February

Osvaldas Grinius
www.kamane.lt , 2007 02 27

The part of Angel Uriel was performed by M.Zimkus

In brief: God created man according to his image on the sixth day, later the man enjoyed singing about his creation in various ways. The creation of the world has been immortalised in music by Franz Joseph Haydn, whose 275th birth anniversary was commemorated in Kaunas last Friday in advance (the real birthday of the composer is March 31).

The oratory “Creation of the World“ (Die Schöpfung) was performed even three times by Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, Kaunas State Choir and soloists, the conductor was Prof. Petras Bingelis – in Prienai, Klaipėda and Kaunas. A large crowd of performers could hardly fit on the small stage of Kaunas Cultural Centre. Meanwhile, the audience felt much more spacious as there were many unoccupied seats.

All the performers tried to convey the energy of sounds and meanings encoded by the creator in his music. The orchestra started the concert in a tuned manner, revealing the colours typical of J.Haydn’s music. Still, later the contraposition of the conductor and orchestra players regarding the interpretation became prominent. The duet of horns did not avoid problems of performance. Even though the phrases played by these instruments had to remind angel Gabriel’s intonations, they reminded of the creation of the world – chaotic sounds.

Three angels who were telling the story of the world creation were embodied by famous Lithuanian soloists. Asta Krikščiūnaitė who performed the part of Gabriel sang well and used the possibilities of the voice with subtlety. The soprano of the soloist sounded freely. The lyrical tenor’s part of angel Uriel was sung by Mindaugas Zimkus. It was evident from first sounds that the soloist performed music that was close to him. The performer of the angel Rafael’s part Ignas Misiūra also felt self-assured as he sang the work not for the first time. The bright and low voice of wide scale gave meaningfulness to the music. Still, the colour possibilities of the singer’s voice were slightly weaker than the voices of his colleagues.

The choir also has an important role in the oratory. Comments and inserts in ensembles sung by the choir, powerful finales help to reveal the drama of the music piece. Kaunas State Choir preserved the image of a professional choir and made an impression by the balanced sound and clear voice aesthetics. Nonetheless, forte prevailed during this performance. If more subtle nuances were searched for, more could be gained from the expression.

German language was an inseparable part of the oratory – its phonetic expression is significant for the drama and individuality of style of the music piece. However, all the performers lacked clearer pronunciation. However, Kaunas audience is not often spoiled by the performance of such large vocal music pieces. The attempts of the powerful oratory performers were not vain, and the evening did not seem long.