Artsong Canberra
Sonia Anfiloff,
soprano
Ben Connor, baritone
Alan Hicks, piano
Wesley Music Centre, Forrest
Sunday 9 August 2015
Review by Len Power
Artsong Canberra presented an impressive lineup of musical
talent with their cleverly themed concert, ‘A Fleeting Fantasy’, at the Wesley Music
Centre.
Husband and wife singers, Sonia Anfiloff and Ben Connor,
with accompanist, Alan Hicks, gave us a richly varied group of songs around a
theme of dreams, magic, mythical creatures and love. The young Australian singers, now living in
Vienna, have an impressive list of credentials with Master degrees, Eisteddfod
wins, scholarships and performing credits both in Australia and in Europe. Alan Hicks is one of Australia’s foremost
vocal coaches and accompanists and currently Head of Vocal and Keyboard
Performance at the University of Canberra and a vocal coach in the opera unit
at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
 |
| Sonia Anfiloff, Ben Connor and Alan Hicks |
Sonia Anfiloff displayed her beautiful soprano voice in the
reflective, melancholy works, ‘Dreams’ by Richard Wagner, ‘Sad Song’ by Henri
Duparc, ‘Melancholy, gentle nymph’ by Vincenzo Bellini and ‘Was it not recently
with magic sounds…’ by Nikolai Medtner.
Ben Connor’s rich baritone was impressive from his first
song, ‘Night And Dreams’, by Franz Schubert, through the tender ‘Mysticism’ by
Pier Adolfo Tirindelli, the restrained emotion of ‘Fantasy’ by Gustav Mahler and
the dramatic and chilling ‘Alder King’ by Franz Schubert. Their voices blended perfectly in the duets, ‘Night’,
by Ernest Chausson and in their encore, ‘Stranger in Paradise’, from ‘Kismet’ by
Borodin, Wright and Forrest. Alan Hicks’
sensitive and pleasing accompaniment on piano gave the singers great support
throughout the concert.
Both singers demonstrated strong acting abilities in their
performances as well as a good understanding of the texts of their songs. In a nicely judged and very funny audience
participation sequence, the singers showed a gift for comedy with their down to
earth and spontaneous interaction with the audience and with their accompanist,
who matched them with a sly sense of humour.
This was a very entertaining concert with a pleasing set of
songs sung superbly by these excellent Australian singers.
Len Power’s reviews
are also broadcast in the ‘Artcetera’ program on Artsound FM 92.7 on Saturdays
from 9am.
