Bake some pancakes for Maria Candlemas… At the moment when the children want to devour their first delicious fresh warm pancake with syrup and powdered sugar, the phone rings. "I'm sick and I really can't sing tonight, could you replace me?"…
The audience was very sorry, Saturday evening February 2, 2019 in the concert hall of the Brussels Conservatorium, when it was announced on stage that Emma Posman was sick. Many were indeed eager to hear her after her unexpected debut last summer in Salzburg where Emma 'quickly' stepped in as Queen of the Night to replace a sick soprano. This time she was sick herself and later in the evening Jolien De Gendt would excel in several Mozart arias. Arias that she had never sung before and learned in two hours' time, so to speak just read through and sang to perform them almost like a sight reading on the concert stage.
Beethoven and Mozart continue to captivate
Lumen Symphonicum, the orchestra conducted by David De Geest, provided a program with works by Beethoven and Mozart that will fascinate people for centuries to come. The first part featured the overture 'Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus', an early symphonically inspired work by Ludwig Van Beethoven. Before that, the master of this genre had composed his first symphony, which was performed after the overture. De Geest ensured a strong interpretation with emphatic articulations, breathing pauses and comprehensible tempi that help the listener better understand what the composer is telling in his symphony. Drawbacks were entries that were not always equally well-coordinated and refinements that could be fine-tuned here and there.
After the intermission it was Mozart, namely a whole selection from seven of his operas with well-known and less well-known arias, choral works and instrumental pieces. The student choir of the Conservatorium was called upon for the choral parts. Emma Posman was scheduled as soloist, but she had herself replaced by Jolien De Gendt due to illness at almost the very last moment.
What was striking was how all those young choir singers, just past puberty, sang the choral parts with pleasure and enjoyment from Le nozze di Figaro, Idomeneo ré di Creta, Ascanio in Alba, Cosi fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte and La clemenza di Tito. From these same operas, except for Mozart's early opera Ascanio, but also from the even earlier opera Mitridate ré di Ponto, Jolien De Gendt sang a series of arias.
Sight reading!
Immediately I asked myself how it was possible that Jolien De Gendt sang exactly the same program that Emma Posman had rehearsed. Not every aria is so obvious and moreover familiar to every soprano. Only at a few breaths here and there could you suspect that Jolien didn't take them at the right place because she simply didn't have time to thoroughly study the repertoire in advance. Jolien sang a flawless performance with much musical and textual insight and strong expression. The audience thanked her with enthusiastic applause because the singer managed to perform the program unchanged across the board. The most remarkable thing was probably the virtuosic demanding aria 'Al destin, che la minaccia' from Mitridate which Mozart composed at age 14. It is hardly conceivable that a young adolescent could come up with such an aria off the cuff.
You can imagine my amazement when De Gendt confided to me after the concert that she only had the two Queen of the Night arias in her repertoire. All the others were sight readings that she could only rehearse with the orchestra shortly before the concert. While the pancakes were baking, she simultaneously searched for the scores on the worldwide web and fortunately found them all. Quick printing, turn off the heat under the pans and off to Brussels where she showed the audience that she is a true artist. Once again, a great bravissimo!
- WHAT: Beethoven and Mozart
- WHO: Lumen Symphonicum, Jolien De Gendt, Choir Brussels Conservatorium conducted by David De Geest
- WHAT: symphonic work by Ludwig Van Beethoven, excerpts from operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- WHERE & WHEN: Concert Hall Brussels Conservatorium, Saturday February 2, 2019
- PHOTOS: © Klassiek Centraal
- FILM: © Lore De Gendt[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2JlmScchkA&fbclid=IwAR1Y2Dvv6C4Usr-bqLs-RobyMm2wsiI4yMU08kevmQL6LfwsqTreRtI6lW0[/embed]