"This is the most difficult job in the world," said the Lieder accompanist Graham Johnson, announcing the results of this £12,000 prize competition. That's hardly the case, but the jury's deliberations certainly weren't a breeze.They dragged on for nearly two hours, and even then didn't result in either a unanimous verdict or the awarding of a first prize.
Perhaps the top award was held back because, although the four finalists had beaten off 34 other entrants, none was quite polished, quite "finished" enough to seem completely at home in this particular genre of singing. This seemed to be the only real reason for denying first place to the Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman. Hers was the most complete performance, combining a plush yet diamond-bright tone with lots of stage presence. During her first song there were slips in her control, but after that she came into her own, capturing the sultry stillness of Wagner's Im Treibhaus, turning on the charm in Wolf's In dem Schatten meiner Locken, showing her (already suspected) formidable side in Joaquin Turina's Vade Retro! and ending with intricate, flamenco-guitar sighs in his A Unos Ojos.
Brueggergosman took second prize and was thus the evening's "winner". She has a voice with real character, much more powerful than her age (24) would suggest, and if she is allowed to take things slowly she might carve out quite a career in opera. But one couldn't help feeling that this, rather than Lieder, is the direction in which her voice is headed.
Only the British tenor Daniel Norman could come near her in terms of communication. He was at his best in the long, smooth lines of three French songs by Fauré, but his voice tends towards dryness, and he was beaten by two other male singers who were less engaging but more mellifluous. His unfailingly musical accompanist Christopher Gould, however, beat Catherine Milledge to take first prize in the pianists' competition.
The baritone Tyler Duncan, another Canadian, took third prize for his sustained, even singing but his programme didn't push him to any exciting extremes. The American bass baritone Erik Nelson Werner lavished his substantial tone on works by six different composers, but relied too much on his excellent accompanist Kiai Nara to provide the changes in atmosphere. Werner was awarded fourth place, yet was voted the winner of the audience prize. Obviously opinions were divided not only in the jury but throughout the hall.
