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Songs by Schubert, Bonds, Debussy, Medtner, Slonimsky, Sarievski; Tchaikovsky: “June” from The Seasons, Op. 37b. Ema Nikolovska, mezzo-soprano; Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano. Koerner Corridor, March 24, 2024.
As I used to be leaving Koerner Corridor Sunday afternoon, having attended the recital given by Macedonian Canadian mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and French-Canadian pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin, I couldn’t assist however felt that I had witnessed one thing extraordinary.
A little bit of background for these not accustomed to the singer. Born in Skopje, Macedonia and raised in Toronto, Nikolovska began taking violin classes at 4(!) on the Royal Conservatory of Music, graduating from The Glenn Gould Faculty in 2015. Singing was additionally in her blood — she joined the Toronto Kids’s Refrain on the age of ten. She began taking critical singing classes from Helga Tucker at 16.
After commencement, Nikolovska went to London and earned a Grasp’s in Voice on the Guildhall. She was named a BBC New Technology Artist, in addition to the recipient of the celebrated Borletti-Buitoni Belief Award. Her operatic credit embody performances on the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, and Royal Opera Home’s Linbury Theatre in London.
Earlier this yr, Nikolovska made her COC debut in The Crafty Little Vixen. In my overview, I discussed how impressed I used to be by her “bright-voiced, endearing” Fox. I went to the live performance Sunday anticipating a typical recital that includes two very wonderful musicians. What I bought was a veritable tour-de-force, a younger singer placing her distinctive, private stamp on a recital in such a means that few younger singers would dare to attempt.
Fearless and inimitable, Ema Nikolovska opened her creative world and invited everybody in.
The recital opened together with her chatting with the viewers in a most heartfelt method. She and Richard-Hamelin started with 4 well-known Schubert songs. Nikolovska delivered the songs with centered tone, a slightly cool timbre and little vibrato. Her recital type is actually a departure from opera, however wonderful on the recital stage. Supported by the delicate pianism of Richard-Hamelin and the superb Koerner Corridor acoustics, you may hear each phrase. A wonderful begin.
It was adopted by a short piano solo, “June” from Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, a superb selection given its very singable melody. With Richard-Hamelin’s beautiful enjoying, he certainly made the piano sing. With out a pause, the 2 launched seamlessly into “Poème d’Automne,” the primary of 4, equally themed “Songs of the Seasons” by African American composer Margaret Bonds. These songs are fairly jazzy, which Nikolovska delivered with the requisite type and feeling.
These items are sometimes sung by excessive voices, so sometimes Nikolovska’s mezzo was stretched by the excessive tessitura. A few the songs seems to have been transposed down for the event. Irrespective of, Nikolovska gave her all and the cycle was placing and pleasant.
Richard-Hamelin began the second half with a brief piano piece by Debussy, adopted by the composer’s beautiful Ariettes Oubliées, a cycle of six stunning, perfumed items, right here stylishly sung by the mezzo, with a full palette of tone colors, matched solely by an exquisite lightness of contact from the pianist. Nikolovska provided stunning mezza voce in addition to loads of quantity and energy as wanted.
Then it was two items by Russian piano virtuoso/composer Nikolai Medtner. Well-known for his “finger breakers”, I didn’t notice that he additionally composed stunning songs, resembling “Twilight,” which by the way might be discovered on YouTube sung by Nikolovska, on the iconic Wigmore Corridor, no much less.
A spotlight of the recital was Nikolovska’s humorous evaluation of the final cycle, the 5 Promoting Songs by Nicolas Slonimsky. She actually let her hair down figuratively with this group, exhibiting to all her irrepressible and humorous facet. I’m wondering what number of younger singers within the critical classical music enterprise would dare to shriek the opening line of “Kids Cry for Castoria”? My guess is probably going subsequent to none! Nikolovska reveals that her stage persona is larger-than-life and he or she’s not afraid to indicate it. When an artist has the requisite vocal and musical chops to again up a giant persona like she does, I enterprise to say she’ll go far.
By all of it, Richard-Hamelin was a stalwart collaborative pianist of one of the best type, exhibiting his marvellous pianism and providing rock strong assist to the soloist, and safe sufficient to let the singer take the centrestage and the lion’s share of the highlight. To him, I’ve solely my sincerest respect and admiration.
One remaining thought — I used to be struck by how stunning the thematic program was put collectively. (Learn our interview with Ema, the place she talks about placing it collectively, right here.) This can be a sterling instance of the sort of considerate programming so frequent in Europe and within the UK, however for some motive not often encountered on this facet of the pond.
At the moment on tour with this program, Nikolovska and Richard-Hamelin might be heard on the Vancouver Playhouse in Vancouver, Bourgie Corridor in Montreal, and Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, Ottawa.
A massively pleasant present, catch it in case you can.
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Joseph So is Professor Emeritus at Trent College and Affiliate Editor of Opera Canada.He’s additionally a long-time contributor to La Scena Musicale and Opera (London, UK). His curiosity in music journalism focuses on voice, opera in addition to symphonic and piano repertoires. He seems often as a panel member of the Massive COC Podcast.He has co-edited a guide, Opera in a Multicultural World: Coloniality, Tradition, Efficiency, revealed by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group).
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