ANDREAS SCHOLL
WITH SARAH TRAUBEL
AND RED DOT BAROQUE
Esplanade Concert Hall
Sunday (20 July 2025)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 July 2025 with the title "Red Dot Baroque's sublime collaboration with Andreas Scholl and Sarah Traubel".
A proper and sustained pursuit of baroque music-making in Singapore may be said to have begun with Red Dot Baroque (RDB) in 2018, led by founding artistic director, violinist and Young Artist Award recipient Alan Choo. An ongoing series of landmark performances and artistic triumphs continued in this collaboration with world-renowned German countertenor Andreas Scholl and soprano Sarah Traubel.
RDB’s recently concluded grand tour of Italy carried into this Esplanade Classics presentation of the Italian baroque. Antonio Vivaldi’s three-movement Sinfonia from the opera L’Olimpiade opened with infectious vigour, setting the stage for a gripping evening of music-making.
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| Photo: AlvieAlive |
The subjects of love and death began with soprano Traubel in commanding form for Da rio funesto turbine from Giovanni Pergolesi’s opera Il Flaminio. Her perfect diction and intonation, allied with expressive power, made this aria describing a whirlwind of emotions totally memorable.
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| Photo: AlvieAlive |
Loud applause greeted Scholl, who last sang here 25 years ago, when he emerged for Nicola Porpora’s Per pieta, turba feroce (For Pity’s Sake, O Fierce Crowd) from the oratorio Il Trionfo della divina giustizia ne tormente e morte di Gesu Cristo (The Triumph of Divine Justice in the Torments and Death of Jesus Christ).
Despite nursing a cold, Scholl shrugged off any hint of bother or strain, his recognisable head voice radiant as fondly remembered. In this impassioned plea from Mary for compassion at the cross of Jesus, his delivery enthralled with nimbleness, athleticism and heartfelt sincerity.
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| Photo: AlvieAlive |
Closing the half was George Frideric Handel’s secular cantata Amarilli Vezzosa (Charming Amaryllis or The Amorous Duel), where Scholl and Traubel took turns in teasing, taunting and then threatening. Listeners knowing Italian is essential, but the singing, body language and to-and-fro dramatics between the duo all pointed to a romance gone awry. Their very short and abrupt duet at the end said it all, “never the twain shall meet”.
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| Photo: AlvieAlive |
The second half saw a rare performance here of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, the Latin liturgy on the sorrow of Mary at the foot of Jesus’ crucifixion. Written in 1736 at the end of his very short life, its twelve movements – with nine set in the minor key – reflected gravitas and urgency.
The 14-member RDB perfectly captured the opening Stabat mater dolorosa’s solemn mood, before Scholl and Traubel’s anguished entries. Alternating between duets and arias, this classic’s sequence of verses could just make a believer out of anyone.
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| Photo: AlvieAlive |
Quis est homo (duet), Vidit suum dulcem datum (soprano aria) and Eja mater fons amoris (alto aria) were particularly affecting. The duet Fac ut ardeat cor mortum, delivered with fast and furious intensity, clearly moved the audience, drawing immediate and spontaneous applause.
The final third was no less moving, with the duet Inflammatus et accensus in B flat major providing a momentary uplift of spirits. The final duet Quando corpus morietur was a return to earlier dolour, drawing a veil of tears before a brief fugal Amen to close on a high.
A reading as sublime as this is the very reason why the experience of live performances with great artists – greeted with a standing ovation on the evening – will always trump the best of studio recordings.
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| A rare standing ovation at the Esplanade. |
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