HOW YA' LIKE THEM APPLES?

Natalia Katyukova and Paul Appleby at Zankel Hall

Tenor Paul Appleby is another artist who began his career about the same time as we began writing about the vocal arts, a simultaneity that leads to our deep investment and joy in his success.  Instead of writing yet another encomium, we invite you, dear reader, to use the search function to read dozens of reviews of this outstanding artist. We would prefer to get right into last night's program which was so carefully designed by Mr. Appleby, with intentions described in detail in the program notes.

We will skip right to the Schubert which is where the pathway from our ears to our heart was direct. Every recital we attend leaves us with an "ear worm" and we cannot silence Mr. Appleby's tender tenor timbre ringing in our ears as he performed "Ständchen". It took us back about five years when he performed an entire program of serenades in Santa Fe. Mr. Appelby can serenade us any time at all!  What a treat!

For reasons elucidated in the program notes, our terrific tenor reordered the seven Rellstab songs to fit in with the theme of the program. We had no objections to the reordering although we did not quite grasp the storyline he devised. No composer has equalled the lied output of Franz Schubert; his major-minor shifts and modulations of key seem to wrench our heart in a most satisfying way.

Both Mr. Appleby and the superb collaborative pianist Natalia Katyukova brought out the emotions of the songs. The natural elements like babbling brooks and rustling tree tops were finely limned on the piano. The mood of anxiety in "Aufenthalt" was countered by the lively and cheerful "Abschied". The grim "Kriegers Ahnung" has a low tessitura that did not daunt Mr. Appleby.

We loved the way he asked the questions "Hinab?", "Warum?" and "Und Du?" in "Frühlingssehnsucht" which ended with a powerful and passionate "Nur Du!" The set ended with a Seidl song "Die Taubenpost", notable for its rollicking rhythm and charming text. We always have a quibble and here it is. The consonants were not crisp throughout the entire Schubert cycle. 

By contrast, the diction for the songs in English was perfect and every word was clear. Songs of Imagined Love by contemporary composer Hannah Lash were based on four of the Schubert songs which would be heard later in the program. This was a world premiere and was commissioned by Mr. Appleby who sang them off book.

We daresay that Ms. Lash's songs will be performed long after Schubert's are forgotten--and not a moment before! They are not bad; they were just not interesting to us. When there is no melody in the vocal line our attention focuses on the piano and we enjoyed some pleasing tinkling sounds.

We did not enjoy the unpleasant sounds of George Crumb's "The Sleeper" in which the piano was violated.  The music desk was removed and the pianist stuck her hand inside and groped. We call this a case of "piano abuse".  If a composer wants plucking he can call upon the all-too-willing harp who flaunts her strings! The piano likes her strings tapped gently, if you please.

This was the first time we heard Benjamin Britten's Winter Words: Lyrics and Ballads of Thomas Hardy. We are a huge fan of Hardy's novels and have always thought that the stories would make great operas. But his poetry left us cold, as did Britten's setting. Clearly Mr. Appleby loves this cycle and poured his heart and soul into the performance.  It just is not our taste.

We did enjoy Mr. Appleby's melismatic singing, especially on the word "journeying" in "Midnight on the Great Western" in which Ms. Kotyukova produced the clacking of a railway train. We also admired the way Mr. Appleby colored his voice differently for the narrator, the child, and the convict in "At the Railway Station, Upway".

Also on the program was a short setting of a John Milton text by Handel--"Thus when the sun from's wat'ry bed" from Samson. The text rhymed and scanned and the melody was memorable with a fine opportunity for Mr. Appleby's melismatic singing.

We hoped for an encore from Candide but instead we got two pleasing songs--"Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young Charms" by Thomas Moore, and Frank Bridge's charming "Love Went a-Riding".

(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