Ukrainian Songs and Opera Arias
St Andrews and St George Church - 05/08/23
Andrei Kymach, baritone
A big man with a big voice
Ian McFarlane is one of the unsung heroes of Scottish arts, particularly in respect of promotion of great singers. With his own company and money Ian has brought some of the finest singers in the world to Edinburgh, including Cardiff Singers of the World Jamie Barton and Catriona Morison, even before they were noticed by the Edinburgh International Festival. Today he has brought the 2019 winner of the opera prize, Ukrainian baritone Andrei Kymach, to the lovely setting of St Andrew’s and St George’s West Church in George St. As a bonus Andrei is accompanied by the great Welsh pianist Llyr Williams, who is often an accompanist at the Cardiff Singer of the World and is an international star pianist.
Sadly, there was a fairly small crowd in the church to hear this great recital despite Ian’s very good publicity, including a preview from the Edinburgh Music Review. Having just come from a somewhat underwhelming opening concert at the Queens Hall I suggested to Ian he should negotiate with the International Festival and Andrei Kymach would have a much bigger audience there. Ian suffers from what all fringe companies suffer from, competition! With over 3000 fringe events, not to mention the main festival programme, there is fierce competition for audiences in Edinburgh.
Those of us who did make it to the concert were rewarded with an outstanding concert from a singer who after his victory in Cardiff has become an international star in opera houses round the world. It has been a remarkably rapid rise for Andrei since graduating from the Bolshoi Young Artist Program in 2018 and winning the Cardiff prize in 2019. I remember his big voice at Cardiff and was surprised to learn from his publicity that he is a baritone. I remembered a rich deep bass voice from Cardiff and when this powerful tall man came on the stage and began to sing I remembered that initial impression, but of course he is a baritone with a very deep and rich voice. Indeed my neighbour said this voice could fill the Usher Hall. Indeed he could, unaccompanied!
Certainly, he had no trouble filling the church with his voice and was expertly accompanied by Llyr Williams in bringing us songs from Ukraine. When he came to his operatic recitals, in particular his selection from ‘Don Carlo’ which he is singing internationally, maybe the voice is too big. I was at Covent Garden recently for a very good production of ‘Don Carlo’ and heard a wonderful Elisabeth from Lise Davidsen, a Norwegian soprano with a very big voice who is now regarded and not just by me as the leading soprano in the world. Lise cleverly moderated her big voice to fit the part and only let rip when she had to. She was accompanied by Canadian John Relyea as Philip and he likewise moderated his big bass voice to catch the nuance and the pathos of the part. At times I felt that Andrew’s big voice was perhaps too big for the ‘Don Carlo’ scenes, but of course in a big opera house with an orchestra they would have fitted better.
Despite these criticisms it was a very fine recital, certainly worthy of being part of the international festival. Maybe we will see Andrei at the official Festival in future and Ian McFarlane can justly say that he brought him here first.
