CHELSEA GIRL

 Chelsea Guo

A fulfilling concert last night at Merkin Hall left us in awe of the multitalented. Chelsea Guo and of the Young Concert Artists sponsorship. It's been but a year since we heard Ms. Guo when we singled out her performance in an event at which YCA partnered with New York Festival of Song. Both institutions have a knack for finding and promoting the very best young artists at the beginning of their careers. Last night was a real event and it prompted our thoughts on the issue of artistry and fame. We hear so many gifted young artists whose careers stagnate. What factors in to the rapidly advancing careers of some of them?

There may be a better term but the one that pops into our mind is a strange one.  It's "show biz". It is some undefinable quality that engages the public on a level deeper than musical artistry and talent.  Perhaps it is personality manifested by a look, a self confidence, body movement, eye contact-- something that draws the audience in and holds their interest. Ms. Guo, like her colleague Joseph Parrish (another YCA sponsored singer), captures the audience and wraps them in her arms and doesn't let go. No wonder she is winning prizes and performing all over the world, and at such an early stage of her career. If we are not mistaken, she just graduated from Juilliard!

This is an artist who knows exactly what she wants to give her audience.  No one at Merkin Hall could fail to be reached by her singing, her piano playing, and most impressively, her ability to do both simultaneously--not casually in the manner of a lounge singer but as an artist accomplished in both fields. We observed this most intensely when she performed Liszt's lavish transcription of Schumann's simple art song "Widmung" (which he renamed "Liebeslied") whilst singing the Rückert text which Schumann had set. We have observed singers before who played art songs and accompanied themselves, but they did not turn and face the audience, enveloping them in the depth of feeling. What a star turn!

The rest of the evening's two hour program was equally impressive with interesting choices including a pair of songs by Fauré in which she accompanied herself on the piano, giving herself complete control of the many factors that compose an art song performance. A "Nocturne in E Major" by Chopin captured the pensive melancholy of the composer that one senses even in his works written in the major mode. We liked the way she emphasized a three note motif that recurred throughout the piece.

Liszt may have elaborated on Schumann's simplicity whilst removing the vocal component, but Pauline Viardot elaborated on Chopin's Mazurkas by adding sung text and we were delighted to be introduced to three selections out of the dozen in the group. Somehow we believe that Ms. Guo chose the three best but we would love to hear the other nine. We were enchanted by the first two which focused on women's feelings about love.

Two "spirituals" were sung to accompaniment by the excellent collaborative pianist Francisco Barfoed whom we remember from his Juilliard days. Furthermore we were privileged to be introduced to a composer and his pianistic interpreter, both of whom we look forward to hearing more of. Composer A Bu contributed two songs to the evening's  program and it awakened our hope that 21st century piano music might just become lyrical with lovely melodic lines. "Lullaby" and "Signature" were given their World Premiere and we found our attention focused on the piano part-- so well performed by Eden Chen. The lyrics did not impress us and we hope that Mr. Bu will find text that will match his lovely melodies.

Kurt Will's "Lost in the Stars" gave Ms. Guo the opportunity to tell a dramatic tale and Sondheim's "Putting it Together" closed the program. We have no idea how it came that Barbra Streisand revised Sondheim's lyrics from the Broadway show Sunday in the Park with George; we'd never heard them before. It occurs to us that the alterations were not so different from what Liszt did to Schumann's work and what Viardot did to Chopin's. We dare to say that Ms. Guo, among some other unique qualities, has an attraction to transformation.

Finally, we would like to call attention to Ms. Guo's excellent posture at the piano. Singers who hunch over the keys give us cervical distress, much in the same way as tenors who tighten up when reaching for the top note give us an ache in our throat. A small point, but a curious one.

© meche kroop

ALL TOGETHER NOW

 Daniel McGrew, Erin Wagner, Chelsea Guo, Megan Moore, Joseph Parrish, and Francesco Barfoed

What a fortuitous collaboration it was at Merkin Hall last night when New York Festival of Song joined forces with Young Concert Artists for an evening of ensemble singing. Five fantastic singers gifted a most delighted audience songs from five hundred years of music history. It would have been a great thrill to spend an evening with any one of those gifted artists, but five at once? It was like winning a trifecta, or to coin a phrase, a "pentecta". Both NYFOS and YCA share the same mission which just so happens to coincide with ours--fostering gifted young singers. It is no coincidence that there is overlap between NYFOS performers and YCA winners.

Regular readers know how fond we are of duets but we rarely get to write about ensembles with the exception of a few reviews of Brahms' Liebeslieder, which would have been right at home on last night's program; however our dear Steven Blier loves to introduce his NYFOS audience to works they likely have not heard before.

Although we loved the accompanying piano of Mr. Blier and Francesco Barfoed, we must say that there is something even more special when voices are heard a cappella. Take for example the opening number which just happens to be the oldest and also our favorite of the night. The song by Clément Janequin, a famous French composer of the 16th c., entitled "Les cris de Paris," was thrilling in its harmonies and surprisingly contemporary in its text. One could imagine it describing a marketplace in any populous town.

From Mozart we heard two of his Sei Notturni, one of which might have been a sketch for his soon-to-be-penned Cosi fan Tutte.  Schubert has written more than one serenade but the "Ständchen" we heard was a group effort which, we imagine, occurred when a man gathered his friends together to bolster his self-confidence as he went to woo his beloved.

We never thought of Beethoven as a composer of songs but he did set 12 Irish Songs--folk songs by nature. We were completely distracted by the density of the piano accompaniment, so well played by Francesco Barfoed that our ears were teased by a recurrent phrase that must have inspired Mendelssohn. Discussing it afterward with a couple singer friends, no one was able to identify it but it did make us think of the music for Midsummer Night's Dream and a fairyland scene. Or could it have been a Schubert lied about a supernatural creature? Dear Reader, if you heard it too and could possibly set our mind to rest, please write your thoughts in the comment section below. Otherwise, your reviewer will lose a lot of sleep!

Brahms' lovely "Die Meere" was written in 3/4 time signature and, like any barcarolle, had us swaying in our seats. The French also had their voices heard, namely Camille Saint-Saëns' "Pastorale" and Gabriel Fauré's "Pleurs d'or", the text of which was so lovely that we want to read Albert Samain's text aloud.

We never knew that Shostakovich set Jewish Folk Poetry, and in Yiddish no less. His mid 20th c. compositions have never tickled our ear  but we appreciated his evocative setting of "Winter" which actually gave us a chill.

Not all music of the last hundred years is distasteful to us. We actually enjoyed Libby Larsen's very funny "Jack's Valentine" in which each singer's lines overlapped another's with the repetition of "I love you. A whole lot. Very very much. A whole bunch. Forever." No piano accompaniment was needed. One could enjoy the vocal lines weaving together in a humorous tapestry.

A special treat was the New York premiere of Matt Boehler's setting of Robert Louis Stevenson' "Let Beauty Awake". We knew of Mr. Boehler as a singer and we have always said that vocal music should be written by singers and this proved our point. Mr. McGrew and Mr. Parrish did it justice.

Was there anyone in the audience who remembers The Beach Boys? Leave it to Mr. Blier to arrange Owen Wilson's "In My Room", a popular song from the 1960's, for the five voices. We looked it up online and, well, it was as different as day is from night. We loved the harmonies although the text sounded like teenage angst.

But wait! The closing number was even more radical. We admit that we had never heard of The Bobs, an 80's pop band, let alone the song "Trash" written by Gunnar Madsen and Richard Greene. We couldn't wait to get home to look for it online. Well, Mr. Blier always says "No song is safe from us" and in this case, his arrangement made a proverbial silk purse out of a sow's ear. The five singers grabbed microphones and had the audience in stitches, singing about a slovenly man whose presumably female companion couldn't deal with his trash.

We have avoided listing who sang what (with one exception) because this was truly an ensemble effort by soprano Chelsea Guo, mezzo-soprano Megan Moore, mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner, tenor Daniel McGrew, and bass-baritone Joseph Parrish. We have reviewed all of them except for Ms. Guo who is still an undergraduate and plays piano as brilliantly as she sings. In the final number, the group used microphones and she appeared to have just the right style and flair.  What a fine group of singers!  All seem well on their way to stardom and we feel privileged to have heard them as they launch.

© meche kroop