CAT FIGHT!!!

Jakub Jozef Orlinski and Miles Mykkanen

Regular readers already are aware of the high esteem in which we hold these two singers. But nothing could have prepared us for the encore they performed at the Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital last night at Alice Tully Hall. Most people believe that the "Duetto buffo di due gatti" was composed by Rossini but we have learned that it is actually a compilation of excerpts from many works.  

We don't care where it originated. We have never heard it performed by a countertenor and a tenor. Nor have we ever heard it performed with such nuance and panache. The vocal  fireworks were layered with hilarious innuendo and some private references that the singers in the audience must have relished.  Laughter spread throughout Alice Tully Hall and everyone left grinning.

We do not mean to shortchange the rest of the recital but that encore is the piece we will remember after the rest of the program has been forgotten.  Countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski and tenor Miles Mykkanen were selected for this annual event by audition, after being nominated by their teachers. We applaud the choices as heartily as we applauded the performances.

Awards have already been heaped on these two vocal magicians and it appears that their futures are assured. We are glad to have been there pretty close to the beginning, in the case of Mr. Mykkanen, and immediately upon Mr. Orlinski's arrival at Juilliard for advanced training.

Mr. Orlinski's instrument sounds like what you'd expect to hear from an angel, if you believed in paradise. We haven't heard anything like it since Anthony Roth Costanzo. We liked him best in the two Handel arias--"A dispetto d'un volto ingrato" from Tamerlano and the devilishly difficult "Furibondo spira il vento" from Partenope. He exhibited a full emotional range, dynamic subtlety, and ample flexibility in the fioritura.

The quieter songs by Purcell were sung with impeccable English diction, leading us to wonder whether singers with non-English backgrounds just try harder.  Collaborative pianist Michal Biel excelled in the gorgeous piano introduction to "Music for a While" and John Dryden's text was perfectly understood. The wide skips were well negotiated.

The melismatic passages of "If Music be the Food of Love" were transporting and Mr. Orlinski's phrasing was lovely.  Even his catch-breaths were given an emotional subtext. "Strike the Viol" was an emotional tribute to the Patroness and we couldn't help thinking of the largesse of Ellen and the late James S. Marcus who so generously supported their namesake Institute for Vocal Arts.

A trio of Polish songs rounded out Mr. Orlinski's half of the program and we were enthralled by the two early 20th c. songs by Karol Szymanowski whose opera King Roger we so enjoyed in Santa Fe a couple years ago. A third song by a contemporary, Pawel Lukaszewski, offered some very colorful writing for the piano which Mr. Biel performed beautifully.

The second half of the program began with tenor Miles Mykkanen making sense of W.H. Auden's poetry in Benjamin Britten's setting of On this island, Op. 11. He had no problem with the high tessitura of "Let the Florid Music Praise!".  Collaborative pianist Ho Jae Lee kept a throbbing piano underpinning the severe text of "Now the Leaves Are Falling Fast". Mr. Mykkanen brought the song to a dramatic climax with a stunning diminuendo at the end.

Mr. Mykkanen, apart from his prodigious vocal talent, is a splendid storyteller and we like him best when he has something to work with.  The final song in this set, "As it is, plenty" was infused with irony and grabbed us by the throat; there was a kind of music hall flavor to it that just made the text more poignant.

For our taste, it was the set of Schumann songs that touched us most deeply. "Des Sennen Abschied" was given all the ambivalence of accepting the change of seasons. One cannot go wrong setting Friedrich Schiller!

Nor can one go wrong setting Friedrich Rückert and Mr. Mykkanen invested "Mein schöner Stern" with apt phrasing and emotional content. "Requiem" was filled with spiritual transport.

And those songs by Edvard Grieg are gems!  "Takk for dit Råd" was sung with strength and determination; "En svane" was filled with a gentle mournfulness and was quite moving.  We love the repetitive motif. The romantic "En drøm" closed the program and Mr. Lee's delicacy on the piano supported Mr. Mykkanen's gentle delivery.

We understand that the singers chose their own program and it is always wonderful to hear singers singing what they love. Moreover, both singers were engaging when addressing the audience. So, we wound up hearing something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue!

(c) meche kroop

STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART

Ken Noda, Brian Zeger, Paul Appleby

There are singers who are sensational on the opera stage and can create wonderful characters but who just do not come across well on the recital stage.  Tenor Paul Appleby manages to excel in both places.  What seems obvious to us is that he is totally enamored of the songs he sings and selflessly submerges his own identity so that the soul of the poet shines forth. 

When he steps out on the recital stage, as he did Sunday afternoon as part of a new series at Pace University, he addresses the audience in a way that makes one feel as if a dear friend were sharing his loving feelings with you.  His sweet voice caresses your ear in a way that is almost tactile.  His enthusiasm is conveyed as he tells you about the songs he will sing and you feel as if he is singing them just for YOU.  And that, reader, is a major gift.  His artistry is such that the supporting technique becomes invisible.

The first half of the recital was sung in impeccable German; accompanied by the wonderfully supportive Ken Noda, Mr. Appleby did complete justice to Beethoven's lovely "Adelaide" and sang five songs by Schubert.  Our personal favorite was "Im Abendrot"; according to Mr. Appleby, Schubert was not a particularly religious man, but his setting of Karl Gottlieb Lappe's text as sung by Mr. A. would move anyone into a spiritual state of mind.

We next enjoyed seven songs selected from Schumann's Myrten Op.25; as Mr. A. shared with the audience, this cycle was part of the composer's outpouring of song during the year 1840 when Herr Wieck's opposition to his daughter Clara's marriage to poor young Robert was trumped by the court.  One can hear his love for his bride reflected in the music.  "Widmung", a setting of a text by Rückert, is bursting with all-consuming passion.  Julius Mosen's text "Der Nussbaum" is a gentle lyrical account of a young woman dreaming of her coming marriage.

The set also included a couple drinking songs which allowed Mr. A. an opportunity to appear rather bibulous.  Following were two songs about Venice and gondoliers to texts by Thomas Moore which were translated into German by Ferdinand Freiligrath.

In the second half of the program, the acclaimed Brian Zeger took over the role of collaborative pianist, one at which he excels.  The songs were in English and although Mr. Appleby clearly threw himself into them with the same enthusiasm, we personally do not relate as much to 20th c. works as much as we do to works of the 19th c.  We miss the scanning and the rhyming which elicits a vocal line more agreeable to our ears.

We did enjoy the tinkling piano in Britten's "Fish in the Unruffled Lakes", a setting of text by Auden, and the quiet sombre chords of "Nocturne" in which the text rhymed and scanned in trochaic meter as did "Underneath the abject willow" which was of a friskier vein.

Two songs by Leonard Bernstein followed. "To what you said" is a dissonant setting of text by Walt Whitman.  Cellist Dane Johansen joined Mr. Appleby and Mr. Zeger and made some lovely music.  But we far preferred the accessible "Dream with Me" written for Peter Pan but bumped off the show.

Three songs by Harbison from Simple Daylight with texts by Michael Fried struck us as unlovely.  The very angry "Someday a Seed" could not measure up to Schumann's "Ich grolle nicht" on the same topic.

Two Langston Hughes poems set by John Musto left us similarly cold in spite of Mr. A.'s deeply committed performance.  Just call us a fugitive from the 19th c. wandering lost in the 20th!

© meche kroop