Buenos Aires Herald - "Choirs and vocal soloists, a survey" por Pablo Bardin - 10-8-2006 (extracto)

The human voice is a source of aesthetic pleasure. This simple truth was proved again by some recent events concerning both choirs and vocal soloists.

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La Bella Música, the organisation led by Patricia Pouchulu, gave us at the Auditorio de Belgrano a wonderful combination of two important works led by that nonpareil conductor of choral-symphonic music, Antonio Russo. He chose the oratorio version of Haydn’s “The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour in the Cross” (the original is for string quartet!) and Mendelssohn’s fascinating cantata “The First Walpurgis Night” on the Goethe text from “Faust” concerning a Druid confrontation with Christian guards. The Haydn score has an inherent problem: except for the final Earthquake all the music is either middling slow or quite slow. But the conductor’s sense of flow and fine phrasing minimized the problem and put the accent on beautiful line and clarity of texture.

Mendelssohn has always been a specialty of Russo. His performance had controlled but red-hot intensity, at times quite searing. A disciplinarian in the right sense, he got fine collaboration from an ad-hoc “La Bella Música Orchestra” based on the Colón’s one, and the Asociación Coral Lagun Onak under Miguel Angel Pesce. The vocal soloists in Haydn were adequate: Laura Delogu (soprano), Alicia Alduncín (contralto), Ricardo González Dorrego (tenor) and Román Modzelewski (bass). In Mendelssohn the very young contralto Mariana Carnovali really impressed me, and I liked the strength of character of baritone Mauricio Thibaud. Modzelewski was less convincing here, and Hernán Sánchez Arteaga, a replacement for Ullán, seemed rather green but strong-voiced.

Pablo Bardin

Extracto del artículo: cortesía diario Buenos Aires Herald