Young Artists perform in an old Zinc Mine

This morning I had the opportunity to listen to the wonderful Aksel Rykkvin as part of the music festival Momentum in Stolberg near Aachen. I have listened to many of his Youtube clips, but nothing beats the live impression.

The concert was titled „Young Artists in Concert“. The other young artist was the 20 years old cellist Brendan Goh from Singapur (he now lives in Vienna). Both of them were accompanied by the pianist who organizes the festival Patricia Buzari.

The concert focussed on songs of Brahms and Schumann in the first half and songs of Britten and the cello sonata of Brahms in the second half. The final trio of Britain was an adaption of one of the Brahms songs from the first half „Da unten im Tale / The stream in the vallley“, which I think was an excellent selection.

I was very excited to hear Aksel live. He is still so young, only 16 years old, but already a professional on stage. Despite the fact that the acoustics in the hall wasn’t the best and I considered the piano too persistent, I found Aksels singing excellent. He sings as a baritone for only about one and a half years and he has already a wide range and still beautiful voice. It will certainly improve over time. I am definitely looking forward to hearing him again.

Very disappointing was, that there were only about 25 people in the audience, five of them being Aksel’s family. Of course you cannot expect a full concert on a Wednesday morning, nevertheless I would have wished for an appropriately large audience for the high quality of the concert. The positive effect was that I could have a short chat with Aksel‘s parents after the concert and a shake hands with Aksel. For those wondering: Considering the weather I have already washed my hands 😉

For those who really don’t know whom I‘m talking about, here is a Youtube clip of Aksel: