Notes from the 2024 Salzburg Festival ( 9 ) A Masterclass with Malcolm Martineau

Salzburg Festival • Young Singers Project • Malcolm Martineau • Egor Sergeev

Singers, Soon to be on Stages Near You

A Masterclass with Malcolm Martineau and variously ripe vocal talent

What do we learn while attending a publically held master class, actually? The real work of such a class – again with the scottish accompanist-extraordinaire Malcolm Martineau at this year's Young Singers Project of the Salzburg Festival – takes place well before the final concert, behind the scenes. The subsequent 15 minutes with each singer, in front of a decent audience in the University's lecture hall, is really just the tip of the iceberg. Young singers sing and Martineau will find something to nudge into a preferred direction. A little faster here, a little slower there. A phrase a little closer to the meaning of the text, please, a vowel turned from bright to dark. Thank you very much, next.

But even in this limited amount of time, there's quite a bit that can be revealed. Mostly about the character of the person holding the masterclass, rather than the students. Some singers have been rather infamous for revealing themselve as unpleasant species, when they couldn't even (or especially) keep their arrogance or nastiness in check while operating in front of an audience. That would make Malcolm Martineau a superbly endearing, angelic speciment of his kind, just relatively speaking. But he speaks and nudges and teaches with what seems a genuine kindness, a passion, a goofy wit. Charming, gentle, nifty. He praises, only to then suggest a little change. There is no correction that is not accompanied by something postiive. And he gets the audience to giggle (cherishing the humorous effect of his words), but never at the young singer's expense. They tend to giggle along, when he comes up with a clever simile or, for vividness' sake, exagerates a mannerism.

The registers were nicely mixed, hardly by accident. The quality varied. A late-starter of a tenor sounded rather demure (not in the meme-sense). There was a willing bass (who had already shown some of his potential in a Mozart matinee with Ivor Bolton), and a sympathetic Soprano who, alas, was too loud across the board and of whom one hopes the she doesn't give too much of her, too early. Between these registers there was Tamara Obermayr to discover: A surprisingly ready, stage-secure mezzo, with a generous but never dull lustre to her voice – part velvet, part smokey quartz – who delighted with Fauré. She probably need not worry about the bit where Martineau criticized her delivery as "too beautiful". Surely something can be done about that.

And then there was Egor Sergeev. I was tempted to just pack up this russia-born baritone with his gently-french timbre, and put him on the next stage. A tall drink of water, a lanky with natural charme, he has got a hint of Gérard Souzay in his voice, the physique of a young Bo Skovhus, and somethign of the charisma of Yannick Nézet-Séguin (oddly). Made for the theater! His voice blossomed brightly and lightly, with beauty across the entire register, and plenty strength as he sang Tchaikovsky's lovely (superficially simplistic) "Otchego". Martineau visibly enjoyed working with such attractive raw material and audiences are bound to enjoy it, too, and probably very soon!


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