I’m sitting in bed in my Cardiff hotel, and reflecting on the experience of the last week. The final of the famous “Cardiff Singer of the World” has just taken place, and we are winding down after a very stimulating day and evening. As we walked back to the hotel from St. David’s Hall I was thinking that there had been a king of theme running through the day that could be summed up by reference to a choice between i”Spirit and technique”.
The overall prize in the competition turned out to be highly controversial, being awarded by the judging panel to a Ukrainian baritone. The decision was evidently very unpopular among the audience, as was evidenced not only by the ghasp of astonishment when it was announced, but even more so by the number of people who refrained from applauding. The possible explanation that occurred to me was a discrepancy between an audience that had penalised him for an apparent lack of “spirit” in his repertoire, and a judging panel that had perhaps prioritised technique in reaching their decision.
This seemed to be a kind of unifying theme in the sculpture exhibition we saw in the Welsh National Museum earlier in the day. The artist was called David Nash. I had encountered his work some time ago, but had forgotten about him. He works in wood, sometimes on a monumental scale…. with whole tree trunks! In his case, however, it stuck me that the exciting thing about his work was precisely his ability to demonstrate that he is a master of his techniques, but also able to infuse them with a sense of energy and emotional force that I think is appropriately termed “spirit”. Clearly there is a good deal to poner on here.
At an entirely different level of seriousness, I was delighted that I was able to keep my promise to myself and sing the Welsh national anthem (always played at the end of the Cardiff competition) in Welsh. I put quite a lot of effort into this during the month leading up to tonight, and was quite pleased with the result….although perhaps any independent observer might have given me more marks for “spirit” than for “technique”!