BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

Richard Owen and the Adelphi Orchestra

It was a chance encounter with an oboist that led to our fortuitous awareness of the Adelphi Orchestra from across the Hudson. Learning of their program Bohemian Rhapsody we decided to attend and wallow in music of our favorite period, the second half of the 19th c. Happily, there were no nerve-wracking modern pieces to disturb our Romantic indulgence.

Not only did we get to hear some soulful solos from oboist Jacob Slattery, but we got a private inspection of all three oboes--the regular oboe, the mellow English horn, and the oboe d'amore that we've mostly heard in Early Music. We also heard a sensational young violinist tackle Saint Saëns' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso which was written for, and made famous by Pablo de Sarasate.

At the tender age of seventeen, an age when a budding opera singer would best be overlooked, Nathan Meltzer is already playing all over the world, studying with Itzhak Perlman, and worthy of the loan from Juilliard of an 1844 Joannes Pressenda violin! And oh, what he did with that instrument! The virtuoso sections of the work were performed with style and the lyrical segments were performed with substance--and gorgeous legato. This is an artist to watch, dear readers, even if you, like me, are mostly addicted to opera.

Under the firm baton of conductor Richard Owen, the remainder of the program was similarly outstanding. We do not ever have to worry about music lovers in New Jersey being deprived! We love that Maestro Owen actually talks to the audience and tells them interesting things about what is on the program.

The program opener was Dvorák's Carnival Overture. It began with a maelstrom of lively sound, almost frenetic. The central section was lovely and lyrical.

Baritone Andrew Cummings was on hand for Mahler's Rückert Lieder which was composed initially for voice and piano and later orchestrated, adding a great deal of rich detail. We know and love these songs which are filled with deep feelings. 

Since Mr. Cummings was "on the book", we did not feel the connection that we value in vocal music so we concentrated on the orchestration, especially the marvelous oboe solos. We did admire Mr. Cummings' use of dynamic variety and his word coloration but would have to hear him another time without the score to have an appreciation of his value as a singer of lieder.

Of the five songs, our favorite was "Blicke mir nicht in die lieder" in which the string section created the sound of busy bees, hard at work making honey, Rückert's metaphor for creation.

The major work on the program was Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony in the stirring key of E-minor. So many symphonies strike us as a collection of varied movements; what distinguishes this symphony is a sense of dramatic unity. The theme heard in the opening movement reappears in minimal disguises in the subsequent movements and by the end of the symphony we are hearing it transmogrified by being in a major key.

We were particularly taken with the Waltz movement that occupied our imagination with scenes of a ballroom with glamorous dancers swirling around, much as one sees at the ballet.  As a matter of fact, our love of classical music came out of that very art form, which is how we can say that Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov are responsible for our being here today!

(c) meche kroop

ÜBERWÄLTIGT!

Malcolm Martineau and Dorothea Röschmann

Dear Readers!  Picture your tireless reviewer sitting in Zankel Hall, or at least corporeally, but emotionally in a very private world with Ms. Röschmann and Mr. Martineau, virtually oblivious to the rest of the audience.  Did every audience member feel that way?  We have only the word of our companion who felt similarly transported.

It is rare for lieder to bring those pearly dewdrops to our eyes, especially lieder we have heard many times before with no equivalent effect; yet when we heard this artistic partnership perform Schubert's Mignon songs we gained an expanded emotional connection to Goethe's text, taken from his bildungsroman, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre.

Since Goethe never acknowledged receipt of these settings, we cannot tell if he was similarly moved or even appreciated what Schubert's genius added.  We do know that "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt" evoked floods of memories and a mirrored emotional response.  For our companion, it was a different song that grabbed the heart.

Schubert wrote and rewrote these songs, achieving a perfection that was matched by the performance of soprano Dorothea Röschmann and pianist Malcolm Martineau. These two artists so perfectly matched each other in phrasing, dynamics, and style that they seemed like two aspects of the same artist.

Ms. Röschmann's presence is unfussy. She seemed to be a conduit or channel into the mind of Goethe and the heart of Schumann. The exceptional quality of her instrument is, well, selbstverständlich, and always used in the service of the material. We saw several young singers in the audience and hope they took the evening as a lesson in how to give a lieder recital.

Mr. Martineau is a collaborative pianist of the highest order. He manages to bring the singer front and center without fading into the background. His gifted fingers brought out every reference to nature and every emotion.

We also love Mahler's Rückert Lieder and enjoyed the way Ms. Röschmann filled "Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder" with her own personality, by means of physical gesture. What she does in terms of word coloration is remarkable. She seemed to be enjoying the taste of the language, something we also feel when we speak in German. Es ist eine leckere Sprache.

We were particularly drawn to the romantic sentiment of "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft" and the passionate "Liebst du um Schönheit", on which Mahler lavished his most tuneful melodies.

Richard Wagner set poetry written by his lady love Mathilde Wesendonck at the height of their love affair whilst he was composing his opera Tristan und Isolde. We are not in a position to evaluate the worth of her poetry but we can say that we personally love the imagery, the symbolism, and the way it rhymes and scans. It is just the kind of text that gives a composer the opportunity to write beautiful music and Wagner certainly did so.

We were not nearly so taken with Schumann's last song cycle Gedichte der Königen Maria Stuart. This was purported to have been written by Mary Queen of Scots in French and translated into German by Gisbert von Vincke. And therein lies the problem, as we see it. The text seemed clumsy and the rhymes often forced. Missing is Schumann's lavish piano score. Perhaps we might enjoy it after several more hearings but last night it paled in comparison with the rest of the program.

The three encores seemed like generous gifts that arrive after the party ends. They were three in number.  First was Liszt's "Es muss ein wunderbares sein" a paean to love that was well suited to the night before Valentine's Day.  The second was Schumann's "Die Lotosblume ängstigt" in which Heinrich Heine's text describes the lotus flower's love for the moon. Now this is the romantic Schumann we know and love!

The audience clamored for more and we were gifted with a third encore--Hugo Wolf's "In der Fruhe" which is not about love but about nocturnal anxiety giving way to the optimism of the rising of the sun. Möricke's text was well matched by Wolf's music and we left Zankel Hall feeling uplifted and more satisfied than we are usually. A great recital will do that for you!

(c) meche kroop

TRIFECTA

Julian Milkis, Abdiel Vazquez, and Anastasiya Roytman

Scintillating soprano Anastasiya Roytman generously shared her Carnegie Recital Hall debut with two other superb artists in a compelling program that included not only our favorite Wagner and Mahler songs but contemporary American songs that we actually enjoyed!

The last time we heard and reviewed Ms. Roytman we opined that she needed a larger hall (than Scorca Hall at the National Opera Center) to show off the size of her voice and we are delighted to report that she scaled her wonderful instrument to the size and acoustics of Weill Recital Hall.

And a lovely instrument it is and well suited to the chosen material. No wonder that she has achieved acclaim worldwide! She has a gracious stage presence and makes good use of body and facial expression to get a song across, without resorting to excessive theatrics. It's all in the voice, which is most important.

Richard Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, WWV91 are settings of the poetry of his beloved Matilda Wesendonck; they are filled with passion and deep feeling which Ms. Roytman successfully communicated with superb control of dynamics and phrasing. The songs offer many opportunities for changes of color, also exploited by Ms. Roytman; she seemed totally present with the text and able to communicate the depth of feeling to the audience. We especially enjoyed "Schmerzen" but also admired the buildup of intensity in "Träume" where Wagner's phrases ascended the scale.

Her astutely chosen piano partner, Abdiel Vazquez, demonstrated a particular resonance with Wagner and contributed a solo piece--Tausig's arrangement for piano of "Isolde's Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde--an arrangement we had never heard before but long to hear again as it has been echoing in our mind's ear all night.

Gustav Mahler's Rückert-Lieder offer the same opportunities for a variety of moods and colors and delight us no end.  Here, they were given an almost operatic treatment with each song seeming like an aria with all emotional bases covered. Ms. Roytman effectively negotiated the large skips in "Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!". But our personal favorite was the powerful "Um Mitternacht" which was given a suitably powerful delivery.

Ms. Roytman's diction achieved a remarkable sense of legato in the phrasing, so difficult to achieve in German. Our only small critique is that there needs to be more attention paid to consistency of pronunciation of the "ch", a problem experienced by most non-German singers.

The big surprise of the evening were songs by contemporary composers that were neither "academic" nor derivative. We are always thrilled when our preconceived notions are overcome. Alexey Shor, present in the audience, wrote the music and lyrics for "Coming of Age Trio" and "Ode of Persistence Trio". This world premiere included the stylish clarinet playing of Julian Milkis and gave Ms. Roytman the opportunity to show a different aspect of her artistry.

The first song had an episode in which she performed a vocalise with the clarinet which was remarkable. Mr. Shor's text rhymed and involved the coming of Spring; the music was melodic and strangely melancholic. The second song was playful and the text was about an ambivalent woman who succumbs to a persistent suitor.

The second big surprise comprised some jazzy songs by Stefania de Kenessy, whose music was so fine that we immediately arranged to see her new opera next weekend--Bonfire of the Vanities at Museo del Barrio. "Four Laughs Only" was exactly that--laughing accompanied by clarinet and piano. "Trio in 4 Movements" included humming and nonsense syllables (WA-WA) which completely avoided the problem of making the rhythms of the English language musical.

We would like to commend Ms. Roytman for one more thing. She never used a score! Mostly, when we hear contemporary music, the stuff is so obscure that the singer is on the book.  Not so here! This allowed her to communicate directly with the audience and to express the joy of this original music.

As encore the artists gave us an improvisatory version of "Summertime" from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in which all three artists let loose.  It was a fine end to a fine evening!

(c) meche kroop