas rather too often? Less is more.

Rimsky-Korsakov: I was gripped by her opening phrase, and the subsequent duo with clarinet was delightful. Not an aria that I know and in a language that I don’t understand but that isn’t stopping me being engrossed and drawn into the musical drama. A well controlled final phrase.

Delibes Bell Song. I’m expecting great things. Brilliant opening! Fell away a little in the middle, and she had to stretch to reach the final note!

Does she lack emotional heart? – A brilliant technician.

Jongmin Park, Bass, South Korea

Verdi Requiem. I loved Jongmin in the Song Recital section that he won so well on Friday. Excellent vocal organ, full of colour, richness, focus and clarity. He possesses a voice that I find is a constant pleasure to hear. Perhaps, some of Verdi’s repeated phrases weren’t projected with sufficient differentiation and sense of verbal purpose.

Don Basilio’s aria from Rossini’s Barbiere: excellent use of vocal colour and fine enunciation. Most enjoyable and good fun.

Ponchielli (La Giocanda) Avise’s Aria. What a stentorian opening phrase! Every phrase is gauged with unerring accuracy and projected with authority. Jongmin is a precocious bass talent. I’ve not heard a better male performance at Cardiff since Dmitro Hvorostovsky’s debut in 1989.

Well for me, I think it’s Jongmin or Nadine with my money on Jongmin! But... I note DracoM's reservations - he could be right!

[ardcarp]

Well, Draco was right...but weren't a few of her stratospheric notes in the final a bit, er, top C turvy?

As an aside, conducting opera is about as difficult as it gets. Usually a pit orchestra gets a fair crack at rehearsals, but all this one-off stuff was truly an achievement. Nerve racking for the two meastros.

[edashtav]

Yes, ardcarp, Nadine's conception may have been immaculate but her delivery wasn't - but we mustn't carp, Draco was well-tuned to the jury's thinking.

[Lordgeous]

Gosh. You lot are hard to please! It was always Nadine for me. Yes a few flaws (it was live!) but a long time since I heard such beautiful singing (esp in the RK). In the end its whether it goes straight to the heart - and she did for me. I have to admit I was wet-eyed.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well, Draco was right...but weren't a few of her stratospheric notes in the final a bit, er, top C turvy?

Her final note hit the mark, but began to sag. Otherwise superb and a deserving winner.

[Dave2002]

Her final note hit the mark, but began to sag. Otherwise superb and a deserving winner.

Wasn't really right, but heck - look at the score (from p 147) - http://burrito.whatbox.ca:15263/imgl...LakmeVSheu.pdf

Presumably almost impossible.

I've never really looked at vocal parts like that before. Rather challenging I'd say. I think the Queen of the Night aria might actually be even more challenging, though, but hardly anyone can sing that one IMO, though last time I saw the Magic Flute at ENO I was amazed that the soprano managed it, and did so in a live performance.

[Nick Armstrong]

Thank heavens that's all over...

[ardcarp]

but hardly anyone can sing that one IMO

Oh yes they can.....

[Mary Chambers]

I am astonished by the winner. Far too many badly tuned notes. I know this stuff is hard, but since it's vocal acrobatics the only criterion is accuracy. The actual quality of her voice I like, but a winner who can't sing in tune? Perhaps it sounded different in the hall.

I am immune to big bass voices, so not as impressed as others by the Mongolian and the Korean.