Press Reviews
Biggs, Byrne, Ó Cuinneagáin, Turrisi
John Field Room, NCH
Martin Adams
This was a welcome fourth instalment of Conor Biggs's series, What Makes a Great Song? The first three concerts, devoted to music from Germany, France and Russia, took place last January. Now it was Italy - a country famous for opera, but which also has a largely unknown wealth of art-song.
The format followed the same successful pattern. A selection of songs by various composers was supported by projected slides and commentary; and because the emphasis is on song as a vehicle for poetry, poets receive as much attention as composers, and each poem is read before the performance.
You can't have Italian song without a tenor. So, for the first time in the series, there were two singers. Conor Biggs was joined by the tenor Donal J. Byrne, whose lyric tones neatly complemented Biggs's bass voice.
Throughout this concert, Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin's pianism showed finesse and musical intelligence.
The poems were read by Francesco Turrisi; and his inherently musical intonation reminded me of a wistful comment written more than 300 years ago by John Dryden, who, when he was struggling with the problems inherent in writing quality English verse suited to musical setting, declared that Italian seemed to be invented for music and poetry.
Exactly! Although Conor Biggs was marginally less native-sounding in Italian than in the other languages he had presented, this concert was an authentic voyage of discovery. Gems by Rossini, Verdi, Donizetti, Mercadante and even the very non-Italian Schubert and Liszt, came across as if transported directly from their places of birth.
The songs were written for the salons of France, Germany and Italy; and those are now long-gone. But this impeccably crafted and presented evening opened their doors just enough for us to understand their nature, and the expressive world of this music.
© 2008 The Irish Times
Biggs, Ó Cuinneagáin in the John Field Room, NCH
Irish Times, 31st January 2008
Martin Adams
“This was the last of three concerts exploring the art songs of Germany, France and Russia. The first two were impressive in their presentation of music, spoken commentary, and slides illustrating the people and culture involved. However, this concert had the edge in performance of the songs. Conor Biggs seemed to make the music spring from the poetry, an aim he cherishes and which reflects the sequence of events when the composer wrote the music.
To some extent, this was because of Biggs’s remarkable fluency in the Russian language. It was also because Russian composers strove to write with a deep awareness of the language’s inflections. But more than anything, it was because Biggs sang as if he was a Russian who just happened to be born in Ireland. Even more than when he sings in German (a language in which he has long been fluent), he seemed to contain the soul of the poetry within himself.
Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov had a prominent place in the programme, and rightly so. The musical and expressive insights that these composers showed left you in no doubt of the music’s purpose and status. Although it was written for domestic performance, light and pleasing parlour music it is not.
The impeccable partnership between the singer and the pianist, Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin, was especially valuable in the sinister song that opens Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death. Kolybyel’naya means “lullaby”, but the child’s sleep is the sleep of death, and the way in which these musicians portrayed Mussorgsky’s dialogue between Mother and Death was full of scary insight.
This was a rewarding evening. If more of the world’s great artists had Conor Biggs’s artistic intelligence, music would be vastly enriched.”
Biggs, Ó Cuinneagáin in the John Field Room, NCH, Dublin
Thursday 24 January 2008
Martin Adams
“The second in Conor Biggs’ s series “What Makes a Great Song?” was devoted to French song. Like last week’s programme devoted to German song, this one lived up to its billing as “a voyage of discovery”.
One of Biggs’s most engaging aspects is to make it seem as if he is still exploring the music and the information he wishes to present, thanks to his knack with the informal bon-mot, as when he described Saint-Saëns 1852 song Le pas d’armes du Roi Jean as “a French song in German wine skins”, and when he was describing the distinctively French aspects of Fauré’s style.
During his introductory chat about Au cimetière he started singing a portion of it; and then he seamlessly metamorphosed Fauré’s mellifluous lines into a portion of plainchant, as a manuscript of that ancient music was projected onto a screen. Everyone learned something valuable, and in a way that was utterly memorable. Biggs’s formula for this voyage worked effortlessly. After a brief introduction to each composer and poet, the poems were read by Biggs’s wife Myriam Sosson. To this task she brought a musicality of speech that made the poetry sound exactly as is must have been for the composer - the starting point for composition.
The partnership between Biggs and Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin had that inseparable, common identity that comes when musicians have worked together for many years. From the French-Teutonic Saint-Saëns, to the true Frenchness of his younger contemporary Duparc, and from the image-rich suggestiveness of Debussy to the brilliant artifice of Ravel, this was a voyage full of memorable vistas.”
Biggs, Ó Cuinneagáin in the John Field Room, NCH, Dublin
Wednesday 16 January 2008
Martin Adams
"I took up singing because I thought it would be easy." So quipped Conor Biggs before the last song in this remarkable recital, the first in a three-part, unconventional exploration of the song traditions of Germany, France and Russia - "What Makes a Great Song?" About 26 years ago that same song, Wolf's “Fühlt meine Seele”, had been the first thing Biggs sang in public. "What can I have been thinking of?" he said.
All that says much about Biggs as an artist. Although he is brimming with wit, he's a driven man, incapable of doing anything superficially; his intelligence and vocal ability mean that he can deliver what he strives for. In this case it was a conspectus of German song from the 18th century to the early 20th century.
Biggs wants his audience to absorb "the inner music of the spoken word" as well as the song, for we often get to know a poem through the song, whereas it should be the other way round. So he introduced each item with informal yet deeply informed comments about the poet, the composer and their backgrounds, complete with projected pictures to personify their names. He talked briefly about the music, with a helping hand from Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin's piano playing. He read the poems with the flair of a native German speaker. And then, in the song, poetry was transformed into music.
This was a fluent, complete package, thanks to the impeccable partnership between theses two musicians, and to Bigg's remarkable ability to inform his audience without talking down. Along the way we encountered music familiar and rare, bu Beethoven, Neefe, CPE Bach, Mozart, Zelter, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Strauss and Wolf. And among these were some rare gems, including a beautiful Passionslied by CPE Bach.
Dublin, February 2007
Schubert – Winterreise
“Bass-baritone Conor Biggs is an artist who puts the music first. His response to the audience’s rousing ovation for this performance of Winterreise was to hold high the score and point to the composer’s name. But he had already made his ardent devotion to Schubert abundantly clear. This was his only recourse to the score. He knows these 24 songs backwards – literally, it turned out, because a freak page-turn caused his redoubtable accompanist Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin to play No 19 before No 18. But who cared? We got to hear No 19 a second time. Apart from the flawless memory, the impeccable preparedness and the limpid German diction, what struck you about Biggs was his unusual knack of getting straight to the point. In every song’s first syllable, the mood, the persona and the vocal colour were all immediately present and particular. If his highest notes could err on the rowdy side, that was because of the depth and precedence of emotion. Ó Cuinneagáin made the most of his baby grand’s limited dynamics and rough damping, and turned out exactly the shape of accompaniment that Biggs required. There’s conspicuous affinity between these two musicians, and their tastes and talents found a close fit with Schubert’s seminal cycle of Romantic song.”
(Andrew Johnstone)
Dublin, January 2007
“To say that bass-baritone Conor Biggs and pianist Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin were well prepared for this concert would be an understatement. With seven out of 14 items taken from their recent disc of Tchaikovsky songs, their programme was consistently ready and fluent. Their mostly Russian selections were neatly arranged like a Russian doll, with an outer layer of Rachmaninov and an inner one of Tchaikovsky. At the centre, and receiving its first performance, was a song cycle by English composer Andrew Wise, who, like Biggs, is a resident of Belgium. Tackling three Auden poems from the 1930s, Wise’s cycle is in a colourful and aptly new-tonal idiom that’s reminiscent of art-deco modernism. An arioso-like setting of Musée des Beaux Arts brings out the poem’s semantics rather than its irregular rhymes and metres, while Roman Wall Blues and Autumn Song capitalise on the crisper prosody of two sardonic ballad texts – the one swinging with mock cabaret fun, the other a finely crafted series of variations. It’s not unknown for leading vocalists to refer to a score during song recitals. Biggs, however, had committed this new material to memory – as he had the swathes of Russian verse. His preparedness extended from the mental realm to the vocal, with the initial vowel of every song hitting its mark of grit, tenderness or trepidation. In a repertory that’s popularly associated with the rumblings of bassi profundi, Bigg’s svelte tones and Ó Cuinneagáin’s polished and artfully scaled accompaniments made for a satisfying mix, both technically and emotionally, of gravitas and agility.”
(Irish Times, 23/01/2007, Andrew Johnstone)
"Conor Biggs has an uncanny ability to empathise with the works he performs and the rare gift of giving equal value to words and music... it would be hard to conceive a better interpretation of the music than that presented by this combination of singer and pianist". (Irish Times, 3/9/02)
"...probably the best singing by an Irish singer that I have heard in a long time." (Irish Times,Sept. 1990)
"...this was a remarkable demonstration of vocal skill and intelligent musicianship. I look forward to hearing more of Conor Biggs in the future; watch out for the next opportunity of hearing him." (Sunday Tribune,Jan. 1991)
"The most rewarding recital of German Lieder by Irish performers that I have heard in years" (Irish Times, 14/1/91)
"Conor Biggs graaft diep" (De Gentenaar)
"...wat Conor Biggs presteerde in de cyclus Schwanengesang grensde aan grote kunst... De droeve, soms bittere toon, het nostalgisch verlangen naar de verdwenen geliefde was treffend, emotioneel maar beheerst." (De Gentenaar, 15/5/93)
"... Conor Biggs displayed remarkable resources of feeling; it was as if he was giving voice to his own thoughts." (Irish Times, 9/4/02)
Press Reviews / Conor Biggs
“Strong story-telling abilities…the (Brahms) folksongs were performed with style and a dramatic intensity that was a credit to singer and pianist” (Sunday Tribune, 8/9/02)
“Conor Biggs has an uncanny ability to empathise with the works he performs and the rare gift of giving equal value to words and music... it would be hard to conceive a better interpretation of the music than that presented by this combination of singer and pianist” (Irish Times, 3/9/02)
“...Conor Biggs displayed remarkable resources of feeling; it was as if he was giving voice to his own thoughts” (Irish Times, 9/4/02)
“The crown of the evening was the song-cycle “O to Be a Dragon” (Kevin O’Connell). Conor Biggs gave a mesmerising performance, moving from speechlike song to songlike speech to pure song and all with the wide variety of gesture asked for by the composer.” (Irish Times, 17/4/02)
“... Conor Biggs, à la voix chaleureuse, sut interpréter sa partition avec toute la sobriété requise . » (Vers l’Avenir, 6/4/00)
« La sérénité devant la mort s’impose au croyant, comme affirmait avec conviction samedi la basse Conor Biggs dans une prosodie parfaitement intelligible. » (Ouest-France, 11/0/99)
“Biggs can act with his voice alone and Schubert’s rarely heard setting of the Cathedral scene from Goethe’s « Faust » gave further proof of his skill, but the most impressive of all were those philosophical poems of the younger Goethe, « Prometheus » and « Grenzen der Menscheit.” (Irish Times, 20/4/99)
“The magisterial conviction of bass Conor Biggs in Mussorgsky’s “Songs and Dances of Death...” (Irish Times, 12/3/99)
“In his all-Schumann programme Conor Biggs showed such empathy with both words and music that one almost felt in the presence of poet and composer. The words, sung with greatest understanding, were heightened by the music, and the music was heightened by the performance, which stressed the private nature of the song-cycles.” (Irish Times, 18/2/98)
(Monteverdi’s Orfeo): “ Charon the keeper slept the sleep, not of the dead but of beautiful musical persuasion” (Belfast Newsletter, 20/11/95)
(Tchaikovsky songs): “What a rare pleasure it was to hear an accomplished singer who is also an accomplished linguist.” (Irish Times, 28/9/92)
“Conor Biggs graaft diep”
“wat Conor Biggs presteerde in de cyclus “ Schwanengesang” grensde aan de grote kunst ... De droeve, soms bittere toon, het nostalgisch verlangen naar de verdwenen geliefde was treffend, emotioneel maar beheerst.” ( “De Gentenaar, 15/5/93)
“Conor Biggs seems to be temperamentally one with the German Lied, and Mahler’s “Songs of the Wayfarer” were sung with perfectly calculated expressiveness and tenderness of feeling.” ( Irish Times, 28/2/92)
“The most rewarding recital of German Lieder by Irish performers that I have heard in Years.” (Irish Times, Sept. 1990)
“...this was a remarkable demonstration of vocal skill and intelligent musicianship. I look forward to hearing more of Conor Biggs in the future; watch out for the next opportunity of hearing him.” (Sunday Tribune, Jan. 1991)
“...the strongest element in this variable “Messiah” was provided by the bass, Conor Biggs...” (Irish Times, 1990)
“...probably the best singing by an Irish singer that I have heard in a long time.” (Irish Times, Sept.1990)
(Byrd’s Three-Part Mass): “...il risultato è incantevole, si ascolti per questo il “Gloria” della “Messa a Tre Voci”, affidato ai bravissimmi Michèle Massima, Joris Bosman e Conor Biggs. Non solo hanno tutti e tre una voce molto bella, non solo cantano con precisione assoluta...”( Daniela Goldoni, “Orfeo nelle Rete”)
(Matthew Passion): “Hierbij ontroerde vooral de warme stem van de Ierse bas-bariton Conor Biggs” (E-zine met Hemelbed, Apr.2004)