Art Song Canberra
Concert
Rada Tochalna,
Soprano
Lucas De Jong,
Baritone
Janis Cook, Piano
Wesley Music Centre,
Forrest Sunday 19 June
Review by Len Power
‘Powerful and expressive’ is how pianist, Janis Cook, described
Tchaikovsky’s music at the start of Art Song Canberra’s ‘Tchaikovsky Romance’
concert. The program of songs and music
was cleverly arranged, starting from the joy and innocence of young love, through
the pain of parting from a lover and the continual striving for happiness
through love.
Soprano, Rada Tochalna, began with ‘It Was In Early Spring’ and
perfectly captured the innocence of youth in this beautiful song. ‘If Only I had Known’ displayed not only her fine
voice but also her strong acting ability, making the doubt in the mind of a
young girl waiting for her lover completely believable.
Lucas De Jong, baritone, joined with Tochalna in a duet, ‘Frenzied
Nights’. His rich baritone nicely complemented
her soprano in this nostalgic song. One
of the highlights of the concert was Lucas De Jong singing, ‘Why?’, a sad song
about the state of mind at the end of a romance. The song showed De Jong’s powerful voice and technique
extremely well, bringing the emotion of the song through strongly. Accompaniment on piano for this song by Janis
Cook was especially fine.
Janis Cook also played two solo piano pieces superbly – ‘Prelude:
The Seasons - April’ and ‘Interlude: Polka de Salon’ from the ballet, ‘Eugene
Onegin’.
At the end of the concert, we were given the final scene
from Tchaikovsky’s opera, ‘Eugene Onegin’ – a perfect choice for both singers
to display the full range of emotion in both voice and acting. Their performances were powerful and very
moving.
All of the songs for the concert were sung in Russian and it
was a delightful surprise to hear the singers perform an encore in English of
the tongue-twisting song, ‘Tchaikovsky’, made famous by Danny Kaye in the
Broadway musical, ‘Lady In The Dark’.
This was yet another fine concert from Art Song Canberra.
Len Power’s reviews
can also be heard on the ‘Artcetera’ program on Artsound FM 92.7 on Saturdays from
9am.