Reviews from November 2021

It’s been lovely to have some reviews from some of my concerts in November. Here are some extracts:

“Throughout the evening, six of the songs from Britten's Les Illuminations were threaded, the poems coming from Rimbaud's collection. What was notable about Ben Vonberg-Clark's performances of these was the way that he brought out the words. Often in Britten's Les Illuminations we are dazzled by the musical inventions, but here Vonberg-Clark seem to take Rimbaud's poetry as his starting point, shaping the music to the poetic phrases and producing a series of engrossing musical moments. Having just a piano as accompaniment also meant that he could take greater risks with tone and colour, often shading his voice to a magical thread.”

“Mussorgsky's Where are you, Little star? (which originally used the star as an analogy for the loved one), saw Vonberg-Clark combining haunting melancholy with strong, vibrant tone, colouring the voice very differently to the lyric Hindemith. And Vonberg-Clark finished the recital with Samuel Barber's Sure on this shining night, with a performance notable for a beautifully floated mezza voce that brought out the mystic elements of the song.”

Read the full reviews here:

https://www.planethugill.com/2021/11/a-dangerous-obsession-relationship-of.html#more

https://www.planethugill.com/2021/11/how-i-wonder-what-you-are-rr-bennett.html#more