Dmitri Hvorostovsky At The Edinburgh Festival

Dmitri Hvorostovsky the Russian baritone who is considered by many to be one of the finest baritones of the 21st century, performed at the Edinburgh Festival with a program and wardrobe in which the fashionable Russian gloom was well represented.

The first half of the program was mainly Tchaikovsky with his vain of despair, that Hvorostovsky managed to paint in all kinds of black and was rewarded in a contradicting way with great and warm applause
I am quite jelous of those who attended and the write up in Intermezzo made me even more so

The second half’s songs by Rachmaninov and his contemporary Medtner were less familiar, but in the same Russian-romantic idiom. Though even more of a test for teh piano skillz of Mr Ilja, the raw material ultimately lacked the invention and durability of the first half’s offerings.

Perhaps that was why Hvorostovsky chose to perk up Medtner’s settings of Goethe’s Gl?ckliche Fahrt and Wandrers Nachtlied with the infinitely-sustained final notes he’s famous for. What top C’s are to Juan Diego Fl?rez, big breaths are to Dmitri Hvorostovsky. It’s the length that counts, and we love him for it. Ever attentive to the mood of the audience - he’s not one of those singers who retreats into himself - he obliged with a couple more big’uns towards the end. How cheap, how vulgar, how wonderful. Only a singer as technically assured and expressively controlled as Hvorostovsky can get away with this sort of showmanship without diminishing the emotional impact of what’s preceded it.

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If this wet you appitite, and you plan to be in London in October, Dmitri Hvorostovsky repeats this programme with Evgeny Kissin at the Barbican on 16 October - not to be missed.