Last week we told you about Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s anniversary performance at Wigmore Hall, so today we thought we’d share some of the reactions and write-ups from the performance.
From the “Intermezzo” blog:
“Unlike most singers of Russian, even native ones, his diction is clear enough for even a lousy speaker like me to follow. Words are carefully shaped and weighted, yet without exaggeration. And the technique is staggering. A perfect messa di voce completed She is as lovely as the noon. In the silence of the secret night ended with a note sustained not quite to the point of vulgarity, but enough to draw a gasp from the audience. And in Ivari Ilja he had the ideal partner, with the skill to illuminate Rachmaninov’s accompaniments and an exquisite sense of balance.”
From The Independent:
In the second half, Tchaikovsky’s “A tear trembles” was bravely direct, the voice presented naked and without “cover”, but then came “No, only the heart” and all one’s happiest memories of this singer flooded back in the enticing portamento of one exquisitely veiled phrase on the words “the one who loved me”. It was an Onegin moment if ever there was one and suddenly Hvorostovsky was right inside the recital.
An audible gasp from the audience greeted the eternal final phrase of Rachmaninov’s “In the silence of the secret night”, amazing breath control at the service of both poetry and musical line, and the lightly inflected deftness we had been waiting for all evening came, better late than never, in the Tchaikovsky “Serenade” of his encores.
Read the entire review from Edward Seckerson at www.independent.co.uk
Also, make sure to check out Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s official Facebook Page to see a video of his rehearsal before the Wigmore hall performance. And don’t forget that Pushkin Romances is available direct from DelosMusic.com!