PUREum JOy

Bretton Brown and Pureum Jo

Right on the heels of yesterday's impressive recital comes yet another one.  Soprano Pureum Jo is getting her Masters of Music Degree from Juilliard and presented a recital that she wanted to be "fun".  And there was plenty of fun for both singer and audience.  But there was also some serious material on the program.  Both the fun stuff and the serious stuff were equally admirable.  Whatever she sings, Ms. Jo lives within the song; her background in opera carries over so that facial expression, vocal expression and body movement are all of a piece.

There was something very ardent about her performance of spiritual songs.  We have never been particularly fond of spirituals but Ms. Jo made two of Harry Burleigh's songs memorable, especially with the slow tempo and dynamic variety which she brought to "Deep River".  Cesar Franck's "Panis Angelicus" is always a treat, especially since it was accompanied by the fine cellist Sang Jun Yhee.  Luigi Luzzi's "Ave Maria"  is perhaps not heard as often as Schubert's setting but was very lovely to listen to, especially as Ms. Jo sang it.

After the spiritual songs came a set of fanciful songs about witches!  In Richard Strauss' "Junghexenlied", Ms. Jo conveyed an elfin quality; her wonderful collaborative pianist Bretton Brown gave his all to the very apt accompaniment.  Wolf's "Nixe Binsefuss" and the spirited "Hexenlied" followed, all sung with involvement, meaning and excellent diction.

A pair of well-chosen love songs included the beloved "A Chloris" by Reynaldo Hahn, earnestly sung,  and a rather seductive "Je Te Veux" by Eric Satie which Ms. Jo invested with a cabaret style.

Two Rossini songs allowed Ms. Jo to demonstrate her fine bel canto technique with accurate and elaborate embellishments.  "Aragonese" was sung like an operatic aria complete with a stunning cadenza.  The frisky "La Danza" with its tongue twisting text was accompanied by Ms. Jo dancing in a variety of styles with a bunch of her classmates joining her onstage.  Now THAT was FUN!

In such a well designed and beautifully executed program, it is difficult to say which part was the best; but to our ears, Tchaikovsky's "Was I not a little blade of grass?" had a depth of feeling that broke our heart.  It is the metaphor-heavy lament of a young woman married off to an old man she does not love.  Ms. Jo's voice soared up into the stratosphere in a goose-bump-inducing finale.

As an encore, we heard Dvořak's "Song to the Moon" from Rusalka which Ms. Jo sang exquisitely.  We were fantasizing that Renée Fleming was there conducting a master class and that she said, "Ms. Jo, you nailed it.  I have nothing more to add."  Well, let us hope that we will soon hear Ms. Jo sing the role at the Metropolitan Opera.

Ⓒ meche kroop

SIMPLY STELLAR

One expects excellence from The Juilliard School but we are never surprised when an event exceeds our high expectations.  Such was the case last night at the Vocal Arts Honors Recital in which two supremely talented sopranos, chosen by competitive audition, presented programs selected by themselves and their collaborative pianists.  Let's take a look at what they chose.

The glamorous Hungarian-American Lilla Heinrich-Szasz, partnered by the competition-winning pianist Lachlan Glen (well known by Voce di Meche readers as the founder and co-artistic director of Schubert & Co.) began their half of the program with four of our favorite Grieg songs.  The performance highlighted the gentle sincerity and delicacy of these gems.  Ms. Heinrich-Szasz delighted the audience with her unfussy and winning delivery; her connection with the material and with the audience was remarkable, especially in the humorous "Lauf der Welt".

Four songs by Debussy revealed the fine vibrato of her upper register; our ears thrilled to the pingy resonance.  Still, our heart was taken most by the Spanish songs of her final set.  We had never before heard José Serrano's "Marinela" from La Canción del Olvido but we hope to hear it many more times in the future.  On the other hand we have heard Fernando Obradors "Del cabello más sutil" more times than we can recall but never with a more haunting feeling of yearning.

Mr. Glen's piano was totally supportive of the delicacy of the songs.  One had a sense of filigree that tickled the ear.  Ms. Heinrich-Szasz performed an encore in Hungarian which was everything an encore should be, showing her skill with yet a fourth language and her willingness to let her hair down and dance; the delighted audience joined her in rhythmic clapping to the spirited "Heia in dem bergen" from Die Csárdásfürstin.

The second half of the program starred the equally glamorous award-winning Julia Bullock and her superb piano partner Daniel Fung.  When we saw the program, we were skeptical about the Messiaen songs from Chants de terre et de ciel but need not have been concerned.  Ms. Bullock and Mr. Fung made music together in spite of the inaccessibility of the music and poetry.

Much more to our taste were Mussorgsky's songs from The Nursery in which Ms. Bullock gave free rein to her considerable dramatic skills; our personal favorite was "With Nanny", heard many times before but never with such charm.  Richard Strauss' Drei Ophelia Lieder followed, songs which sound very different from Strauss' other songs.  It is so interesting that English had been translated into German and the German translated back into English by Ms. Bullock herself for the program.  Indeed, Ms. Bullock also translated the French and the Russian songs!  Without a break, Ms. Bullock seguéd right into Harry T. Burleigh's "Deep River", driving the audience into a frenzy of adulation with her gorgeous lustrous voice and compelling stage presence.  Mr. Fung was with her every step of the way.  These are four compelling artists to watch!

(c) meche kroop