Brisbane Reviews

Last year John Foster conducted a concert with Queensland Baroque Orchestra showcasing three countertenors, Hartley Newnham, Adam Lopez, and Tobias Merz. The same personnel have come together for another iteration of this project. Originally programmed as part of the 4MBS Festival of Classics earlier this year, Return of the Three Countertenors had to be postponed due to illness of one of the countertenors.

It was a delight to witness these artists performing together again, sharing their very different voices (yes, all countertenors do not sound alike) which yet blended perfectly when they sang duets, or as a trio in the closing piece, an arrangement of Mozart’s Ave Verum. Most of the concert, however, consisted of solo items, a series of true gems of the Baroque period, in which the individual artistry of each of the singers was in full focus.

Hartley Newnham, who with Andrew Dalton is one of the founding fathers of Australian countertenors, is now well into his eighties, yet has lost nothing of his glorious golden sound. He sang Che faro senza Euridice, from Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, with great poignancy and passion, a performance which reminded me of Kathleen Ferrier’s famous recording of this aria, made over 75 years ago. In Handel’s Eternal Source of Light Divine he was joined by John Foster on his baroque trumpet, which provided the image for the words of the song. But Newnham’s most profound utterance was his rendition of the Agnus Dei from Bach’s Mass in B minor. The intimacy of this wonderful aria was enhanced by the leader of the orchestra, Wayne Brennan, who played the violin part as a solo with a sensitivity which matched Newnham’s immaculate delivery. This was a beautiful moment of true chamber music.

Adam Lopez has entered the Guinness Book of Records for the highest note ever recorded by a male singer – his range is that of a high soprano. In the concert last year there was a certain amount of very understandable showing off of this quite extraordinary range and virtuosity. Yesterday he presented a more sensitive and thoughtful side of his vocal personality, in which the crystal purity of his sound was combined with technical feats of a much less bravura kind, such as starting notes with the softest of pianissimi before allowing them to flower. He gave the premiere of his own arrangement of the famous Adagio for strings by Albinoni, singing with a restrained intensity which allowed the gorgeous chains of sevenths to speak for themselves. The decorations he sang in Handel’s Dopo notte atra e funesta were impressive yet tasteful. And in the opening movement of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater he blended so perfectly with the voice of Tobias Merz that often you could not tell which was which.

Merz is a performer who sends the audience a direct invitation to come into his private musical experience. He opened the concert with Vivaldi’s flamboyant Fara la mia spada, and his performance was the perfect doorway into this concert of gems. He had fun (and so did the band) in Purcell’s Cold Song from King Arthur, with such explicit shivering that it made me glad I had left England all those years ago. He negotiated the expansive phrases of the Cum Dederit from Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus with impressive breath control while never losing sight of the somewhat folksong-like style of the piece.

The Queensland Baroque Orchestra, under Wayne Brennan’s collegial leadership, was markedly better than last year. Although the continuo section was occasionally too heavy to balance the upper strings, the conductor John Foster ensured that their accompaniment for the three countertenors was always sympathetic. If their first concert was a single event, now that they have done a sequel means that perhaps we can expect a series of Three Countertenors concerts in the future. I will certainly be there if so.