GOING FOR THE GREEK

Jinhee Park and Polixeni Tziouvaras

We have written about the lovely and versatile mezzo-soprano Polixeni Tziouvaras quite a number of times in her past few years at Manhattan School of Music. But last week, when she sang in Around the World in Song, we were not wearing our "critic" hat; we just sat there and enjoyed her performance of Ravel's Cinq Mélodies Populaires Grecques. Last night, at Ms. Tziouvaras' Master of Music recital, we listened with a critical ear, intent upon figuring out what was so gloriously entertaining.

There were a number of features that made it special for us. We have heard this cycle of five songs many times in French which is our second language. In that situation, we focused primarily on the meaning of the words. Hearing it in Greek, a language in which we only know basic greetings and menu talk, we focused on the marriage between the sounds and rhythm of the language and the rise and fall of the melody. The translator, Michel Dimitri Calvacoressi, did a magnificent job. My guess is that he is fluent in both languages.

The second feature has more to do with Ms. Tziouvaras' delivery. Our preference is always for an expressive singer who augments vocal coloration with gesture and facial expression. To us, the goal of the singer of art songs seems to be bringing the listener into the world of the composer and poet. This young artist has the voice of an opera singer and the expressiveness of a cabaret singer.

In this case, we pictured a little village, perhaps on one of the smaller islands less touched by the modern world. We experienced the thrill of a proposal of marriage in "Chanson de la Mariée", the BDE of the Greek man in "Quel Galant m'est Comparable", and the joy of the festival in "Tout gai!" We felt the romantic longing in "Chanson des Cueilleuses de Lentisques" and the simple spirituality of "Là-bas, vers l'église". It was a magnificent visit to another time and place. We felt transported.

The rest of the well curated program provided additional fulfillment and served to show the versatility of the singer. We generally associate Francis Poulenc with songs ironic or surreal. We had never heard his cycle Poèmes de Ronsard and were delighted to have made their acquaintance. Ms. Tziouvaras used her dynamic personality to bring each poem to life, evincing all the various colors of "Attributs", each belonging to a different goddess. We particularly enjoyed the bibulous "À son page". Singers and actors love to portray intoxication! We were happy with the singer's French diction.

Britten's A Charm of Lullabies similarly offers opportunities for a variety of emotions. Britten must have spent a lot of time searching for a wide spectrum of lullabies to set. William Blake's "A Cradle Song" rhymes and scans but we didn't think Britten made the most of the vocal line. We preferred Robert Burns' "A Highland Balou" for which the singer adopted a wee Scottish accent and filled the song with parental pride. Robert Greene's "Sephestia's Lullaby" was just plain sorrowful. Thomas Randolph's "A Charm" was filled with parental irritation over a child who won't sleep; it was filled with angry threats! John Philip's "The Nurse's Song" had an a cappella introduction and conclusion. The harmonies in the piano seemed unsettled and uneasy. English diction was clear, which is not always the case.

It is much easier to focus on the quality of a singer's instrument and the technique of her/his singing when Italian is performed. Here we heard Mozart's concert aria "Ch'io me Scordi di te" and we were able to appreciate the singer's Italianate vowels and legato delivery, as well as the evenness throughout the register. The first verse is like a recitativo with spare accompaniment, made interesting by variations in tempo and dynamics. The sections that followed seemed like an aria and cabaletta. It would fit into any opera of the early 19th c.

The final work on the program was slightly less interesting. Brahms' Zigeunerlieder lack the Romany flavor of the Dvorak cycle. The music has a slight flavor but the text is rather generic poetry about love. Even in the most marvelous recitals, we find something to pick on and here it is. Like so many American singers, Ms. Tziouvaras is inconsistent with the final "ich" and "ig". In one line they would sound perfect and in the next they might be avoided altogether. This would be easy to remedy. A non speaker of German would never have noticed but we did.

We are a non speaker of Russian and therefore have no criticism of a gorgeous rendering of the seasonal "Spring Waters" by Rachmaninoff. It was sung with passion and filled us with longing for warmer weather.

This superlative recital was coached and accompanied by the excellent David Mayfield with Jinhee Park collaborating for the Poulenc and the Rachmaninoff. One couldn't ask for better support!

(c) meche kroop

RUBY SHOES

Julius Drake and Ruby Hughes

Listening to the magic of last night's recital at Weill Recital Hall, we couldn't keep ourselves from thinking about Dorothy's magic shoes in The Wizard of Oz. In any case, there was a lot of magic onstage in a superlative recital given by two artists who compliment each other to an unusual degree. Mr. Drake has the soft hands that we favor, always supporting Ms. Hughes and never drowning her out, unlike some accompanists we have heard recently.

Ms. Hughes has a gracious stage presence and a lovely instrument with which to work. What impressed us immediately was her expressiveness and the attention paid to coloring each word. She opened the program with a trio of songs by Henry Purcell. They spoke to us from the 17th c. in a clearer voice than the Britten songs from the 20th c. that we heard later in the program.

"Music for a while" always beguiles us.  "O lead me to some peaceful gloom" was new to us but "Thrice happy lovers" was familiar from the masque The Faerie Queen which we so enjoyed this past summer (review archived) produced by the newborn Gramercy Opera. The British artist made every word clear and made every word count, without ignoring the overall phrasing.

Robert Schumann's Liederkreis, Op.39 was performed in its entirety and we were transported to the world of nature as seen through the eyes of the 19th c. poet Joseph von Eichendorff. When Schumann called him the perfect poet for lieder he was right on point. The text rhymes and scans beautifully and the images are evocative. (Actually, the same could be said for the texts employed by Purcell.)

With the typical style of 18th c. German Romanticism, Eichendorff used natural elements to refer to feeling tone. Forests can be lonely or threatening. Birds can symbolize freedom of expression and one's very soul. The sky can kiss the earth as a lover would.

The two artists excelled here. Ms. Hughes was riveting in "Waldesgesprach", illuminating the voices of the "man on the make" and that of the witch who retaliates with anger and severe punishment. Mr. Drake was remarkable in creating an air of quietude in the prelude to "Mondnacht" and the rustling of the treetops in "Schone Fremde".

In "Auf einer Burg", the piece closes on an unsettled and unresolved note. We are left puzzled about the weeping bride. Although we have heard this cycle countless times, we have never heard artists create this intense effect. We would have wished to linger awhile as the question hung in the air.

Our only quibble was with Ms. Hughes German. We understood it but were mildly disconcerted by some inconsistencies in the final "ch" and "g", as well as a tendency to ignore the umlaut in certain words. (We ourselves are hampered by not having diacritical marks on our keyboard but if a kind reader comes to our aid we will be grateful. Our writing program used to have a "hack" for this but no longer.)

We are happy to report that Ms. Hughes' French was merveilleux. Lately we have been hearing a great deal of Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis and never tire of it. Each singer has done well in conveying the adolescent innocence of "La flute de Pan", the eroticism of "La chevelure" and the pain of facing reality in "Le tombeau des naiades" when the lover has lost his desire. Ms. Hughes put her own spin on it--the feeling of loneliness when love dies--and we loved it. Debussy's complex piano score was no challenge for Mr. Drake.

We couldn't say we loved Ravel's Deux melodies hebraiques but we loved the way the singer sang them with gorgeous melismas. Perhaps the failure to connect with this work had much to do with Ms. Hughes being "on the book".

A Charm of Lullabies by Benjamin Britten also failed to charm us. This has more to do with our taste than the success of the composition or its performance.  "The Highland Balou" and "The Nurse's Song" have text that is doggerel, but we enjoyed them the most. Some of the others seemed as if they did not ask to be set. 

We managed to feel no affection for the world premiere of Huw Watkins' cycle Echo. We realize that it is a very big deal for a singer to have a work composed just for him/her but it is rare that we enjoy such events. The presence of the detested music stand interfered with any connection we might have felt. Just sayin'.

As encore we heard the Scottish folk song "O Waly Waly", otherwise known as "Water is Wide". It was sung with simplicity and restored our good feeling about this exceptional recital. We understand Ms. Hughes is devoted to female composers and hope she will consider adding some Clara Schumann to her next recital.

(c) meche kroop