Hello everyone,

 

It certainly is not as much fun to have Frank here when we can only look but not touch.  Nor going places that you get to see afresh through a child’s eyes.  All things going according to plan, they will be in Durham on Wednesday.  I’m still closed for all the obvious reasons.  Any yard work that I may have done has gone under with all the rain and sunshine making the plants very happy to go places I don’t want them to go.  The bees, too, are very happy.  Sigh.

 

Enough with the gloom.  Let’s find some music that makes sense in the world.  Remember Aksel Rykkvin, the world-famous Norwegian boy soprano we all loved?  There are a million videos of his perfect boy soprano performances.  Well, he’s a young baritone now:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLBb2P_oYmA  As a person who has met a lot of 16-year-old bari-tenors, I’d say he’s really very good.  All his musicianship is paying off, and he sings beautifully.  Let’s hope that the voice develops into something with which he can make a career – IF he wants to do that.

 

I got to meet his voice teachers at a NATS workshop a few years ago.  He was just starting his journey into the voice change, and they were talking about how they are working with him.  This Schubert song is a tiny bit pushed, but this was before the Britten folksong above:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TphscdLJ504  You can hear a bit of nervous vibrato, which is often a sign of a young voice being pushed.  Of course, it could be just nerves.  I can’t even imagine what it’s like for a child star to change to a new voice and then perform.  Notice how mild the applause is?  He is used to getting rapture.  Bless him!  I’m just glad that the later one is better.

Best wishes,

Pat