ENCHANTED
EVENING WITH THE COUNTERTENOR by Wis Jablonski
On
the night of the 12th of April my wife and I were a part of a huge
audience at QPAC Concert Hall. We came to admire one of the world’s most
celebrated countertenors, Max Emanuel Cenčić. Together with Camerata of St
John’s – Queensland’s
Chamber Orchestra he graced us with a scintillating performance of the Baroque
music.
Maestro
Cenčić, only 38 years of age, started at a very early age and has been destined
for the height of Parnassus. By the way, this
is also the name of Parnassus Arts Production where he is Artistic Director
responsible for the Italian Baroque music revival.
During the period of 1992 to 1997 Cenčić pursued a solo career,
singing soprano although
his voice had already broken. He made his debut as the countertenor in 2001 and
never looked back. From the beginning his performances have received
enthusiastic reviews from the critics and the praise from the cognoscenti. One
of the critics described him as “.... undisputed singing god of the evening”.
The evening of the 12th of April has
been a memorable one also due to a performance of Camerata of St John’s with
its leader, violinist Brendan Joyce. The program has been designed to show the
audience the very best of Baroque music and singing.
( click the arrowhead to hear him sing )
Maestro with Camerata of St John's leader, Brendan Joyce
Maestro Cenčić gave us
superb examples of music by Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783) with ten arias
showing the vocal scale and the power of the singer. He brought the house down
with unending bravi.
Johann A. Hasse, contemporary of Handel, has been
promoter of opera seria, Italian
style of the opera but performed also in Spain,
England, Saxony and Habsburg Austria.
He died in Venice like many of the VIP after
him. That poses a curious question: is Venice
a good place to die or is this the curse of the water?
Camerata of St John’s
of the twenty two musicians accompanied Maestro with a feeling and virtuosity.
I particularly enjoyed Camerata’s feisty interpretation of Christoph Gluck (1714
-1787) of “Dance of the Furies” from
“Orphee et Euridice”; it sounded like
Wagner’s “Flight of Valkyries”, a
major achievement considering the absence of drums and heavy brass sections in
Baroque musical assembly.
After the performance we had some luck to exchange
a few sentences with Maestro and ask for an autograph on his CD. We found him a
very charming and an easy going person with a great warm smile.
I would like to acknowledge generosity of the
Queensland Conservatorium for providing us with free tickets.