1979 REMINISCENSES 

Brabants Dagblad published a report on the proceedings revolving around the finals on Saturday, when the Casino Theatre Den Bosch was buzzing from excitement, tension, and enthusiasm, given the loud cheering-on that accompanied nearly all numbers:

‘The air was rife with compassion, intense identification with the candidates, and also with admiration for those youngsters that challenged the odd with their voices and talent. The IVC remains an event with a myriad of aspects that make it what it is, an educational, and a musical celebration that has unique social and artistic value also for the city, the province and the country. As long as this competition maintains its value and popularity, it should continue.

When we review the entire list o semi finalist, it must be said that the judgments were fair, and all 18 finalists were chosen for good reasons. There were also no discrepancies within the Jury, it seems. Having said that, it was quite a marathon to hear all finalists out during the overlong finals, which lasted from 11 AM to 6 PM, including 18 mini recitals with a total of 63 musical piece, either arias for opera or oratorio, or songs. Those who started out by making notes of each detail in interpretation ultimately stuck to just listing the names and numbers.

It should also be said that the finalist made the most of it in this 26 edition of the IVC Den Bosch. There can be no doubt that administering the Prizes will be a hard task, although it is easy to see that with so much operatic fireworks, Lieder interpreters will have a hard battle in this competition, no matter how good they were. And yet, there were clearly some knowledgeable people among the audience, since the Finnish soloist Kalevi Olli was loudly applauded for his refined singing in Schubert’s extremely demanding ‘Der Zwerg,’ which even garnered him a few bravos! His reward, an Honorary Diploma, was a meager Prize, even though he of course face the task of having to follow up on Schubert with two difficult arias.’ (Hein Zomerdijk, ‘Vocalistenconcours is uniek,’ Brabants Dagblad, September 10, 1979.)

Admittedly, Zomerdijk’s journalistic ‘distance’ was by now long gone. Over the years he had turned from an objective critic into an enthusiastic supporter of the event. His descriptions of the proceedings and the achievements were still knowledgeable, just and very insightful, but from a mere observer he had now clearly made it his mission to help the IVC persevere by making its value crystal clear in the public mind, and thus also in the political arena, where the financial backbone was increasingly challenged in recent years.

Zomerdijk’s ‘turnover’ demonstrates how the IVC can get to its audience, including renowned critics, in a way that regular 2 or 3-hour performance could never achieve. This effect is not unique to the IVC, but rather intrinsic to vocal competitions around the globe, although Den Bosch held a rather special place among them at a point in time where every famous city in the musical world seemed to have started a vocal competition. The miracle is that by 1979, Den Bosch remained on a par with competitions as those in Munich, Barcelona, Geneva, and the Royal one in Brussels, most of them offering substantially higher financial rewards for Prize Winners. According to President of the Jury Manus Willemsen, this was on one part due to the combination of what Zomerdijk described above with the provincial good heartedness of the people, many of them hosting candidates as a charity. On the other side, candidates were given a fair treatment in The Netherlands, where decisions were never made on extra musical grounds. Where rumors around decision elsewhere had occasionally been challenged on extra musical grounds, 26 years o IVC had given rise to fierce disputes in the press and among the audience, juries had been accused of incompetence, even of ‘deafness,’ but never of promoting particular singers for an array of possible wrong reasons.

1979 GALA CONCERT

Seldom had an IVC Gala Concert garnered such rave reviews as this edition, which is all the more remarkable since the 1979 IVC had brought forth only one 1^st prize winner, while the Great Prize of the City of Den Bosch was not even awarded! The eminent critic Chris de Jong-Stolle could not be with details, but reveled mostly in the splendid vocal achievements at the Gala Concert, when nearly all Prize Winners surpassed themselves by far, especially Nelly Miricioiù and Coby Dijk.

Hein Zomerdijk proved as enthusiastic about the level of the performances as about the fact that once more a program was found that enabled a full orchestral gala, without ‘inapt pianos being dragged on stage.’ He nearly succumbed to Nelly Miricioiù’s deeply moving singing of ‘Depuis le jour’ from Charpentier’s Louise, which fitted her voice like a glove, as did ‘È strano’ from La traviata, which Zomerdijk judged superior to ‘Qui la voce’ from I puritani. De Jong-Stolle used even stronger words to describe Miricioiù’s talents:

‘Soprano Nelly Miricioiù is an opera diva pur sang, who commands all elements of the trade to perfection. In her arias of Bellini, Charpentier and Donizetti were a triumph of vocal virtuosity and a deserved triumph for the artist, who brought the audience to a frenzy.’ (Chris de Jong-Stolle, ‘Zangers beter op het slotconcert,’ NRC?, September 14, 1979)

If Zomerdijk had some questions in the back of his mind given her appearances in the semi finals and the finals, those were now gone. It was on the evening of, 1979 that Nelly Miricioiù started her legendary, life long relationship with the Dutch audiences, who soon cherished and treasured her as the true heir to the Dutch Matinee idol of the 1960 and 70’s Magda Olivero in verismo repertoire, and to Dame Joan Sutherland in the romantic repertoire of Bellini and Donizetti.

In the light of all those ravishing operatic achievements, he found time to ponder on the different expectations that one should bring towards performances by clear Lieder singers or oratorio vocalists such as countertenor Christopher Royall, who held their ground amidst all the operatic fireworks with balanced and technically accomplished performances. De Jong-Stolle went one step further and wrote t that those spectators who had any misgivings over the large number of unpopular modern pieces during the competition, were now whole compensated since these pieces were completely absent from the Gala Concert program, which was a greatest hits of popular opera and oratorio arias! To which he added that a countertenor voice indeed was special in an aria from Händel’s Messiah, ‘He was despises.’ Zomerdijk agreed, adding that Royal forced the conductor to take a slower tempo, which was the right approach although the discrepancy made the final result a bit uneven. In addition, he had a great time listening to baritone Peter Savidge in, for example, his aria from Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium, in which the orchestra, including the trumpettist, played a significant role as well. For a mezzo-soprano specialized in song, the Romanian Liliane Bizinecche achieved marvels in her aria from Saint-Saëns, where she unfolded more warmth in her voice than she had hitherto revealed. Where she still lacked the necessary refinement for Carmen, De Jong-Stolle pointed rather to the remarkable fact that her specialism was song, where she was perfectly at home, he assured his readers.

Opinions were divided over Mary Burgess. The smitten Zomerdijk thought she too surpassed herself, whereas De Jong-Stolle thought that the limits of her capacities were now revealed, as were baritone Henry Herford’s. Zomerdijk agreed that Herford did not yet manage to bring the aria to life, although he still felt it was a fine achievement.

Home run

In the slipstream of Miricioiù’s triumph, Coby Dijk scored sort of a home run with a superb Bellini aria that surprised the critics. De Jong-Stolle thought that her Bellini aria blended vocal warmth with sensitivity and suplesse. Zomerdijk thought she could have been better before the pause, where she sang ‘outside her repertoire.’

Ultimately, there was a surprise performance of the quintet from Mozart’s Così fan tutte, by Peter Herford, Coby Dijk, Mary Burgett, Howard Crook and Peter Savidge, three of who sang it without having a score near! The orchestra blended splendidly with them, and the audience rewarded this special gesture to them with triple applause.

André Vandernoot, the new conductor

With so much excitement about the vocalists, we almost forgot to mention the once again highly praised achievement of the Brabant Orchestra, with a new conductor on the rostrum in the person of André Vandernoot. He faced a tough challenge in stepping into André Rieu Sr.’s shoes, but, like the singers, the conductor rose to the challenge and made a splendid impression from the stat in Beethoven’s ‘Egmond Overture.’

* Since the original concert program is missing from our archives, we do not know the complete program and the exact order of the arias. We do know that Miricioiù sang all three mentioned arias. The Charpentier aria was omitted at the original broadcast, but broadcast separately at a later date. Other than that aria, which is mentioned as her first number in the press, all arias appear as they do on our archive recordings.

** The Così fan tutte quintet was a surprise bonus, and was not printed in the program.