A voice for your attention!

[Quilisma]

They come and they go, for obvious reasons, but I feel I ought to draw your attention to the possessor of a particularly fine voice, who appeared on In Tune with Suzy Klein on Friday 9th September, following the release of a solo album with the OAE, recorded some months ago. I had the honour of hearing him live back in May when his choir was on tour over here in England, and was, naturally, very impressed. His segments are 01:24:45 to 01:28:52 and 01:36:36 to 01:48:34. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07sxrh5

[ardcarp]

Wonderful. Already well-known in Norway (I have a relative who lives in Oslo) he's surely going to be big over here.

[Miles Coverdale]

I've heard his album, and it does have some exceptionally good singing on it. I've seen some videos on YouTube which were recorded about a year before the recording was made, which are very good, but not at the level of the recording, so it's interesting to see how much his singing developed over the intervening period.

My only criticism is that it's fairly clear from the pieces sung in English that it's not his native language: there are some slightly odd vowel-sounds going on. 'Eternal source of light divine' comes out as 'Etoonal source', for example.

But such nitpicking aside, it is a very good recording.

[Miles Coverdale]

Not quite sure how the duplicate post happened.

[Nick Armstrong]

I can't listen to the clip linked in #1 at the moment.... Might we learn the name of this talented gentleman?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

"He" has a name:

Aksel Rykkvin

[doversoul1]

"He" has a name:

Aksel Rykkvin

... and the CD with track samples
Aksel Rykkvin (treble)

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/advsearch.php?composer=&work=&performer=+Aksel+Rykkvin+&medium=all&label=&cat=

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/aug/07/aksel-arias-by-bach-handel-mozart-review-rykkvin-boy-treble

[ardcarp]

My only criticism is that it's fairly clear from the pieces sung in English that it's not his native language: there are some slightly odd vowel-sounds going on. 'Eternal source of light divine' comes out as 'Etoonal source', for example.

But such nitpicking aside, it is a very good recording.

A bit harsh, MC! The lad was chatting away live on air in pretty fluent English..at the age of 13. I dread to think what Norwegians would think if any of us attempted to sing in their tongue. How was his Italian, BTW?

[Miles Coverdale]

Well, I did say it was nitpicking. It does sound like Etoonal though. At least it does lower down. As it goes higher, the vowel gets rather better, as it's difficult to sing such a forward vowel as 'oo' on high notes. You can even watch him sing etoonal here, if you really want.

I mentioned it mainly because it stuck out a bit, at least to me, in what is, as I said, a really good recording. It would have been even better if they'd done the whole of Cantata 51. You can see the last movement here.

As for his Italian, I wouldn't like to say, as I don't speak Italian (nice try though).

[Oldcrofter]

re Miles Coverdale's point, message 9

Comparing Aksel's Italian with Cecilia Bartoli's in 'Voi che sapete' on YouTube, he is pretty close to already having a very good Italian pronunciation and diction.

Some examples: distinguishing the closed and open 'e' vowel in 'sapete' - his final 'e' perhaps a little too open but the difference is there.
The 'o' vowels in 'Quello ch'io provo, vi ridirò' very consistent and to my ear, correct, with the accented 'ò' slightly open
Elision of vowels in phrases such as 'ch'ora e martir', 'l'alma avvampar' and 'Non so chi il tiene' correct.
Consonants - could be a little more emphatic - but that's would be a question of taste, I guess.

I couldn't hear any hint of Norwegian influence but a native speaker of either Norwegian or Italian might be able to spot it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcaqsmhXDRc (Aksel Rykkvin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDeFdGzthV0 (Cecilia Bartoli)

[ardcarp]

Of the main languages singers have to attempt (i.e. French, German, Italian) Italian has by far the nicest vowels. English is a pig, since most of its vowel sounds are, in effect, diphthongs ('my', 'way', 'plough', etc) which sound very ugly if sung the way they are spoken. So basically, we mangle English to make it sound better when sung. You don't have to do that with Italian. I'm told Welsh is good too, but I've never tried it. But it's a real challenge to sing in Russian or Portuguese (which I've had to on occasion) or, I guess, Norwegian (which I haven't.)