Given the “reworking” theme at this year’s Proms, it was inevitable that Stravinsky would figure prominently. In the event we got a Stravinsky Day – or Stravinsky afternoon and evening, to be precise. A “semi-staged” performance of The Soldier’s Tale opened the proceedings, then came a brave orchestral / choral concert of Stravinsky rarities, and the evening concluded with a nicely balanced programme: the chamber-scale Cantata, and the Mass framing the Concerto for Piano and Wind. I have been to so many concerts where afterwards people have said, ‘It was boring, but it was authentic.’ Authenticity is no excuse for boring performances, so we should always be aware that the music we play and sing today exists in the very moment. It must not be like opening a 300- year-old bottle of wine, but rather like creating the work fresh today.”n Andreas Scholl can be seen singing extracts from Handel’s ‘Julius Caesar’ and Bach’s Magnificat: tonight 10.50pm BBC1. “Yes, it’s necessary to know about period instruments and ornamentation, and to try to discover how music might have been performed But that is not enough.

“An old couple once came up after a concert and said that they had been so moved, which means more to me than hearing how a specialist critic reacted to a phrase in a Bach aria.”Those who speak with certainty of “authentic” singers of early vocal music, he suggests, usually dodge the issue of emotional expression. In common with the best folk singers, he gets to the sad heart of a ballad such as I will give my love an apple or Barbara Allen. And then there are the striking similarities between what Scholl has to offer in this repertoire and the plaintive style of Alfred Deller, inviting inevitable comparisons with the only begetter of the whole English counter-tenor tradition. “I didn’t record those pieces to compete with other counter-tenors,” Scholl notes. “I touched on part of that huge lute song repertoire in my studies and realised that they brought a new dimension to singing.”He admits that he was inspired by Deller’s legendary recording of The Three Ravens, with its emphasis on story-telling.

“Performing a song like Barbara Allen is like reading a story to the audience, so they become fascinated by what is going to happen next. It is an incredible pleasure for me to tell those melancholy stories, which appeal so directly to people.” Vocal agility, tonal beauty and range count for little in Scholl’s book unless they are allied to an understanding of words and a desire to articulate the moods they suggest. I don’t consider myself to be an artist: as singers, we are given an instrument with which to work, but the secret is to know what the piece needs and to have a strong personal idea of what it means.”Listening to Scholl’s latest release of English lute and folk songs on the Harmonia Mundi label suggests that he knows exactly how to manipulate and fashion sounds to match the mood of a text. “One could say that to create the maximum effect on an audience requires the minimum effort, so that emotions are neither exaggerated nor too little I never talk about ‘art’ in relation to singing.

The art is to touch the hearts of your audience, and I am ready and open to express the music in that way.” No matter the technical demands of even the most fiendish aria, Scholl suggests, the audience should never be aware of the difficulties. Two of Scholl’s arias in this baroque evening (recorded on 2 August) – “Va tacito e nascosto” from Handel’s Julius Caesar (Giulio Cesare) and the “Esurientes” from Bach’s Magnificat – serve full notice of his delight in expressive singing, his subtle response to words and the sheer beauty of his voice.”If there’s something like a philosophy of singing,” he says, “I think it means that the art is not showing that it is an art. Although his professional solo career spans barely four years, Scholl’s musical assurance and intelligent singing testify to the good work of his teachers and the wealth of experience he gained with the Chorbuben.The impressive outcome of nature and nurture can be heard tonight in BBC1’s broadcast of Scholl’s Proms debut, made in the company of the equally gifted soprano Maria Bayo and accompanied by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Rene Jacobs as a sympathetic conductor. Scholl, however, denies that the counter-tenor is a breed apart from other singers. “I know for sure that my teacher Richard Levitt did not teach me any differently from his other pupils, so there was no special training for me – just a healthy way of relaxed singing.” It all sounds simple enough, although Scholl is clearly blessed with a natural ability that has been thoughtfully refined by his mentors in Basle, Levitt and fellow counter-tenor Rene Jacobs among them. “I’m lucky that my head voice has such a low range, which means I can sing the entire alto repertoire using only that tone. Apart from tonal consistency, the low foundation of his natural head voice means that he is not forced to make technical compromises in order to negotiate the often wild leaps and vertiginous scale passages presented, for example, in the stage works of Handel and his contemporaries.