HYESANG SANG

Brian Zeger and Hyesang Park

Hyesang sang and oh how she sang! Up and coming soprano Hyesang Park gave a transporting recital last night at Alice Tully Hall.  This was the 21st Alice Tully Vocal Arts Recital, established originally with a gift from the Alice Tully Foundation to promote exceptionally talented Juilliard singers on the threshold of a professional career.  This recital had been postponed due to illness and, in the intervening period, this incredibly talented artist has crossed the threshold with engagements all over Europe.  It was a recital well worth the wait.

Ms. Park illuminates everything she sings with her crystalline instrument and her engaging stage presence. There are a couple of interesting qualities which set her apart. One is the self-effacing manner in which she invites the audience into the songworld. The other is the way she sets up the song with an intense but brief period of introspection. You can almost feel the emotional wheels turning.

There is another aspect worth mentioning. Ms. Park's taste in fashion is as keen as her taste in programming. No fashion show could have dazzled the eye more successfully. In the first half of the program this beautiful young lady wore a dress of midnight blue with tiny scintillating "stars"; we called it "celestial". After the intermission she appeared in a gown that recalled a blooming flower.  We know that it's the voice that counts but it doesn't hurt to delight the eye at the same time!

And now, as to the music!  It was a totally satisfying recital with piano collaboration provided by the estimable Brian Zeger who doesn't need our encomia. His playing is always supportive and there is no whiff of "showmanship". He certainly knows how to avail himself of the acoustics of Alice Tully Hall and ended many songs in a trailed off decrescendo that left the final note hanging in the air whilst we held our breath.

Ms. Park knows how to work her prodigious skills such that they become art. Every song was given her full involvement. Phrasing always honored the intent of poet and composer. Exquisite control of dynamics lent variety and she used every color on her vocal palette.

The program opened with five songs by Clara Schumann whose modest oeuvre we wish would appear on more programs. We particularly enjoyed hearing how originally she set the familiar "Liebst du um Schönheit", the Rückert text which was later set so differently by Gustav Mahler. We have heard it before but as it grows in familiarity, we increasingly appreciate Schumann's peaceful version. 

Not so peaceful was Rückert's "Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen" in which both artists created a storm of passion. Yet, our favorite was "Die stille Lotosblume" (text by Emanuel Geibel) with its meditation on mortality, symbolized by the singing swan.

A set of four songs by Gabriel Fauré brought yet further delights. We loved the Gallic sweetness of "Nell" (text by Leconte de Lisle) and the meditative quality of "Au bord de l'eau" (text by Sully Prudhomme). These songs were new to us but the two with text by Paul Verlaine are well known--"Mandoline" and "Clair de lune".  With a great artist like Ms. Park, an aural portrait is painted, one that reminds us of paintings by Fragonard.

Reynaldo Hahn composed around the turn of the 20th c. but his compositional style often looks backward, as in our favorite "À Chloris" with its baroque turns. We found Ms. Parks' French to be quite lovely.

After intermission we were gifted with three Korean songs. We never realized how "singable" this language is. We generally love folk songs for their simplicity and melodiousness. Our favorite of this group was the first --"Milyang Arirang" and Ms. Park gave it some passionate cries and highly expressive gestures. "Bird Song" was highly rhythmic and "Song of Loom" was interesting for the rippling figures in the right hand of the piano, with the left hand crossing over. It certainly suggested weaving to us.

There were also many songs about mothers by varied composers. How pleased we were to hear Ms. Park sing in Spanish! It seems to us that Spanish composers of the 20th c. remained free of many of the 20th c. "advances" that we deplore. We particularly enjoyed Obradors' "Con amores, la mi madre" and Montsalvatge's "Canción de cuna para dormir" which is particularly evocative of time (1940's)and place (Cuba). 

Turina's Poema en forma de canciones gave Mr. Zeger an opportunity to shine solo in the extended opening "Dedicatoria", after which Ms. Park delighted us with three ironic songs "Nunca olvida", "Cantares" which began and ended with a stunning vocalise, "Los dos miedos", and "Las locas por amor". Her acting really put the songs across!

We don't want to leave out Claude Debussy's evocative "Nuit d'étoiles" in which Mr. Zeger's piano created the twinkling of the stars. The text by Théodore de Banville was presented in Rondo fashion with the artists shedding new light on the "refrain" each time it recurred.

After such a generous program, we weren't expecting an encore but we got not one but two. The first was in Korean and the second was "O mio babbino caro" from Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi. No one could have refused Lauretta's imploring!

(c) meche kroop

JOHN AND PETER

Peter Dugan and John Brancy

Hearing baritone John Brancy Thursday night in recital with pianist Peter Dugan got us wondering about how long we have been witnessing his artistic growth. The earliest review we could find was 2011, just about the time we began writing about young singers. He was one of the Juilliard students participating in Lachlan Glen's year long perusal of Schubert's 600+ songs.

But we are sure we were impressed with his singing even before that date! We have heard him win converts to the art of the song several times with New York Festival of Song, with Marilyn Horne's program "The Song Continues", at the Brooklyn Art Song Society, at the National Opera Center, as an Opera Index Competition awardee, in recital at Carnegie Hall, and as Apollon in the Gotham Chamber Opera's production of Charpentier's 1686 work, La descente d'Orphée aux enfers.  

Coming back to his Juilliard roots, Mr. Brancy and his superb collaborator Peter Dugan (also a graduate of Juilliard) presented an interesting program entitled "Armistice: The Journey Home" in the 20th annual Alice Tully Vocal Arts Recital. The two artists met whilst at Juilliard and seem to have a knack for programming. They have their very own approach to art song, encompassing classic works that we love from the 19th c. to modern popular music and original arrangements of American song.

The standing ovation at the end of the recital plus the large crowd lining up to buy their debut CD ("Silent Night") attest to the success of their approach. Many of the works on the program were by composers who lived through The Great War.

The program opened with Mr. Dugan's fleet fingers flying through Gustav Holst's "Jupiter: The Bringer of Jollity". We enjoyed the popular song of that epoch by Oley Speaks--"When the Boys Come Home" .  Mr. Dugan's brother, composer Leonardo Dugan, contributed "I Have a Rendezvous with Death", a dramatic setting of some depressing text involving a searching theme in the piano.

It was moving to hear the first verse of Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" sung by Mr. Brancy a capella, with Mr. Dugan's piano joining in, tentatively at first, including an extra verse which we had never heard.

We are not sure how the three songs of Franz Schubert fit into the theme but we were very happy to hear them, especially "Der Wanderer" and "Du bist die Ruh". For some reason, they alternated with songs by Rudi Stephan who composed a century later.  We found Stephan's songs to be grim and depressing, but then, war is grim and depressing.

Three glorious songs from Sergei Rachmaninoff restored our mood, especially the seasonal delight "Spring Waters" which seemed just right for the tail end of Winter and the coming of Spring.

Irving Berlin's "Goodbye France" was a swell reminder of how happy people must have been to greet their loved ones returning from the war.  We could use some of that patriotism in the 21st c.! A pair of songs by Ivor Novello followed, not making much of an impression on us, and the program closed with another Vaughan Williams song; frankly, we had heard enough from Williams in the first half of the program, having heard songs #1-8 already!

The encore brought back our optimism with "When You Walk Through a Storm" the inspirational song from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel.

(c) meche kroop

THE THING ABOUT YING

Brian Zeger and Ying Fang at Alice Tully Hall

Ying Fang's Neighborhood Concert on April 16th (archived here) was one of the highlights of the season. We were overjoyed to learn that she would be repeating the same program last night at Alice Tully Hall. The Alice Tully Vocal Arts Recital is given to promote exceptionally talented Juilliard singers on the threshold of a professional career. And Ms. Fang seems to have crossed that threshold and has had an enviable season of music making with more coming up.

 But we felt that we already said everything there was to say about the program and used every encomium at our disposal to describe Ms. Fang's overwhelming artistry. What more could we say?

That everything she sang was well worth a second hearing? That we would gladly hear her again tomorrow? That her opening song "Endless Pleasure" from Händel's Semele gave us endless pleasure?

We could add that she provided her own translations for three of the four lovely Chinese songs on the program sung in mellifluous Mandarin and that a second hearing of these songs convinced us that their quality merited their inclusion in the program.

Brian Zeger, Artistic Director of the Juilliard Vocal Arts Department and Executive Director of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, last night wore his collaborative pianist hat. He has played for all the greats of the opera world and we are happy to see Ms. Fang included in that illustrious company, a position she well deserves.

We love the softness of Mr. Zeger's hands and the way he always supported Ms. Fang. We noticed the unusual piano part of Bizet's "Oeuvre ton coeur" which has a martial feel but is in 3/4 time. We noticed how spontaneous was the appearance of Ms. Fang's gestures and facial expressions, in spite of the fact that everything must have been rehearsed down to the last flick of a finger. Artful but artless.

The audience would not be silenced, even after the encore. There were torrents of applause and a lengthy standing ovation afrer the moving "Shepherd's Song" from Wagner's Tannhäuser, which Ms. Fang has performed onstage at the Met. There had to be a second encore--and there was. Ms. Fang sang an aria from Händel's first oratorio from the 1707 Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disnganno, a work she will sing at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, in the middle of a very busy summer.

Aren't we lucky to have had her here in New York?

(c) meche kroop

MUTUAL APPRECIATION

Pei-Yao Wang and Sasha Cooke

At the start of the recital, Ms. Cooke expressed appreciation to the audience for braving the slushy streets to attend; at the end of the recital, the audience expressed their appreciation for this plucky performer who went on with the Alice Tully Vocal Arts Recital in spite of a cold.  Brian Zeger himself had prepared us in a most charming story (about singers with colds) for an impaired performance but no apology was necessary and no forbearance required.  Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke delivered a perfect performance; we could hear the cold in her voice when she spoke about her songs but not when she sang.

And did she ever sing!  Ms. Cooke (who finished her Master's Degree at Juilliard in 2006 and went on to the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program) has a distinctive sound that is hers and hers alone; one is not driven to compare her to anyone else.  There is a depth and texture to the sound that reminded us of rich dark espresso lightened with cream.  She can spin out a vocal line like nobody's business and is seamless throughout the register.  And there is a satisfying amplitude to the sound.

Moreover she has a poised and polished presence onstage, chatting comfortably with the audience; it makes one feel that the girl next store has amazingly become a superstar.  Her collaborative pianist Pei-Yao Wang was chosen as carefully as the program.  Ms. Wang has the softest hands and the most delicate touch heard in a long while and was always totally supportive of Ms. Cooke and the music simultaneously.

Selections from Hugo Wolf's Mörike-Lieder opened the program; all were beautifully sung but we especially enjoyed the jauntier songs "Fussreise" and "Der Tambour", the charming tale of a young soldier daydreaming about his mother and some good food.  Ms. Wang shone in "Um Mitternacht" establishing the requisite peaceful mood.

We were warned by Ms. Cooke not to try to make sense of Max Jacob's surreal poetry set by Francis Poulenc.  What impressed us was how the music amplified the rhythm of the phrases and the sound of the words.

Two songs by Henri Duparc followed--mysterious, evocative and sensual.  "L'invitation au voyage" and "La vie antérieure" were sung in French as impeccable as her German.

The second half of the program comprised songs in English; regular readers will recall that English is our least favorite language for singing.  That being said, Ms. Cooke made some outstanding choices and sang them so well that we recognized  many possibilities for pleasure.  As she told the audience, all the songs in the second half were composed at the midpoint of the 20th c.  George Crumb wrote some excellent songs for the woman he would later marry when he was but 17 years old.  In "Night" (text by Robert Southey) the piano established a lovely quiet mood and the two artists created quite a bit of variety in the dynamics.  In "Let it be Forgotten" (text by Sara Teasdale) Ms. Cooke gave us a messa di voce of incomparable delicacy.

In Benjamin Britten's A Charm of Lullabies, Op. 41 there is a wide variety of moods, not all soothing.  There was "A Cradle Song" with text by William Blake in which the interplay of piano and voice was arresting.  "The Highland Balou" was sung in a Scottish brogue with a great deal of vivacity.  The delicate "Nurse's Song" was begun a capella with the piano entering and supporting the mood. 

The program closed with selections from Aaron Copland's Old American Songs--the familiar "Simple Gifts", "The Little Horses" with its wildly varying tempi, the peaceful "At the River" and the frisky "Ching-a-Ring chaw".

There is no way the enthusiastic audience would let Ms. Cooke go without a couple encores.  Enrique Granados' "El Mirar de la Maja" demonstrated Ms. Cooke's facility with Spanish passion and William Bolcom's "Black Max" is just a marvelous portrait of a character, his time and his place.

This recital marked the 17th annual Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital given to promote "exceptionally talented Juilliard singers".  We could not agree more with "exceptionally talented".  We expect no less coming out of Juilliard.

© meche kroop

UNDER COVER OF NIGHT

"Under Cover of Night" was the title and theme of last night's Alice Tully Vocal Arts Recital, a theme we can well relate to since, by all accounts, we operate nocturnally.  Soprano Jennifer Zetlan chose this theme in connection with the lost sleep of her pregnancy and motherhood, wondering how the night affects us emotionally and behaviorally.  The night is given over to fantasy, to romance, to fears, melancholies, dreams, nightmares and terrors.  In our case, it is given over to writing.

And what a pleasure it is to write about this lovely, gracious and talented singer whose gifts were evident from the very first "Oh" of Handel's aria from Semele, "Oh, sleep, why dost thou leave me?" which was marked by a beautifully controlled crescendo.  This was only the beginning of a varied program that gave Ms. Zetlan the opportunity to show her skills in German, Russian and Spanish and to connect with her audience as well as her material.  Her piano partner David Shimoni always supported with appropriate technique and never overwhelmed the singer or the song.

The bulk of the program was give over to the late 19th c. which is our personal favorite.  Songs by Grieg, Brahms, Wolf, Debussy, Strauss, Granados and Rimsky-Korsakov were performed with poise and secure technique.  Each song was given its own particular interpretation that sounded nothing like the other songs.  Ms. Zetlan is a remarkable story-teller and we especially enjoyed the mini-operas written into Wolf's songs, both the humorous "Elfenlied" and the horror-filled "Die Geister am Mummelsee".  The melodic "Po nebu polunochi" by Rimsky-Korsakov was filled with spiritual awe.  Strauss' "Die Nacht" expressed the poet's anxiety about losing his loved one.

Ms. Zetlan is a champion of new music and was joined by the Attacca Quartet for Nico Muhly's Far Away Songs in their world premiere.  As encores, she sang Rachmaninoff's "Son" and Irving Berlin's "Yiddishe Nightingale" which left the audience grinning as they exited.  Nighttime never sounded so good!

(c) meche kroop