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SEEN
AND HEARD CONCERT REVIEW
Bach and
Handel (Second Opinion):
David Daniels (Counter-tenor), The English Concert, Harry Bicket
(Director),
Queen
Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre,
London, 15.10.2008
(SL)
All
in good time – Daniels comes to Bach at the QEH, London
To
quote our embattled Prime Minister’s recent words, “this is no time
for a novice”, and certainly a recital of virtuosic Handel arias and
breath-defying Bach cantatas should never be an option for the
faint-hearted or inexperienced. As it happened, last night’s
concert by David Daniels and the English Concert under the direction
of Harry Bicket at London’s QEH, part of a short European tour, was
an object lesson in matching music to vocal resources at the peak of
their powers. Anyone who has followed the American countertenor’s
illustrious career over the past 15 years or so would not have been
surprised by either the apparent effortlessness of execution or
sheer musicality of expression throughout the evening. However,
what might have taken them aback is the fact that this is the first
time Daniels has essayed seriously the world of JS Bach in both
concert form and with his recently released CD of Bach Arias and
Cantatas on EMI Virgin. Some might also quite reasonably have
questioned if this was the right repertoire for him, particularly
those only acquainted with his work in opera.
Renowned for his interpretations of Handel’s great alto castrato
roles, the countertenor has taken the voice type to new heights on
the opera stage and, inevitably, has swept a whole new generation of
young singers up in his wake – to both follow and inevitably
challenge. With this new repertoire, he answers those young
pretenders in no uncertain style – although one suspects that he
will never convince or convert the died-in-the-wool early music
specialists who cannot adapt to his uncompromisingly bel canto style
and that light, fast vibrato.
The American is a canny, very professional, musician and takes care
to work with people who can both complement and enhance his chosen
repertoire, and with the English Concert and his long-time
collaborator Harry Bicket, he has returned to a more classic, less
idiosyncratic, partnership than, for instance, his previous
collaboration with Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante. The English
Concert has recently undergone changes in leadership, and with
Bicket now having taken over the long-established period band in
between his many globe-trotting operatic conducting
responsibilities, (how does he find the time?) it will be
interesting to see whether their traditionally rather cool and
reserved style will evolve into something slightly more theatrical
and edgy.
Life brings all of us, in time, to the cold fact of our mortality
and perhaps this is why it’s best for most singers to leave the
master of Leipzig to later in their careers when they have had a
little experience of it’s unkinder cuts. Daniels has obviously now
decided that he is ready, and he brings an
unremitting intensity of expression to the words – the text is not
just received wisdom, second hand reporting, but the singer is there
as a human being, anguished, ecstatic, exhausted, torn by guilt,
failed ….whether one likes it or not, this was Bach as theatre, the
theatre of the heart, not the head. Whether this interpretation
would fit within a wider canvas – say a whole Passion – is open to
argument; but this was Daniels’ own take on the Bachian dramas of
life and death and it was a powerfully convincing one in its own
right.
After a surprisingly long Orchestral Suite No.1 in C (long for an
opening item in an essentially vocal concert, a fact remarked upon
and overheard more than once during the interval) Daniels entered to
offer an eloquently sung (if initially slightly low-volume) aria
from Cantata 170, “Vergnugte Ruh, beliebte seelenlust” which, along
with the following “Qui sedes” from the Mass in B Minor, established
the fact that his renowned velvet tone and liquidity of expression
was very much in form, with the singer delving deeper into his lower
register with aplomb when required. After a Sinfonia from Cantata
42 from the English Concert, tidily if unremarkably dispatched, the
singer returned for the lilting, but more demanding “Schlummert ein”
from Cantata 82 “Ich habe genug”, a piece rarely performed by the
alto voice but ideally suited to his easy, long-breathed phrasing,
with some shimmering passages redolent with a very human expression
of acquiescent ecstasy. If a text tells a story, then Daniels will
tell it with every dramatic vocal device at his disposal – and he
has many. He closed the first half with a remarkably full-on reading of
“Erbarme dich mein Gott”, all the intensity and passion inherent in
the aria fully realised by an awesome display of vocal colouring and
textual commitment, and thus indicating the way he would move
musically in the next hour.
Daniels is also
cautious in his programming: only the first half was devoted to
Bach, and he returned to his Handelian home territory in the second,
this decision being mirrored in the instrumental pieces.
Whether some specific internal process was at work between artist,
director and orchestra one doesn’t know, but there was a palpable
sense of release as the English Concert commenced the second half of
the evening with the first helping of Handel – the wonderful
Concerto Grosso in A, Opus 6, no 11. Now shorn of the excellent
wind section (Katharina
Spreckelsen on oboe and oboe
d’amore deserving special mention earlier) the
band nevertheless seemed to dance more nimbly, react more
instinctively, to the musical line than with the Bach. Probably
imagination, or simply acknowledged preference on this writer’s
part.
David Daniels returned to the stage with three offerings from recent
operatic roles, interspersed with a short Passacaglia, and he
continued to rack up the emotional pressure with an intense “Ombra
cara” from Radamisto, shaded to perfection, followed by a
thunderbolt of a “Furibondo spira il
vento” from Partenope. This being the only bravura item of
the evening, it was a clever piece of programming, releasing a blast
of testosterone and virtuosic passagework before the darkly melodic
complexities of the “Mad Scene” from Orlando. The packed house
bayed for more and got it in the form of the limpidly lovely “Qual
nave, smaritta” from Radamisto, where endless legato lines were
caressed in vintage Daniels style. Throughout these operatic
snapshots, Bicket and the English Concert kept lively and attentive
company, with some elegant virtuosity of their own. But this
was Daniels’ night, and if it’s taken him a while to bring us his
Bach as well as his Handel, the waiting was worth it.
Sue Loder
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