Bass singer Maurice Kibel has made impressive progress since his recital last October. He sang at the Rhodesian Academy of Music’s lunch hour concert yesterday.
The sincerity of his feeling for the music was never in doubt, but he has now mastered small technical difficulties which previously prevented the full expression of his talent. The range of his voice has widened above and below and problems of intonation and pitch have been almost fully overcome. There is a fine sonority in the lower register, but occasionally the middle range still sounds slightly constricted and throaty, especially when approached from below, in the middle of a phrase.
Fine control
Now and again he pays inadequate attention to note values, thereby losing rhythmic crispness.
There was fine control of light and shade in Handel’s “Ombra Mai Fu” and the Bellini aria, and a well-spun melodic line in “Pieta Signore” by Stradella.
The fioratura passages in Handel’s “Droop Not Young Lover” were sung with fluency and ease.
The folk songs were as artfully sung as before, but the caution which made them appear slightly inhibited at the previous recital was gone and they had all the extrovert sense of enjoyment this medium requires.
David Lourie’s accompaniment, as expected, was impeccable.