BAYRAKDARIAN’S BRAHMS BOUND TO BE BRILLIANT
by Stuart Derdeyn
The Vancouver Province
December 1, 2011 Thursday
Isabel Bayrakdarian and guests with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Where:
Orpheum Theatre, 601 Smithe St.
When: Saturday/Monday, 8 p.m. (pre-concert talks 7 p.m. in the
auditorium) Tickets: Various prices at van-couversymphony.ca or
604-876-3434
The last time soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian performed Brahms’
career-changing “Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem)” was back
in the days where words like “captivating,” “charming” and “new”
were used to describe her already astonishing, but as yet not fully
under-stood, talents. When the singer meets the work this weekend
with the VSO under Maestro Bramwell Tovey and guests baritone Hugh
Russell and the Vancouver Bach Choir, it will be as the “incomparable,”
“defining” and “glob-al” star she has become.
“I was a light, lyric and inexperienced [singer] last time I performed
it, over 13 years ago,” says Bayrakdar-ian. “So it was as a notch in my
belt more than coming into the challenge of this piece’s vocal parts,
which soar and joyfully exalt the spirit even in sadness.
“Where requiems are usually some-thing more of a downer, this work
is full of hope at the end of the struggle and rejoining those who
are deceased at the end of your life and, ultimately, it is hopeful.”
First performed in Leipzig in 1869, Brahms began work on the requiem
some 10 years earlier working through ideas for both a first symphony
and parts did indeed become the first Piano Concerto.
However, with the death of his creative mentor Robert Schumann and
then his mother in 1865, he went fully into crafting a requiem in
German using Martin Luther’s German Bible as opposed to the far more
common classical Catholic Mass used in most requiems. This instantly
meant that the piece was imbued with the humanist views gaining favour
at the time.
Brahms was 35 at the time of the piece’s premiere and, after a
less-than-favourable first run-through, it truly established him as
a heavy-weight.
Some music historians have noted the various ways voices are used as
key to the work’s enduring appeal. Bayrakdarian disagrees with the
sometimes stated “non-aria” qualities of the piece. She says that
it is more how the words of the scripture are like a proclamation
echoed by the chorus as a voice of angels than a more traditional
call-and-response prayer. Somewhat different, but not completely
different.
“The chorus comes in to give credibility, sonority and validity to
arias in a non-secular piece of say, a Rossini opera. And there are
moments with the baritone where the chorus does, in fact, almost become
as equals in the work. But I would call my two main pieces arias.”
She’s the singer, so the wise ears defer to her interpretation. After
all, this is an artist who has worked and recorded everything from
the best-known Mozart operas to the classical folksong adaptations of
Armenian composer Vartabed Gomidas working with her husband, pianist
Serouj Kradjian. Bayrakdarian is certainly not afraid of the modern
or put-ting her voice into different settings. Her recent concert
series with cellist Stephan Isserlis at Wigmore Hall in London is a
prime example.
“I cannot compare that venue to anywhere else in the world, it
magnifies the warmth in the voice to the point you are asking if it
is really you. It was a great experience with Stephen, too because
he chose such incredible new works for cello and voice, particularly
Russian composers, that just worked so well.”
There may be a recording of the recital, but after the Brahms this
weekend comes a production of Zem-linsky’s Der Zwerg at the Gran
Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona.
“Barcelona in the winter sounded like a pretty good plan don’t
you think?”