Regular readers  of my blog will be aware that - among other things - Jane and I share a love of opera, lieder (art-songs) and tennis. So the last week has been a joy for both of us:  young singers from a breathtaking array of countries, competing for the title of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World; and Andy Murray fiercely and craftily outwitting hugely efficient servers to emerge, for the fourth time, as Champion at Queens Club, from which position - two years back - he went on to win Wimbledon.

In singles tennis there can only be one winner. At Cardiff, however, three prizes were up for grabs.

An initial entry of some 400 singers had been whittled down to 20, competing in groups of 5 over 4 nights, the winner from each night going forward to the final when they were joined by a ‘wild card’, chosen by the jury from any of the groups. One of these five would be chosen for the main Cardiff Singer of the Worldprize.

Parallel to this a number of the singers had also chosen to compete for the Song Prize (where, instead of being backed by a full orchestra - for the first time, in the experience of some of them - it was just the singer and an accompanying pianist).

Finally, there was the Audience Prize, voted for by the likes of us, which went to one of the revelations of the week: the man on the left of the photo above: Amartuvshin Enkhbat, a baritone, from Mongolia.  Mary King (singer and vocal coach, one of the commentators on the individual performers) had been reduced to tears by the beauty of his voice  when she listened to him in rehearsals. “I was a small, blubbering wreck at the back of the stalls”, she admitted after his performance that evening.    

              

                     (Click on the links to hear the various singers).

In this clip he is performing at home in Mongolia

     

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQqK-wjJyEYg)

To his right in the photo is the one that both Jane and I particularly liked, Lauren Michelle, a soprano, from the USA.   Here she is singing just with a piano accompaniment.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya3QoQWFUnU

The remaining woman in the photo, Nadine Koutcher, a soprano, from Belarus, was voted overall winner, and so became the 2015  Cardiff Singer of the World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGkC94O3r3g 

The Song Prize winner, however, was the man on the right of the photo, Jongmin Park, a bass,  from South Korea.  I haven’t been able to find a clip of his singing his final choice, a folk song from his own country, but here’s a taste of what he can sound like. (More like a bass-baritone, actually).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZHN69tYRwE

Finally, one of the singers who made the final of the Song Prize and shows how difficult it must have been for the jury to make up its mind. This is Ilker Arcayürek, a tenor, from Turkey, singing a song by Hugo Wolf.  Just listen to the clarity, and balance with the pianist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J63mdHJjUJc

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So, how can I think of Andy Murray in the same context as a group of superb young classical singers?

Well, all of them have known, since they were young, what they wanted to do in life and have pushed themselves day after day, hour after hour, improving every aspect of their performances. Of course singers aren’t, directly, competing with each other; and, in performance, have to pretty near hit their top form from the first note; whereas the likes of Andy Murray can play themselves in, especially with a relatively unfamiliar opponent, checking out their preferences, assessing their weaknesses, before pouncing.

What, from our point of view, they have in common are those moments of transcendence, when you want to hear a certain phrase again and again, or are happy that you recorded a particular match, so that you can revel again in a series of shots that leave a luckless opponent wondering what he or she has to pull out of the bag to stand the slightest chance.

Andy Murray arrived at Queens with an unprecedented string of victories on clay behind him, switching surfaces effortlessly and dropping just one set on his way to meet Viktor Troicki, a hard-serving Serb, in the semi-finals.

Rain forced them to abandon the match with the score at 3-3 in the first set, and Andy at break point on Troicki’s serve.  They resumed next morning, the Serb opening with a blistering serve that Andy couldn’t control.  Back to deuce.  But then Andy produced a delicate drop shot to get back his advantage, following this up with a wonderful topspin lob which gave him the break that led to his taking the first set.

Set two went to a tie-break, with Troicki eventually serving at 4-6 down: match point.  His first hit the net, but the second was strong enough for Murray’s return to be on the weak side, allowing the Serb to send a pretty powerful backhand into the deuce corner. Murray reacted quickly, lobbing Troicki who had to run back to play a fairly weak forehand which the Scot returned to his backhand on the base line. After a couple more shots each, the Serb did a Murray, dinking a sweet little dropshot which Andy just managed to reach, sending it back down the line. Just to rub things in, Troicki then lobbed Andy, who was still right at the net. But he turned round quick as a flash, rushed back and produced an exquisite soaring lob in his turn, which bounced millimetres from the line with so much topspin that Troicki had to leap in the air to reach it, his smash sending the ball straight into the bottom part of the net.  Game, set and match, Murray!

That was 19 minutes past 12, and Andy had just a couple of hours rest before facing the South African uber-server, Kevin Anderson, in the final.

Our man’s own serve had been improving throughout the tournament, and he is generally believed to be one of the best three or four returners in the business; so Anderson must have known that he wouldn’t just be able to ace his way to victory.   And Murray took the first set 6-3. Let’s look at when Anderson is serving at 2-all in set two.

It’s 30-40, so break point to Murray.  First serve in, quite hard, and Murray returns fairly short. Anderson runs forward and hits a powerful cross court forehand straight towards his opponent who whips up a top spin lob way over the 6 foot 8 inch South African who just manages to get to it in time to send a weak shot back to Murray who’s moved to the centre of the base line.  Murray makes as if to send back a vicious forehand, with Anderson staying way back behind the base line, only for Andy to change his racket head at the last nano-second producing a drop shot which lands just the other side of the net with so much spin that it appears to stop dead.  So that’s Anderson broken, and Andy just has to keep up his impeccable serving for his fourth Queens final to be in the bag.

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Postscript:  Friday 3 July.

Wow!  Yesterday the dread-locked German-Jamaican, Dustin Brown, 102 in the world, blasted Rafael Nadal out of the Wimbledon championship in four sets of amazing, unconventional tennis: a melange of drop shots, blistering serves and thoroughly old-fashioned serve-volleying which had John McEnroe, in the commentary box, saying “Five hundred professional tennis players are inspired to hang in for a couple of years longer because of what they have just seen there. Nothing is impossible”

See it on video, if you can.