Diana Axentii and Alissa Zoubritski – I want to sing at home – At the Organ Hall Moldova

About the voices that transfigure | Organ Hall Moldova

Published on April 12, 2024 by Natalia Turcan

French classical music, vocal or instrumental, is a remarkable page in the history of universal music. It is distinguished by its special style, by the elegance and weakness that it awakens in the heart of every listener. But no musical moment can be truly beautiful, revelatory, or appreciable if it does not also have a performance to match. If the poster or the program can bring a listener into the hall, then only the professionalism of the performance is what will bring him back to the concert hall (or show).

We are talking about this kind of professionalism when we refer to the concert on April 7, at the Organ Hall. The delicate pianist Alissa Zoubritski and the superb soprano Diana Axentii performed French arias and songs.

The program included the composers Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc. Each of these being different, assuming other forms of complexity and approach, especially vocal. If in the first part we listened to songs, in the second part we had the revelation of some arias from well-known works and of an impressive difficulty, even for an inexperienced spectator.

Let us start with Alissa Zoubritski. The pianist had a very delicate, fine, refined performance and stage presence, her manner of interpretation brought added value to the soloist, and the collaboration of the two felt like a permanent musical connection, based on listening, mutual respect and a lot of consideration. Such support is not easy to find. The well-known work Les Chemins de l’amour, by Francis Poulenc, transcribed for piano by Alissa Zoubritski, conveyed both the warmth of the main melodic line and the entire world that the musicality of this song brings. Here the beauty, delicacy, nobility and emotional complexity, both interpretative and of the message, felt so harmoniously intertwined.

The one who gave voice to the evening was Diana Axentii. An outstanding vocal soloist, who begins her musical journey at the University of Arts in Chisinau (2002) and continues it climbing to the stage of the Paris Opera and in the theaters of the entire world, including Asia and the USA. Diana Axentii’s voice sounded clear and crisp from the first notes to the end. Technically speaking, her sound is well positioned and very successfully managed. When you listen to her, she gives the feeling that she sings with a natural lightness, and that is how she conquers. The audience has the joy of interacting with the emotion and story in the song or aria, not with some gratuitous or gratuitous imposition. Diana Axentii also has an intense, colorful, consistent timbre. Her interpretive attitude changes with the story he is interpreting. In the fragment from the “Scheherazade” cycle, the nuances of her voice built the whole show in the Organ Hall stage, including the scenography.

In the second part, we could see that Diana Axentii is also a superb actress – whether she was Margaret from “Faust”, Cinderella or Juliet, she transformed herself with the aria she performed. Each of these three arias put us in front of a new being, who was no longer Diana, it was Margaret – with all her naive and so painful drama, or Cinderella – with her heart throbbing with the emotion of the ball to which she cannot he thinks it was, or the Virgin – with her fascination and piety before Heaven, or Juliet – with the bewilderment and dilemma she experiences. By this one values ​​an artist of the opera stage, by his deep understanding that he does not “sing” a role, she plays a role, she becomes that character and lives it, only in this way the opera has charm and truly impresses. The merit of this concert was to induce this state without scenography, orchestra or any other stage details, which is undeniably impressive.

In conclusion, true art is not to be understood, it is to be felt. Anyone who steps into a performance hall, it is nice to leave there different than when they entered, a richer person for the experience they lived, and this time the two artists – Diana Axentii and Alissa Zoubritski – succeeded to do it. For such moments there is art, and that is why people put their talent and life at its mercy, for this touch of magic that is so savior in all times, on all occasions and for all souls.