Andrii Kymach’s Arias
New Town Church, Edinburgh, 9/8/24
Andrii Kymach bass baritone, Jâms Coleman piano
Supported by The Consulate of the Ukraine and The Consulate General of Germany in Edinburgh and McFarlane Productions of Edinburgh
Ian McFarlane, who has organised many splendid concerts in Edinburgh, including appearances by prize-winners from Cardiff Singer of the World, will be delighted with today’s large audience for Andrii Kymach’s concert of operatic arias, which is a commemoration of 35 years of twinning between Kyiv and Edinburgh. There are speeches by the Depute Lord Provost, Lesley Marion Cameron, the Ukrainian Consul, Andrii Kuslii, and the German Consul General, Christiane Hullman, a regular visitor to Ukraine, who speaks warmly about the modern Ukrainian composer, Valentyn Sylvestrov, one of whose solo piano works is played later by Jâms Coleman, Andrii Kymach’s accompanist.
The first half of the programme consists of baroque arias. As Bryn Terfel, with a similar voice-type discovered when he chose repertoire for his Handel recording, lower voice-types were less well catered for than higher ones in the operatic repertoire of the 17th and early 18th century. So like Bryn Terfel, Andrii Kymach has decided that if you can’t beat them, join them, and we begin with Handel’s well-known ‘Ombra mai fu’ (Handel’s Largo) originally written for soprano castrato in which the slow legato melody suits many types of voice. The two Gluck arias, ‘O del mio dolce ardor’, where he shows a soft restrained tone in the da capo, and the famous ‘Che faro senza Euridice’ were both written for higher voices, but generally work well for lower voices too. The difficulty, perhaps, comes in the intricate runs, where the female, or high male voice has more flexibility. More successful and very interesting finds are the real bass arias, Vivaldi’s ‘Sei Il corguerriero’ from ‘Tito Manilo’ which has two bass roles, and Handel’s terrific martial aria, ‘Lascia Amore,’ written for the bass character, Zoroastro, a magician, in his 1733 opera ‘Orlando.’ The aria many of us hummed along to, without knowing exactly where we’d heard it, was Bononcini’s delightfully lyrical ‘Per la gloria d’adorarvi,’ from an opera called ‘Griselda’. I haven’t been able to find out which voice-type it was written for, but Luciano Pavarotti and Joan Sutherland have both recorded it. With Jâms Coleman’s nicely contrasting accompaniment and Andrii Kymach ‘s gentlest tones, it was a highlight of the first half.
After a short break and the bell-like piano solo by Valentyn Sylvestrov, Andrii Kymach returns with some formidable arias written for the bass-baritone. The Ukrainian composer, Anatoly Kos-Anatolsky, 1909-1983, obviously relished writing for the Slavonic bass voice, and it’s great to hear Andrii Kymach give us the full benefit of his superb lower register in the song ‘Oh if I were a falcon.’ The earlier Ukrainian composer, Kyrylo Stetsenko’s operatic aria ‘The Raven caws’ also uses bird imagery to present a patriotic message. Verdi is important in Andrii Kymach’s career, and so Iago’s great aria, ‘Credo in un Dio crudel’ from ‘Otello’ is a fitting and gripping end to the concert, with final defiant laughter from the villain!
There’s resounding applause and we are rewarded with encores! Ian McFarlane brings another Cardiff winner to New Town churches on Saturday 24th August when the tenor Sungho Kim, last year’s Song Prize Winner, is accompanied by virtuoso Welsh pianist, Llŷr Williams.
