With a biographical paragraph chock-full of achievements, including winner of the Opera les Azuriales Ozone prize and being a finalist in the 2014 Belvedere Singing competition, McAteer more than delivers the goods in performance. Accompanied by the accomplished Gavin Roberts on piano, whose previous engagements include Cheltenham Festival, the two make a dynamic duo.
Beginning with Schubert’s Auf der Bruck, Roberts’ piano provides momentum from the off, kickstarting the piece with jubilantly enthusiastic forte chords. From his first note McAteer’s face is alive, eyebrows raised and eyes wide with expression, as the rich timbres of his voice reverberate around the room.
Ganymede displays McAteer’s proficiency in sweet cantabile; a contrast to the exuberance of Auf der Bruck requiring strength and volume. The melodies are soothing and full bodied in his low register, the piece concluding delicately with a gently dissonant rising scale in the piano.
Continuing with Schubert; in Du hist die Ruh as Roberts lulls us with his beautifully oscillating accompanying theme, McAteer’s vocals are serene and yet a dark richness pervades every line. He ascends the crescendo with aplomb, the notes ricocheting off the theatre walls.
Vaughn William’s song cycle is flawless, from the trudging Vagabond to the folk inflected Whither Must I Wander. McAteer’s delivery is emotionally charged throughout and powerful, reaching truly ground shaking low pitches which throb through the floorboards.
Waldesgespräch of Schumann’s song cycle Liederkreis is sublime, and the way McAteer lends a slight pressure to the note when singing the word ‘kalt’ for the last time is subtle yet effective. There is an extra sense of desperation and dimension as it is rendered not merely cold, but cold, and this makes all the difference.
They close with the staccato inflected Schöne Fremde, the English translation of which reads ‘the treetops rustle and tremble’, McAteer truly entering into the spirit of the song by adding more breaths between notes and as singing in what could be described as a ‘rustling’ manner.
