The enchanting soiree begins with a serene, light and breezy tune by Donizetti. This allows a warm-up session for Cecilia Yap, the soprano for the night, as she takes her voice from soaring heights down to the depths of the vocal valley, with well-paced vocal controls. Her voice has rich operatic overtones, yet is subtle in effect.
Then came Bellini’s soulful love invocations with its mellowed voice and forlorn pensiveness, and the excitable tempest of Rossini. Kok-Ting gave a very melodious accompaniment with sensitivity towards even the tiniest note, blending well with the timbre of the songs.
Performances of Viardot’s songs were to be the crux of repertoire as we sample the virtuosity of the voice developing emotionally. In working closely with the various composers, Viardot came up with such vocal gems that were ably depicted by Cecilia as she re-enacts the roles of a cheeky sibyl, a plaintive lover, a cheerful maiden and a melodrama queen. The piano accompaniment gave added urgency to each of the piece.
Post intermission music evokes French and German versions of the art songs. The German lieder are more sobering, grave and reflective, but nonetheless as charming as Cecilia has managed to portray. The French chanson is more open in its emotiveness and dramatization.
The final four pieces of this delightful concert are heavy in Spanish robustness and Cecilia embodies Spanish flamenco as she enunciates her way through the staccato syllable played to lively and passionate music. The final piece was performed with real gusto, a climatic peak to a very good performance.
An encore piece by Pauline Viardot’s father was a wily inclusion by the irrepressible duo in introducing these lesser known works to a now very receptive audience. With deeper study and more polishing, it is not too far fetched to hope that they might one day come up with a recording of their own.
First Published: 20.06.2002 on Kakiseni