MANNES CELEBRATES INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

I-Yun Tsai, Wenting Yu, Wen Guan Li, Zhihong Li, Jingci Liu, Pavlina Dokovska, and Ganson Salmon

Only in New York can one hear a highly professional concert and find out that the artists are students. The quality of the performances were uniformly splendid in last night's recital at the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Last month we reviewed the graduation recital of tenor Ganson Salmon, the highlight of which was his performance of Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe, composed during the period when Robert's longing for Clara was at its peak. Last night's repeat performance was in honor of Clara, who was not only her husband's muse, but, as related by Pavlina Dokovska, created her own musical career after rebelling against her strict family and the extant cultural norms.

For details about Mr. Salmon's artistry with this song cycle, we refer readers to our recent review, http://www.vocedimeche.reviews/search?q=ganson+salmon. We will only say that Mr. Salmon, Heinrich Heine, and Robert Schumann seem even more united than before as Mr. Salmon has settled into the work; he held us spellbound with his mastery. The connection between him and his superb collaborative pianist Brianna Han has intensified.

The program included selections from Kurze Waltzer for four hands by Wolfgang Rihm. The thrill of hearing contemporary music that we actually enjoyed was quite overwhelming. The music is charming, accessible, listenable, and even danceable. 

The four fortunate hands that brought us such joy belonged to Wenting Yu and the very beautiful Jingci Liu who were totally in tune with one another.

There was sufficient differences among the brief waltzes that our attention was held throughout. There was great variety of melodic intent, mood, tempi and dynamics.  Now if we could only get Mr. Rihm to write an opera! He has written dozens of lieder and we mean to track them down.

The final work on the program was Johannes Brahms' rousing Piano Quartet in C minor, op.60. It opened with a muscular Allegro non troppo which was followed by the Scherzo in a somewhat unusual position. The third movement, Andante, opened with a lyrical theme in the cello, played by Zhihong Li, making it our favorite part.  The Finale featured the violin of I-Yun Tsai and the piano of Wenting Yu. And we all know that the viola fills in all the gaps. Wen Guan Li played it well.

Mannes can be very proud of their students, all on their way to superstardom.

(c) meche kroop

GANSON SALMON MASTER'S RECITAL

Brianna Han and Ganson Salmon

Getting a Masters in Music degree from The New School Mannes is a big deal, big enough to draw a highly enthusiastic crowd of fellow students and big enough to bring to New York Mr. Salmon's beautiful Nana--all the way from Indiana! Of course, master teacher Arthur Levy was also in attendance, with everyone bursting with pride. We personally take great pleasure in witnessing the culmination of years of vocal study and the threshold of a professional career.

Mr. Salmon chose an ambitious program, one that showed off his storytelling skills. We long ago lost track of the number of times we have heard Robert Schumann's intense song cycle Dichterliebe, but we always hope to find something new in the songs, rich as they are.

The cycle traces the arc of a love affair gone sour and requires the singer to evoke a wide spectrum of moods and emotions. It is such a general human phenomenon that it is easy to relate to, given a singer who is not afraid of his emotions.  Just such a singer is Mr. Salmon. Accompanied by the superb collaborative pianist Brianna Han, every emotion was explored. Mr. Salmon did not appear to be acting but rather seemed to inhabit the songs from within.

The opening lied "Im wunderschönen Monat Mai" was sung with tender expressivity, achieved by dynamic variety.  In "Aus meinen Tränen spriessen" Mr. Salmon appeared to enjoy the taste of the text, poetry by Heinrich Heine. We loved the coloration on the word "nachtigall". The enthusiastic "Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne" was filled with energy and excitement, and the singer seemed particularly involved in "Wenn ich in deine Augen seh".

Ms. Han had her chance to shine in the rippling accompaniment Schumann wrote for "Ich will meine Seele tauchen" and the ponderous chords of "Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome".  We always love "Ich grolle nicht" for its bitter irony, well captured by the two artists, the mood recaptured in "Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen" with it's energetic hurdy-gurdy music in the piano.

"Allnächtlich im Traume" was sung with astute recreation of the wonderment of the dream state in which the dreamer fulfills his wishes. In the end he wants to bury his sorrow and his lost love in a coffin and give them a burial at sea.  What a heartbreaker!

The second most impressive part of the recital was the final entry in which Mr. Salmon performed "The Stage", a poem he wrote in college about the particular thrills and chills of expression on the stage, set to music by his lady love Tatev Yeghiazaryan who commanded the piano. We do not know if this was a premiere of the work but we were touched by the sincerity.

According to the composer, she was inspired by Mr. Salmon's words to create a melody and then the harmonies. To our ears, the melodies evoked Armenian folk music in their flexible alternation of modes; the harmonies were original and quite lovely.

Also on the program was the cycle Tre Sonnetti di Petrarca performed with Ms. Han at the piano. She has very soft hands and produced some gorgeous arpeggi in "Pace non trovo" and a marvelous piano interlude in "I vidi in terra".  Mr. Salmon's voice has the loveliest overtones in the middle of the register.

We haven't much to say about Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, except that 19th c. Germany and Italy felt much more relevant than James Agee's text about 20th c. Kentucky! The text is descriptive and seemed not to inspire a very interesting vocal line. Mr. Salmon brought out the loathed music stand which he seemed not to need!

There are some interesting operatic roles in Mr. Salmon's future and one just passed that we hated to miss--The Fall of the House of Usher. We are sure there will be much to look forward to from this fine young artist.

(c) meche kroop