By Stephen Brookes • The Washington Post • October 9, 2010
The up-and-coming Ukrainian countertenor Yuriy Mynenko flew into town on Monday, jumped into rehearsals in Tuesday, and delivered a fine and sometimes extraordinary North American debut at the Terrace Theater on Thursday night. With superb control, a subtle sense of drama, excellent taste and stunning voice, Mynenko, 31, seems poised to join the ranks of the best of the world’s countertenors.
That said, the recital (presented by Vocal Arts DC) stayed largely on the surface of the mostly-Baroque program, and only really caught fire here and there. That may have been due partly to normal debut jitters, but also to the rather dutiful and sometimes clumsy accompaniment by Gary Matthewman at the piano. The two had only met days before, and there didn’t seem to be much of the intuitive back-and-forth that lets a singer descend into the music and breathe it to life. While Mynenko’s delivery was always accomplished and exceptionally detailed — and the voice itself a thing of rare beauty — it rarely felt like the music was coming from any deep emotional core.
Until, that is, the very end of the program. The evening had stayed within a fairly narrow stylistic range (from Purcell to Vivaldi, more or less, where the bulk of the countertenor repertoire lies), with fine if heavily accented accounts of Handel’s “Va tacito”, Gluck’s “J’ai perdu mon Euridice” and others. But when Mynenko shifted into a work from his own time and language — “Farewell, o world,” by the contemporary Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov — any awkwardness vanished and the recital rose to an entirely new level. This was extraordinary singing in every way, and was followed by an equally moving a capella account of the Ukrainian national song — leaving little doubt that Mynenko is a talent to keep an eye on.