(A
superstar-in-making, Australian singer David Hansen heads for the top of his
highly competitive field as one of the world’s most exciting new-generation
countertenors.)
William Charlton-Perkins Classical notes is republished courtesy
of The Mercury newspaper-.
As we’re between concert seasons right now, time to share
some impressions of a number of exciting recorded music releases that have come
my way over the past year…
The baroque renaissance continues apace, with new
discoveries hitting the retail cyber shelves of Amazon and the like at a rate
of knots. Among the plethora of new-generation stars to emerge on the
international recording scene, the formidably gifted countertenor David Hansen
has made waves with his sensational debut solo release.
Casually titled Rivals
– Arias for Farinelli & Co, this comes emblazoned with photos that
affirm the new star’s eye-candy attributes, which rival any rock or film idol
going, as well as proclaiming his ability to deliver the goods to stunning
effect through sheer musical accomplishment.
Hailed in The New Yorker as “a pure-voiced young Australian
who is typical of a new breed of matinée-idol countertenors” Hansen’s
astonishingly beautiful falsetto singing voice and astounding technique have to
be heard to be believed.
Negotiating a free-ranging soprano compass of more than
three octaves with ease and apparently unlimited prowess in the virtuoso
stakes, Hansen’s dazzling vocality is surely the most convincing hark-back ever
heard in today’s technological age to what the legendary castrati of the 18th
century must have sounded like.
In her illuminating interview ‘It’s a long way to the top’,
journalist Melissa Lesnie wrote in the Australian magazine Limelight: “Hansen
is at the top of the food chain with an instrument that even the world’s most
popular countertenor, Philippe Jaroussky, graciously acknowledges outstrips his
own range. Hansen’s high B’s and C’s, pure yet powerful, place him smack bang
between Beach Boy and Queen of the Night. This upper extension makes him the
envy of male and female singers alike, and makes him almost unclassifiable”.
Notwithstanding Hansen’s bent for rock-star glamour, pursued
in his photo shoots, his cutting edge virtuosity is something the man revels
in. He delivers the goods with no small measure of success throughout a
programme of vocal show-stoppers that includes no less than 12 world premiere
recorded items. Many of these can be sampled on Youtube. Try the disc’s
ravishing 2nd track, Sento due fiama in
petto (‘In my breast I feel two fires’), a spell-binding slow aria with a
haunting oboe obligato solo, stretching over more than 12 minutes, from
Il Medo by Leonardo Vinci (1690–1730).
Other Baroque opera releases to sample with relish include a
high profile new recording of Handel’s opera Tamerlano, conducted by Riccardo Minassi with a stellar line-up
including countertenors Xavier Sabata and Max Emanuel Cenčić, tenor John Mark
Ainsley and Canadian star soprano Karina Gauvin; and the world premier
recording of Hasse’s Siroe Re di Persia.
The Handel masterwork, adhering largely to composer’s 1731
version of this wonderful score, is a must-have, while sampling is advised with
regard to the Hasse rarity, which also features the intrepid Mr Cenčić in its
line-up of luminaries, along with the dazzling young Russian coloratura
soprano, Julia Lezhneva.
Untold delight awaits enthusiasts on discovering the
delectable Karina Gauvin’s latest disc of Handel arias, issued under the title Prima Donna by the Canadian label, Atma
Classique. In the closing track, the supreme simplicity and crystalline beauty
of Madame Gauvin’s heart-stopping rendering of the famous aria, Care selve from Handel’s pastoral opera,
Atalanta, must surely be the closest
thing imaginable to finding oneself in heaven.
Tearing myself away from the wondrous world of opera, a
final recommendation offered up here follows my long-awaited acquisition of
Hyperion’s two-CD album of the inimitable Stephen Hough performing the complete
music for piano and orchestra of Tchaikovsky.
Hough’s barnstorming accounts of these visceral works, which
fittingly marked Hyperion's 50th recording in their Romantic Piano Concerto
series, were captured live in excellent acoustics under the baton of Osmo
Vänskä at the helm of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra. Throughout each
performance, Hough's unrivalled brilliance shines through, magnificently matched
by the crack orchestral forces at his disposal, leaving one breathless with
exhilaration and fully in sync with the storm of applause that greets the close
of each piece.
So, with the postal strike finally over, how about indulging
in a flurry of express online shopping to make someone – yourself? – a happy
chappy this festive season. – William Charlton-Perkins
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