review: Colin Brockie
Drew Tulloch, Piano
Cults Parish Church
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Alan Cooper writes...
One of the most valuable contributions made by sound to the North East of Scotland’s music scene arises from its generous collaboration with many other concert promoters across the region. One of these is Cults Parish Church where you can always be sure of the warmest of welcomes at their afternoon or evening concerts held throughout the year. Sunday evening’s event was particularly unmissable because it offered the chance to hear one of Aberdeen’s finest young singers who having graduated from The Royal College of Music in Manchester with a Master’s Degree in Solo Performance is now pursuing a nationwide singing career. Bass baritone Colin Brockie enjoyed the collaboration of Drew Tulloch one of our finest professional piano accompanists for his evening performance.
As well as music by well known composers of vocal music such as Hugo Wolf or Schubert to whom I would also add the name of Francis George Scott (1880 – 1958), a native of Hawick on the Scottish Borders, Colin had chosen three songs each by two American composers whose names were new to me. The first of these was the American opera composer Carlisle Floyd. Born the son of a Methodist preacher in South Carolina Floyd became a member of the piano faculty and eventually Professor of Composition at Florida State University in Tallahassee. His solo cantata Pilgrimage features three very attractive settings for bass voice. As soon as Colin Brockie began singing the first of these songs, Man that is born of a woman, the crystal clarity of his diction, his firm control of dynamics from the richest of fortissimos to almost whispered pianissimos and the amazingly wide range of his voice, we knew that we were in for a truly special performance. That lovely wide range of vocal sound from the lightest baritone to the richest, deepest bass was especially evident in the final song, For I am persuaded.
The three songs of Hugo Wolf’s Michelangelo Lieder have wonderful soaring vocal lines which were delivered with transparent clarity by Colin Brockie set against free flowing harmonies played with tender concentration by Drew Tulloch. The more sumptuous setting of the final song was particularly attractive.
Schubert’s three Italian Songs for Bass voice are a marvellous pastiche of Rossini and would confuse any student having to undergo a stylistic analysis exam. Both Colin and Drew captured the style of these pieces beautifully including the humour of the final song.
David Amram is another American composer who has the fascinating talent of being an exponent of jazz on the French horn, not an instrument that you would normally associate with jazz. His curriculum vita lists his artistic collaboration with just about anyone in any branch of the arts in twentieth century America – Charles Mingus, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Johnny Depp and Jack Kerouac are but a tiny sample of those listed. Although his interest in jazz and world music are also boasted, his Three Shakespeare Songs are more middle of the road classical and are examples of the more tonal style of composition that is coming back into fashion these days and never really disappeared in America. The first song Malvolio’s Aria was a splendid comic dramatic setting which benefitted greatly from Colin Brockie’s spectacularly clear diction and from his comic timing too. Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind was more overtly tuneful, even folksy and the Fool’s Song from King Lear was wistfully appealing.
The three Scottish songs by Francis George Scott included the gentle Milkwort and Bog-cotton the uproarious misadventure of The De’il o’Bogie and the tenderly sad words of The Old Fisherman whose dancing days for fishing are over.
Colin could hardly leave us with such a sad song floating in the air so along with Drew Tulloch in particularly fine fettle the duo gave us Victor Hely-Hutchinson’s Old Mother Hubbard, his humorous pastiche of Handel. Great fun, unless you happen to be a dog – but I don’t think there were any of them in the audience on Sunday.
© Alan Cooper 2013
