February 10, 12 & 13, 2022
Atlanta Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, GA
Dmitry Sinkovsky, conductor, violinist & countertenor; Georgia Jarman, soprano.
VIVALDI: Violin Concerto in E minor, RV 277
HANDEL: “Io t’abbraccio” from Rodelinda
HANDEL: “Caro! Bella!” from Giulio Cesare in Egitto
MOZART: “Come scoglio” from Così fan tutte, K. 588
MOZART: Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter”
Mark Gresham | 11 FEB 2022
For this week’s concerts by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Russian guest artist Dmitry Sinkovsky was promoted as a “triple threat” of sorts, appearing on the same program as a solo violinist, solo countertenor vocalist, and conductor.
Sinkovsky’s career has evolved principally in Europe, not so many appearances in the US. In January of this year, he conducted a single performance of Orfeo by the Neapolitan Baroque composer Nicola Antonio Porpora as part of the Osterklang Wien festival in Vienna, Austria. Before that, in September 2021, he led the St. Petersburg Philharmonic (Russia) in a program of Baroque vocal music featuring soprano Julia Lezhneva. Next week, he flies back to Russia to conduct Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Nizhny Novgorod State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater.
Thursday’s concert with the ASO opened with Antonio Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, RV 277 (Op.11 no. 2 ), nicknamed “Il favorito.”

Dmitry Sinkovsky performs Vivaldi’s “Il favorito” violin concerto. (credit Jeff Roffman)
As is the norm for Vivaldi concerti, the principal violin (soloist) plays with the section violins in the orchestral tutti sections of the fast first and third movements. That is how the music is written. So, of course, Sinkovsky began leading the ensemble with his bow strokes at the start then faced the audience when playing solo. Quite normal, though many other violinists will turn only halfway toward the orchestra as the orchestra can easily see their bowing gestures. It is unnecessary to turn your back to the audience. (Unless you happen to be an electric guitarist playing Southern Rock — that’s entirely different.)
It typically works well with a small ensemble of less than two dozen players, as was the case Thursday night. But Sinkovsky’s body language in leading the ensemble while playing seemed nervous and idiosyncratic, such as the jerky, bouncy jumps he made on occasion. It appeared to benefit neither the particular phrasing he was cajoling from his instrument nor the precision of ensemble.
Atlanta audiences will remember American soprano Georgia Jarman from her performance as Musetta in a semi-staged version of Puccini’s La bohème with Robert Spano conducting, and the subsequent 2008 recording on the Telarc label (Telarc 80697). Also, local opera fans will recognize Jarman from her performance as Norina in The Atlanta Opera’s 2017 production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.
Sinkovsky sang as a countertenor with Jarman in a pair of operatic duets from Georg Frederic Handel: “Io t’abbraccio” (“I embrace you”) from Rodelinda (Act II scene 7, Rodelinda and Bertarido) and “Caro! Bella!” (“My dear! My beauty!”) from Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Act III scene 10, Cleopatra and Cesare).
Singing the duets would have been less problematic had Sinkovsky not also been trying to lead the orchestra simultaneously. The orchestra stayed together (due to its musicianship) but was not always with the two singers (or vice versa, as one might readily suggest, the singers were not with them). Sinkovsky’s flapping around between tasks was distracting and not very effective. It reminded me of a small-town church music director who conducts the choir anthem, turns around to sing the solo in the middle, then picks up a trumpet to play a line of two — very parochial. Better had Sinkovsky either sung or conducted, but not both.
The combination of the two voices was at its best when singing in parallel thirds. On those occasions, there was a nice near-blend and balance. At other times, Jarman was observably the stronger, more secure vocal presence.
At at least one point, Sinkovsky was obliged to shift down below his male alto register for a few notes, resulting a much less pleasing sound. It’s not that the male alto voice requires any extra physical effort. Instead, it is a different use of the vocal mechanism — an alternate register and resonance than, say, a baritone or tenor voice. A good analogy is how a clarinet’s clarion register differs from its lower chalumeau register.
Finally, Sinkovsky turned to conduct only for the remainder of the concert, in which the program turned to the music of Mozart.
Jarman sang “Come scoglio” (“As a rock”), an aria from Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Act I no. 14) in which the character Fiordiligi sings of forever-faithful love. It’s a showpiece aria with constant leaps from low to high and high to low over a range of two octaves and a minor third: A below the treble staff to C above the staff. A challenge for any singer, but Jarman, who has a luminous and agile bel canto voice, met the challenge well, although she allowed the very top notes of her range to get a bit out of hand.
After intermission, Sinkovsky led the ASO in Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 (“Jupiter”). He tried very much to approach the phrasing as a singer would. It took until the repeat of the first movement’s exposition for the performance to begin to gel. Sinkovsky seems at his best when focused on conducting, but in the end, I found his “Jupiter” not fully convincing.
After the end of the ovations, the orchestra did not get up from their seats to leave the stage as they usually do. Some people had already begun to leave the hall. There was an awkward moment when members of the audience did not seem to know what was going on. After a longish pause, Sinkovsky came back on stage to lead the orchestra in an encore from the Symphony’s final movement, from the fugato that starts at bar 372 to the end.
That encore appeared pre-planned rather than a spontaneous response to the audience’s reaction to the performance, thus coming off as artificial and somewhat disingenuous.
This ASO program repeats on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon at Symphony Hall. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: aso.org
- Dmitry Sinkovsky: dmitrysinkovsky.com
- Georgia Jarman: georgiajarman.com

Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. he began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.