EICHENDORFF TWO WAYS

 Michael Brofman, William Socolof, Elisabeth Marshall, and Brandon Bell

We have long been a fan of the Brooklyn Art Song Society and a great admirer of the  illuminating programs designed by Artistic Director Michael Brofman. Our regular attendance having been disrupted by Covid and geographical distance, we looked forward to our pilgrimage to Brooklyn for a very special concert, part of The Dichter Project. This year's entry focused on the poetry of Joseph von Eichendorff, a major star in the firmament of Germany's 19th c. Romanticism.

Indeed, his poetry is the most often set of all of Germany's poets, and it is easy to see why. Reading it aloud in German feels like a musical experience. His lines rhyme and scan and beg to be set to music. Apparently, we are not alone in this opinion. Among the many composers who have set his poetry are Schumann,  Wolf, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Pfitzner, Strauss, and Zemlinsky. For last night's concert, Schumann and Wolf were the chosen two.

In our opinion, Schumann made the more likeable of the two. There is something about Schumann's melodic invention that stays in the ear long after the hearing. His writing is entirely sincere and direct; it goes straight to the heart but is also "pictorial" in that it inspires the imagination to create a scene.

Brandon Bell, the baritone to whom was given the first half of the program, comprising Liederkreis, Op.39 , took his cue from the writing and delivered each of the dozen songs in the same sincere direct fashion. Yes, we have heard more dramatic performances of, say, "Waldesgespräch" but we found no fault in Mr. Bell's interpretation which evinced his fine baritonal texture.

We beg your indulgence Dear Reader, for a couple personal stories. Once, riding through Bhutan with a non-English speaking driver, we listened to a tape playing a folk song in Bhutanese. Of course, we did not understand the words but we immediately felt the same emotions we feel when listening to "In der Fremde". Later, we requested the guide to ask the driver what that song was about. You have probably guessed it--a man far from his homeland feeling nostalgia and missing his parents!

The second story is a bit more embarrassing. With all of the arrogance of a first year composition student, we chose Eichendorff's "Wehmut" to set to music. We own that the melody wasn't bad but we knew nothing about writing for piano and the piece lies hidden at the bottom of some drawer. It was like trying to rewrite Shakespeare and we are sure that our composition teacher worked very hard to hide his amusement.

Returning now to last night's excellent concert, the second half comprised settings of different works by Hugo Wolf. We had hoped to hear at least one of the same songs for comparison with Schumann's settings but that was not to be the case. The set was shared between soprano Elisabeth Marshall and bass-baritone William Socolof who seems to be making a big splash in the music scene lately, winning lots of prizes.

We find Wolf's music to be far less accessible to the ear than Schumann's and probably far more difficult to sing. The piano part seems to be denser and the tender moments fewer and farther between. Regular readers will recall that we have great antipathy for the music stand and our heart sank to see both singers glancing down and looking up again, such that the communicative spell was broken.

Mr. Socolof was not the singer listed in the season's brochure so we are going to cut him some slack, imagining that he was not given sufficient time to memorize the nine songs. We have a high opinion of his artistry but we found our attention focusing more on Mr. Brofman's intense piano performance. The stentorian nature of "Der Freund" gave way to the charming story of the feckless "Der Musikant", told with some frisky staccato. 

At this point, soprano Elisabeth Marshall took over for "Verschwiegene Liebe" and continued to use that loathed music stand. We cannot think of an excuse for this since the singer was listed on the original season's program and had plenty of time to learn three songs. We would welcome another opportunity to hear her sing under different circumstances.

We are sure that there were audience members who did not mind but we attend lieder recitals to feel the contact with the poet and the composer, as channeled by the performer. We want to feel that connection and when it is missing, we have the thought that we may as well have stayed home and listened to a CD (of which we have a huge collection, although we understand no one listens to CD's anymore).

And so, we shifted our attention to the piano which Mr. Brofman plays so well. Each song was given its due. We particularly enjoyed the tender moments of "Nachtzauber". In "Soldat I" Mr. Brofman captured both the martial rhythms and also the humor of a man who will escape if his sweetheart speaks of marriage. 

To return to the topic of Eichendorff, he was not only a poet but also a novelist, a critic, and a playwright. It is interesting to note that much of his poems were integral parts of his novellas. One might find it amusing to read the poetry and to try to imagine the character that speaks it and what the situation was. Perhaps this knowledge might yield a fascinating evening!

© meche kroop

PAUL APPLEBY AT ZANKEL HALL

Paul Appleby (photo by Frances Marshall)

We have been a great fan of tenor Paul Appleby for several years now--not just for his gorgeous instrument and perfection of technique but for the intense connection he establishes with the audience. He is always so immersed in the text and so able to transmit that to the audience that we feel we are going on an adventure with him as our guide. And what an engaging guide he is, addressing the audience as if we were all his friends.

Mr. Appleby is also impressive as a music scholar and his program notes share his insights about what he is singing.  We, however, approach vocal music from an emotional perspective and our appreciation leans more toward the timbre of his voice and his storytelling skills.

So it was that his second encore of the evening, "Kuda, Kuda" from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin left us in tears, feeling all the swirling emotions that Lenski must have felt before his duel with Onegin. We heard Mr. Appleby sing that aria about three or four years ago.  We loved it then but feel his interpretation has grown in maturity and color. 

Mr. Appleby shared that the piece was chosen by Ken Noda, his piano partner for the evening.  How well matched they are!  Mr. Appleby's voice is soft-- and we are not referring to dynamics.  We are addressing the tenderness of texture that goes right to the heart.  And Mr. Noda's touch on the piano is similarly tender. We don't know a pianist with softer hands.

One thing that we respect about Mr. Appleby's programming is that he sings what he likes, not what he thinks will make up a "well-balanced program". And that means that we may not respond equally well to everything he chooses. His love of poetry may take him down some paths where we cannot follow but he always invests each song with a depth of understanding.

The first half of the program delighted us totally. The opening song was Franz Lachner's setting of Heinrich Heine's "Das Fischermädchen". The composer was part of Schubert's circle but we had never before heard his music and we were thrilled to be introduced to him. Indeed, Schubert himself set the same poem (as did a multiplicity of other composers and please don't ask us to choose a favorite).  Mr. Noda's piano suggested the rolling of the sea while Mr. Appleby burst forth with all the colors of a seductive invitation.

From Robert Schumann's "liederjahre" (1840), we enjoyed hearing his Liederkreis, Op.24, all settings of texts by Heine, in which Schumann plumbed the depths of the poetry and Mr. Appleby did the same. All of the colors of disappointed love were painted.  Perhaps our favorite of this set was "Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden" which we well recalled from a prior recital by Mr. A. 

Following the Schumann, we heard four of Hugo Wolf's settings of texts by Eichendorff. Hearing "Das Ständchen" took us back to the summer of 2013 when Mr. Appleby performed an entire recital of serenades in Santa Fe. How wonderful to hear it once more. The poet's nostalgia was echoed by our own!

The second half of the program opened with the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin's Merrill Songs with Mr. Aucoin himself at the piano. It is here that Mr. Appleby lost us. We could not relate to James Merrill's poetry in spite of Mr. Aucoin's elaborate analysis in the program notes.  Nor could we relate to Mr. Aucoin's music, as much as we tried to open our ears to something new. Mr. Appleby clearly relates to it or he wouldn't have chosen it.  He sang with dramatic intensity but we could not wrap our ears around it.

Happily, we returned to more agreeable territory with some gorgeous songs by Hector Berlioz--three selections from Les nuits d'été.  There was the sweetly romantic and seasonally appropriate "Villanelle", followed by the unsettling "Au cimetière" with its major/minor shifts and strange harmonies. The final song "L'île inconnue" was filled with fanciful ideas and multiple colorations. Although this cycle was later orchestrated by the composer, we heard it in the original form with Mr. Noda's piano capturing all the colors of the orchestra.

Finally we heard a trio of songs by Heitor Villa-Lobos, which (we have it on good authority) were curated and translated by Steven Blier and Mr. Appleby.  As the first encore we heard (at the request of Mrs. Appleby) Benjamin Britten's arrangement of the folksong "O, waly waly".

We have been writing about Mr. Appleby for over five years and never fail to be impressed by his expressivity and artistic generosity. The surge of his career has been earned by a lot of hard work but he makes it appear effortless.  That's art!

(c) meche kroop