ORA BELLISSIMA

Kenneth Merrill, Bénédicte Jourdois, Junseok Hwang, Jared Werlein, Michael McDermott, Katherine Herbert, Libby Sokolowski, and Song Hee Lee

We love reviewing students! The "students" we hear at Juilliard are generally not what one would think of as students since they are already performing around the country, and sometimes even abroad.  But last night we reviewed six first year students. We weren't expecting much but we were astonished at the high caliber of singing we heard. Apparently, a young singers needs to be quite advanced to get accepted at Juilliard.

Each singer had stage presence and a good command of Italian. Each one seemed to know what he/she was singing about and lent appropriate expression to the delivery. The raw material was all there and we hope we will be able to review them as they progress through the impressive training provided by the Juilliard Vocal Arts Department.

As soon as we saw the beautiful harpsichord onstage and saw Kenneth Merrill's name on the program we knew we would be delighted by some Baroque songs which are so suitable to young voices. Mr. Merrill provided the lovely harpsichord accompaniment for the first part of the program.

The excellent Bénédicte Jourdois was the collaborative pianist for the second half of the program which took us into the 19th and 20th c. The two were responsible for preparing and coaching the program. That's just an example of the fine training offered by Juilliard.

The appropriately named soprano Song Hee Lee opened the program with Claudio Monteverdi's "Quel sguardo sdegnosetto" the tempo of which was so fast that we could not understand the words. What we did understand is that this young lady has a voice of crystalline clarity most beautiful at the very top of the register. We liked the way she leaned into the appoggiatura at the end.

She closed the program with "Good Morning Midnight", André Previn's setting of a text by Emily Dickinson. The tempo here was slow enough for us to appreciate her excellent English diction and her ability to make sense of the text.

Soprano Katherine Herbert's bright instrument pleased the ear in "Ah! crudel, il pianto mio" from Händel's Rinaldo. In the fast section, her fioritura was crisp and clean. The ritornello offered some fine embellishments. We particularly enjoyed the trill. It was quite a treat to hear Mr. Merrill's accompaniment augmented by Ana Kim's mellow cello, also heard in several other selections.

Ms. Herbert was also fine in Britten's "The Last Rose of Summer" in which we enjoyed the vocal line, a familiar tune. We like the way she sustained the feeling during the silences; the spaces between the notes are also important!

Soprano Libby Sokolowski evinced an appealing vibrato and a pretty trill in "Credete al mio dolore" from Händel's Alcina. The sound is an exciting one with lots of resonance. Händel's arias do go on but Ms. Sokolowski provided plenty of variety of coloration and dynamics to keep the ear engaged.

Libby Larsen set Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How do I love thee?" and Ms. Sokolowski made excellent sense of the text, showing another side of her artistry.

Jared Werlein has a pleasing lyrical baritone and gave evidence that he truly understood what he was singing about in Giulio Caccini's "Non ha'l ciel cotanti lumi", a lovely song of deep sentiment that he colored beautifully. 

He also made sense of the text "Youth and Love' by Ralph Vaughan Williams which he brought to a quiet conclusion.

Vivaldi's "La tiranna avversa sorte" from Arsilda, regina di Ponto, is a strange aria in which the harpsichord and cello play staccato with the vocal line written in legato.  Tenor Michael McDermott met that challenge neatly and demonstrated some impressive melismatic singing in a forceful tone suited to the determination of the character. We liked what he did with the dotted rhythm.

Mr. McDermott achieved a different mood, one of quietude, in Charles Ives' "Berceuse". We liked the clarity of enunciation and the expressiveness.

Baritone Junseok Hwang's first number was Purcell's "Music for a While" which we generally associate with a voice belonging to a fach of higher register. Once he let go his grip on the harpsichord and stepped forward toward the audience, his hands were free to gesture which added significantly to his performance. He successfully lightened the weight of his voice for the embellishments and brought the piece to a beautiful end. 

He also sang our favorite Bellini song "Vaga luna che inargenti" which has been running through our head all night long. The texture of his voice was well suited to the song and his gestures were appropriate, once he let go of the piano and stepped forward. It's a small point and once Mr. Hwang realizes how much more he connects when he steps forward, he will have made a giant step forward, so to speak. We are sure his teacher must nag him about it!

We enjoyed the program and the singers and Ms. Kim's cello, which made such a fine addition to the program. We look forward to hearing these singers again and watching them grow.

(c) meche kroop

GUANBO SU, GUANBO GIU

Kenneth Merrill and Guanbo Su

We had only heard basso Guanbo Su on one occasion--but he showed such vocal and dramatic skills performing two very different characters in the same production that we were most eager to hear him again. It was about six weeks ago that we enjoyed Janacek's The Adventures of Vixen Sharp-Ears at Manhattan School of Music; Mr. Su portrayed both the starchy Parson and the grumpy Badger whose den gets preempted by the heroine. We wondered who was the possessor of that incredibly mature sounding bass.

The basso fach is a late blooming one (and also a long-lasting one) so it is an astonishment to find one so young and so well developed. Another astonishment was to hear a program for bass that wasn't ponderous. On the contrary, Mr. Su's voice is dark and rich, but also with a lightness that makes it difficult to describe but very agreeable to listen to.  Think Italian roast espresso capped with milk foam!

There is one thing we noticed that may be a contributing factor--his embouchure probably adds some height and resonance in the head, but we are no voice teacher and that is just a speculation. We would love to ask his teacher Cynthia Hoffman.

With excellent German, Mr. Su performed Richard Strauss' "Morgen" with stunnng expressivity. We don't think we ever heard it sung by a bass but there's always a first time.  Robert Schumann's "Die beiden Grenadiere" showed off Mr. Su's gift for storytelling. The discreet use of dynamics injected variety into the lengthy lied.

Schubert songs seemed a natural for Mr. Su's storytelling.  He produced markedly different coloration for the frightened Maiden and the reassuring Death in "Der Tod und das Madchen". But it was "Erlkonig" that captured our admiration.  In this dramatic masterpiece, Mr. Su used facial expression and direction of glances along with vocal coloration to indicate the identities of the four characters. How we would have loved to share with our readers photos of his face  but, truth to tell, our attention was so rapt that we forgot to pick up the camera!  This was the first time that happened to us and says a great deal about the intensity of the performance. We may never forget the twisted snarl of the titular character.

Jacques Ibert's Chansons de Don Quichotte revealed a fine facility with French and impressive melismatic singing.  In "Chanson a Dulcinee", he floated the final note in a manner we've not observed in the basso fach.

From Gerald Finzi's 20th c. setting of Shakespearean text (Let Us Garlands Bring) we heard three selections sung in clear English. Setting English generally results in an unappealing vocal line but Shakespeare's iambic pentameter is a whole 'nother story.  The songs were quite lovely and we particularly enjoyed the jolly "It Was a Lover and His Lass".

Stefano Donaudy composed in the early 20th c. but his music harks back to the Baroque period. We have always loved his "O del mio amato ben" and Mr. Su was nicely flexible in the melismatic passages and ardent in his delivery.

The final work on the program was Giuseppi Giordani's  18th c. "Caro mio ben". This is every beginning singer's "first song" so we may have been taking it for granted.  No longer!  Mr. Su gave it a beautiful pianissimo in the ritornello with some interesting embellishments.

Renowned coach and collaborative pianist Kenneth Merrill utilized both his talents last night and added a great deal to this exemplary recital.  The vociferous audience demanded an encore and we heard a passionate delivery of a song in Mandarin which Mr Su said was a folk song, not an art song.  Well, we could not have discerned  the difference but wish we'd had a translation.

Mr. Su has some interesting plans for the summer including Glenn Morton's Classic Lyric Arts program in France. Having graduated from Manhattan School of Music, he will return for his Master of Music degree and we are looking forward to hearing more from him as his voice develops.

(c) meche kroop

BIMODAL BEAUTY

Kenneth Merrill, Rebecca Ringle, and William Ferguson

At recitals, our sense of hearing is the one we rely upon for engagement. Last night at the opening offering of the Salon/Sanctuary season, we had a feast for the eyes as well as the ears. The 1890 Playel instrument from Klavierhaus looked as beautiful as it sounded, its tone soft and gentle, perfectly suited for the French program.

Not only that but the handsome tenor William Ferguson and the stunningly glamorous mezzo Rebecca Ringle were also a feast for the eyes. One is not supposed to care what a singer looks like but--sorry, not sorry--we love beauty in all its forms.

And now, to the program!  Founder and Artistic Director Jessica Gould, generally committed to early music, widened her scope to present an evening of 19th c. French music entitled On the Margins of the Opèra Comique--not serious chansons but light-hearted music suitable for the salon or cabaret.

The music on the program was composed by three Jewish composers whose oeuvre was purportedly dismissed due to anti-semitism. To our ears, there was nothing dismissable about the charming songs we heard.

Ms. Ringle has a true mezzo sound, unlike many singers who claim that fach.  It has a distinctive timbre that filled the auditorium of the Abigail Adams Smith House. Ms. Ringle's French is flawless and her phrasing high in musicality. 

Our favorite performance of the evening was the encore! We just heard "Ah quel diner", from Jacques Offenbach's La Perichole, a few reviews back. We loved it then and we loved it last night. Just as actors love a good death scene, singers seem to enjoy a drinking song, or, in this case, a drunken song. Ms. Ringle appeared to be having the time of her life and the joy was absolutely infectious.

She is best when she can show her personality and the three Fontaine fables set by Offenbach delighted us no end. In "Le berger et la mer", the moral seemed to be to stick with what you do well and not gamble on a tempting future.

In "La cigale et la fourmi", a stingy and judgmental ant gives a moral lecture to the carefree but destitute cicada who sang all summer long. The song ends with a remarkable trill. Kenneth Merrill's piano captured all the sounds of nature.

The moral of "Le rat de ville et le rat des champs" seemed to be that a simple meal eaten in peace is better than a fancy one eaten in fear.

Mr. Merrill's piano was noticeably wonderful in many of the songs. We could hear the village bell's sonority in Giacomo Meyerbeer's "Ma barque légère", the nightingale in Fromental Halévy's "Les heures du soir", and the wind in the same composer's "Le follet".  No doubt the special sound of the Playel contributed to the effect.

Only two songs on the program were familiar to us and that was because of the text. Meyerbeer set the Heinrich Heine poem and called it "Komm", the only song on the program not in French.  Franz Schubert named it "Das Fischermädchen" and composed it as part of his cycle Schwanengesang. It is one of our favorite Schubert songs but now it is one of our favorite Meyerbeer songs.  

The other familiar text was that of Théophile Gauthier "Dites, la jeune belle" set by Offenbach as "Barcarolle". We know it as "L'isle inconnue" from Hector Berlioz'cycle Les nuits d'été.

There seems to be quite a bit of metaphor going on in this epoch in which the sea represents both the delights and fears of love. We heard this in "Komm" and again in another Meyerbeer song "Ma barque légère".

 

For the Halévy duet "Est-ce-une peine? Est-ce un plaisir?" Ms. Ringle was joined by tenor William Ferguson whose sweet sound took the upper line while Ms. Ringle's mezzo took the lower one.  We tried in vain to recall duets between tenor and mezzo and hope that readers will add some suggestions to the comment section below.

Even Mozart did not write one for Dorabella and Ferrando in Cosi fan Tutte! It is actually quite a wonderful combination and the two artists harmonized with great beauty. The work is written with complicated overlapping voices, requiring the use of the score, not a desirable circumstance in our book! But the sound was thrilling.

There are probably many more songs like these that the public doesn't get to hear and we thank Ms. Gould for bringing them to our attention and we thank Ms. Ringle for her magnificent performance and for her highly instructive program notes.

(c) meche kroop

RIVERA DOES ROSSINI

Jennifer Rivera and Kenneth Merrill

Last night Salon/Sanctuary Concerts took a step into the 19th c. further than they usually do and it was a welcome step.  To the many Facebook friends who wished us a musical birthday, we would like to tell them that indeed we did enjoy a very musical birthday, thanks to Jessica Gould's astute programming, Jennifer Rivera's thrilling singing, and Kenneth Merrill's warmly responsive accompanying on the piano.  The promised fortepiano was injured and replaced by a modern piano without any loss of musical value.

The program comprised music that Gioachino Rossini wrote in his later years in Paris after he retired from writing all those exciting operas we so love to hear.  It is clear to singers and audience alike that he retained all the excitement of rhythm and melody that infuse his operas.  The songs offer the same opportunity for dramatic expression as do the operas and require only the right singer to give the impression that one is hearing a very condensed version of a scene in an opera.

Take, for example, La Regata Veneziana, of which we never tire.  In Venetian dialect, Rossini gives the singer plenty to work with.  The singer "Anzoleta" gets to adopt three discrete moods, encouraging her lover Momolo, expressing the tension of the gondola race, and finally rewarding Momolo with her affection.  Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Rivera rose to the occasion and filled the venue with color and excitement.

Her superb instrument and technique (influenced by Marilyn Horne and Frederica von Stade) is more legato than that of most bel canto artists.  Her diction sacrificed not a single word on the altar of musicality.  Variety in dynamics and tempi contributed to the sense of drama.

A compelling performance of "Mi lagnerò tacendo" was fascinating in that Rossini set the work four times--for soprano, mezzo, contralto, and finally a version to be sung on  one note.  Ms. Rivera showed strength in the lower register when called for and brilliance on top where necessary.  In fact, her voice is remarkably centered throughout the entire range.  

To our surprise, the setting we enjoyed the most was the last one because there was such variety of color in both Ms. Rivera's singing and Mr. Merrill's piano that the one note kept sounding different!  The text by Pietro Metastasio has been set by Mozart, Handel, Righini, and Hasse, among others.

Ms. Rivera was able to show her stuff in French in a set of three songs.  Every word was enunciated clearly and the French line was sustained beautifully.  "L'Orpheline du Tyrol" permitted the artist to yodel, making large skips sound easy.  "La chanson du bebé" represents Rossini at his naughtiest as the child does everything he can to get the attention of his parents.  What a hoot!  Ms. Rivera squeezed every drop of humor from the song.

We were thrilled to see a set of songs by Pauline Viardot on the program.  She was a singer herself and really knew how to write for the voice.  Clearly Rossini was a big influence on her.  "Madrid" had all the lilting rhythms and melodic riffs associated with Spanish music while "Havanaise" was imbued with Latin rhythms, alternating with highly embellished verses.  "Hai luli" was the lament of a forlorn lover.

There might have been an audience riot had Ms. Rivera not performed an encore of her signature aria--"Una voce poco fa" from Il Barbiere di Siviglia.  It was in this aria that the rich mezzo quality of her voice was most evident.  The fioriture passages were unique and original, creating abundant fireworks.  We heard something for which we need to invent a word; let's call it a "tripletrill"; we have never heard the like.

Mr. Merrill's accompanying skills are legendary and it was easy to see why he is chosen by so many fine singers.  He was always right there supporting but never overshadowing or overwhelming.

We remember Ms. Rivera well from her Juilliard days and from New York City Opera. We have enjoyed her astute essays in The Huffington Post. It was a real treat to hear her up close and personal.  Should NYCO be revived we are sure to hear more of her right here in New York.

© meche kroop

A LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT

Kenneth Merrill and Diana Yodzis

To some folk, two recitals in one day would be excessive but we confess to gluttony where music is concerned.  Our first event, as part of "The Song Continues" at the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, was a most enjoyable recital by a lovely young soprano named Diana Yodzis.  She employed her pleasing bright soprano to serenade the audience in a varied program.  As she gradually moved away from the piano, she let go and revealed her engaging personality.

She began with Rossini's La regata veneziana which we always love to hear.  It gives the singer an opportunity to express, in turn, anticipation, anxiety, excitement and relief.  This was readily accomplished by Ms. Yodzis; we felt as if we were living through the gondola race ourself.

Hugo Wolf is a more challenging composer with less obvious vocal lines.  His Mignon songs are not nearly as melodic as those set by Schubert but always worth hearing. Word coloring was well employed and the sad story was given ample expressiveness. Our sole (and rather minor) criticism is the singer's insecurity (typical of many American singers) with the final "ich" which is often left unvoiced or pronounced as "ick".  This is a minor flaw and easy to correct.  Otherwise, her German was excellent, particularly with the umlaut.

A trio of songs by Duparc were song beautifully with nicely phrased long even lines. We particularly enjoyed "Phidylé". French diction was fine.

A recital given under the auspices of Ms. Horne would not be complete without a set of American  songs.  The selections from Aaron Copland's Old American Songs were well chosen and we especially enjoyed Ms. Yodzis' rendition of "I Bought Me a Cat".

Kenneth Merrill was a fine supportive piano partner who subtly pulled back the volume whenever the vocal line entered.  Great work!

As encore, the artist dedicated "La Vie en Rose" to her fiancé who is serving in the military.  We couldn't help thinking that this fortunate young man will find himself with a beautiful and talented wife--a fine reward for serving our country!

Bryn Holdsworth, Adanya Dunn, Raphaella Medina, Juliana Han, Kirill Kuzmin, Miles Mykkanen, Robert Bosworth and Marilyn Horne

Still on a high from the lovely recital, we attended Marilyn Horne's Master Class in which four fine young singers had the rare opportunity to be coached by one of the 20th century's iconic singers.

When the singer sings the song initially, one wonders how it could possibly be improved.  And then Ms. Horne supplies the answer.  Her four young singers worked hard to implement her suggestions and reached a new level of accomplishment.

We are very familiar with tenor Miles Mykkanen's fine technique and outsize personality, but last night we heard a different side of him as he essayed Hugo Wolf's "Benedeit die sel'ge Mutter".  Ms. Horne had him work on being more reflective and tinkered with his dynamics to fine effect.  Robert Bosworth served as piano partner.

Mezzo-soprano Raphaella Medina worked on a gorgeous Spanish song by Fermin Maria Alvarez with whom we were unfamiliar.  "La Partida" has ample melismatic passages and stirring Spanish rhythms, the strictness of which Ms. Horne wanted observed. Incisive diction was another feature she emphasized.  Further, she encouraged Ms. Medina to use her arms.  The end result was a stirring performance, to which pianist Juliana Han added a great deal.

Soprano Adanya Dunn took the stage with a wonderful relaxed stage presence and delighted the audience with her engaging personality.  Ms. Horne guided her through Britten's "The Salley Gardens", slowing the tempo and encouraging some sentimentality to good effect.  We truly enjoyed her storytelling in Liszt's "Die Loreley".  Shifts in dynamics and tempi made the performance even better.  Kirill Kuzmin was her fine accompanist.

Soprano Bryn Holdsworth, accompanied by Robert Bosworth, performed Strauss' wonderful "Allerseelen".  Ms. Horne suggested that young people may not have experienced significant losses sufficient to convey the depth of feeling in the song (we beg to differ--loss is not confined to the elderly, nor to the middle-aged) and that a young singer would have to "act".  Ms. Holdsworth did just fine in this regard and brought tears to our eyes.  Ms. Horne worked with her on grounding and on steadying herself through the diaphragm.  There were places that she encouraged Ms. H. to be more reflective and more pianissimo.  This definitely added to the success of the performance.

It was truly a magnificent day--a "double header" of a day.

© meche kroop