Superior soprano Emma Kirkby draws long lines ★★★☆☆

Can she still do it? That impertinent question circles in the Zutphense Sint-Janskerk above the curly hair of Emma Kirkby. After all, the English soprano, an icon of early music practice, is already 73. Since the days of flower power, her tight, unadorned sound has symbolized a musical protest movement that has shaken up the classical sector.

A medium-sized church still gets Kirkby sold out. Not only older connoisseurs are attracted to her recital in the Zomer Academie Zutphen, the biennial festival of soprano Johannette Zomer. Up to and including Sunday, up-and-coming professionals will also be swarming around Kirkby. In masterclasses she educates the young singers about the craft that has made her famous: the light, eloquent presentation of music from the Baroque.

First observation, on a song by Giulio Caccini: Kirkby’s voice has warm tones. Second thought: all those cubic meters of church do not provide the ideal acoustics. Purity sometimes remains a suspicion, especially with fast notes that flow like watercolor. The atmosphere remains captivated until halfway through the concert. Not until Kirkby gets up and A Tale out of Anacreon Acting Out, a love story with horror tones by Henry Lawes, the spell is broken with a round of applause.

The fact that this soprano draws long lines in a superior manner remains audible. She arranges commas and periods perfectly, she gives sentences a natural cadence. Chic of lutenist Fred Jacobs that he does not push himself into the foreground as an accompanist. Clearing the way for Dame Emma, ​​the singer who once gave voice to a revolution.