The fact that this German group call themselves vocal soloists as opposed to singers is the first clue: the Neue Vocalisten deal fearlessly with anything a composer can throw at them. Covering a vast range, from coloratura soprano to basso profundo, the two women and four men espouse a breathtaking instrumental virtuosity. Yet it is not the extraordinary plasticity of gorgeous sound or the often wildly unconventional effects, but the theatricality that makes their performance riveting. This a cappella concert in the gratifying acoustic of the CBSO Centre allowed a real appreciation of their art.
Georges Aperghis' Petrrohl was inspired by a painting by the Swiss Adolf Wölfi, an asylum-bound schizophrenic, and it reflected an aura of painstaking and increasingly manic, bubbling creativity. Notes in scatter-gun patterns were delivered with precise articulation. In L'Alibi della Parola for Four Male Voices, Salvatore Sciarrino explores the relationship between sound and silence. From the rasping breaths of the opening, the growing tension of the empty spaces between notes was carefully engineered, giving the more expressionistic style of the final bars a curious poignancy.
Lucia Ronchetti's latter-day madrigal, Anatra al sal, required each singer to take on the persona of egotistic chef disputing the perfect recipe for salt duck. Andreas Fischer's oleaginous bass was balanced by the arial tricks of Angelika Luz, the music's humour deftly handled.
During Luciano Berio's last years, the Neue Vocalsolisten had hoped for a new work from him; instead Berio gave them carte blanche to work on their own version of his piece A-Ronne, arguably the alpha and omega of contemporary vocal writing. The absence of the original tape element threw the voices into ever sharper relief, with the Vocalsolisten indulging their penchant for wickedly surreal and satirical characterisations. A delicious skit on Brahms' Guten Abend, Gute Nacht was the brilliant good night.
