| 15 YEARS’ PRINSENGRACHT CONCERTS
The first Prinsengracht concert, fifteen years ago, was an almost literal washout. The grand piano that had to be hoisted on to the rusty flat boat in the Prinsengracht, fell from its hoist, right on top of a brand-new Volvo. This hardly agreeable start, however, did not stand in the way of a rising success. In fifteen years’ time this initiative of Hotel Pulitzer and others has grown into a delightful event for thousands of people every year. Since 1984 the AVRO ’ has brought this special open air concert with international top musicians on television. From then on this unique concert was no longer reserved for those who had conquered a place somewhere by the canal. And meanwhile many concerts have also been broadcast in other countries, like Korea, Japan, the Scandinavian countries and Spain. On Saturday night, 17 August 1996, the boats were bobbing on the water for the fifteenth time, guided by the sounds of the great Italian opera composers and car horns, starting mopeds or the clocks of the Wester tower were hardly able to disturb the musical feast. They have rather come to be part of the ambiance, just like the moments when a twenty – thousand heads’ public can be as quiet as a mouse.... NELLY MIRICIOIU, Soprano The performance of the Rumanian soprano Nelly Miricioiu at the Amsterdam Prinsengracht concert of 1996 was more than just an opera concert the way they are held all over the world every year. First of all this was caused by the nature of this annual concert in the open air, that takes place at one of Amsterdam’s finest canals, and which is a musical climax of the year to many inhabitants of the capital. Not only does the atmosphere add to this, but also the fact that many musical celebrities have made their contribution in the course of the years. It was therefore almost inevitable that Nelly Miricioiu was to add her name to the list of prominent musicians that had roused the enthusiasm of the countless people on quays and roofs, in opened windows, on boats and platforms on the water of the canal rigged for this purpose, in earlier years. For that matter, the ties between the Rumanian diva and the Dutch public go back to 1979, the year in which Nelly Miricioiu spread her artistic wings internationally. The basis for this career had been laid many years earlier by her mother, a soprano herself, who gave her daughter (named after the Australian diva Nellie Melba) her first singing lessons herself. After this she received an education at the George Enescu school of music and at eighteen she already made her debut in her place of birth Adjud as Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflote by Mozart. This was followed by a contract at the opera theatre of Brasov, where she sang leading parts like Gilda in Rigoletto, Mimi in La Boheme and Violetta Valery in La Traviata at an early age. After a continued study in Italy she decided to try her luck at the opera contest of Ostend and the vocalists’ contest of Den Bosch, in 1979. The awards that she won there and the offers from various opera theatres in Western Europe supported her in her decision to turn her back to her native country and in 1981 Nelly Miricioiu settled in London. From there she built up an international career that was soon to bring her great fame in various opera centres like Munich, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Milan (the Scala.), Turin, Verona, Nice, Edinburgh (Scottish Opera), Montpellier and Washington. Her repertoire was characterized by its impressive wide range, varying from light lyrical parts in both the Italian and the French repertoire to roles increasing in drama and weight, like Lucia di Lammermoor (with which she made her debut at the Scala), Tosca and Norma. In 1984 she again came to the Netherlands, not for a performance in an opera theatre (her debut at the Dutch Opera – as Norma – is yet to come) but for a ’concert of stars’ at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. The hall was far from crowded that night, but the Dutch opera public soon turned out to have discovered a new idol and the news that a new star had been born spread rapidly. Nelly Miricioiu s second performance in Amsterdam on 19 January of the following year (also her first ’VARA – matinee’: Thais by Massanet) became a triumph. The ovations that burst forth here, however, were only modest compared to the reception that Nelly Miricioiu experienced at following performances. At the VARA’s request she returned for the female leading parts in Mefistofele of Boito (she sang both Margherita and Elena in this opera), Tancredi and Armida of Rossini, and in Anna Bolena, Lucrezia Borgia, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux of Donizetti. At the music department of the VARA’s special request she added many of these parts to her repertoire and at various occasions she frankly stated that this gave her career a decisive turn. Not only did these VARA concerts awaken a growing love of the early 19th – century Italian belcanto of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti in her, but they also proved that her voice was extremely fit for this genre. However, she has not only her singing to thank for the fact that she won her way into the Dutch public s hearts so overwhelmingly. For her interpretation is an entirely individual performance, with which she breathes life into her parts with a vocal drama that places her among her great predecessors Claudio Muzio, Maria Callas and Magda Olivero. Although Nelly Miricioiu, just like her famous predecessors – proves a great artist on the stage as well, this drama also stands out unabatedly as she sings at concerts. More than once she has stated in interviews that she even prefers concert performances to those in the theatre, where direction and decors may divert the attention from the music and where she sometimes does not feel at ease at all in the wigs and costumes she has to wear. |
DAVID HARPER, Piano
David Harper, was born and educated in New Zealand where
he received considerable attention as a solo pianist before going to London
in 1967 to conti- nue his studies at the Royal College of Music. During
the following three years he became increasingly involved in the vocal
repertoire and recital accompaniment - a fact that led to his decision
to work exclusively with singers. In 1976 he launched a free-lance career
as a vocal coach and accompanist. Since then his reputation has spread
far and wide in both capacities with fre- quent invitations to perform
at prestigious venues such as the Wigmore Hall and Queen Elisabeth Hall
in London, Edinburgh Festival, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Aldeburgh Festival,
Brussels Opera House, as well as numerous places through- out Australia
and New Zealand. In addition to his activities on the concert platform
he has established a thri- ving teaching/coaching practice based at his
London studio, where his regular clients include Anne-Sophie von Otter,
Barbara Bonney, Olaf Bar, Yvonne Kenny and of course Nelly Miricioiu. David
and Nelly have worked together since 1981 both in recital and, even more
significantly perhaps, at concentrating Nelly s technical and interpretative
skills on the Bel Canto repertoire for which she is so admired by her Amsterdam
public.
THE NETHERLANDS RADIO CHOIR
The Netherlands Radio Choir, since a few years under
the able direction of Martin Wright, was founded after the Second World
War as the vocal counterpart to the Netherlands radio orchestras. With
nearly eighty permanent members it is one of the greatest and also one
of the most versatile professional choirs of Europe, with a repertoire
ranging from renaissance and early baroque to the latest music of today.
According to the demands, the choir performs in various formations, while
many members are regularly active as solo performers, too. It is characteristic
of the qualities of this ensemble, that it has regularly co – operated
in world premieres of compositions at the request of modern composers (including
Karlheinz Stockhausen and Maurizio Kagel).