THE SMALLEST SOUND IN THE SMALLEST SPACE

 Cast and Production Team

 We had almost given up on theater (which we don't generally review) finding most contemporary plays to be either trivial or polemic. Last night was a completely different experience and we decided to write about it since the subject was opera singers. The title of the play The Smallest Sound in the Smallest Space seems to have layers of meaning--anatomical, psychological, and philosophical. As far as the material and its impact, it made a great big sound, although occurring in a small space which we believe is called Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre.

Personally, we are very fond of intimacy and sharing this profound experience with probably around 50 other people served to increase the impact. Good theater, in our opinion, must be very specific, and allow us in the audience to personalize it in a manner that touches our own memories and experiences.  

The play, written by Bryce McClendon, tells the tale of a university voice teacher (Shah Motia) under investigation by a compliance officer (Shelly Lynn Walsh). The audience gets to see his interaction with a colleague (Ai Chaim Ra) and several students (Alexander Rodriguez, Rachel Policar, Heather Jones,and Morgan Mastrangelo) as well as coach/pianists (Nathaniel LaNasa and Savannah Bergli).

We also get to hear the students' reports to the compliance officer and to notice the effects of self-repression, largely due to fear of consequences and also to the assumption of guilt by victims who blame themselves.

Having had several voice teachers and having sat in on coachings by others, we found fault with the teacher's methods. He blathered on about himself, he multi-tasked on his cell phone, he made weird assumptions and asked intrusive questions, he supported at times indiscriminately, and attacked with humiliation.  We have no doubt such teachers exist but we have thankfully never been exposed  to such egregious "tutelage", at least not in the field of opera.     

The worst misconduct, however, was getting a male student intoxicated and bringing him home for some drunken and regrettable sex. Please do not think that we are jumping on the bandwagon of tarring and feathering every teacher and singer who touches another singer. Teachers putting hands on ribs to facilitate deeper breathing or touching parts of the face seems fine to us. And hugging fellow cast members after a performance?  Doesn't seem like a problem to us. Equals can always set boundaries for their colleagues.

The problem with student/teacher interaction is the power dynamic. Even in the "me too" epoch, students may hang back out of fear of retaliation or out of self-blame. And here's where the generalization and personalization enters the picture. The same thing happens in medical training, law training, and probably every other kind of training. I would be surprised if there were any members of the audience thinking that this didn't apply to them.

Stage Director Katy Early made the inter-connected scenes quite clear. The only confusing part was the opening in which Kent (the teacher) was very noisily warming up his voice, disturbing the compliance officer who was making calls from a nearby desk trying to hear over the din. It took a few minutes to figure out that they did not share a space.

Speaking of space, the Chelsea venue appears to be a repurposed townhouse and the setting made good use of an exposed stairccase and overhead loft. One surmises that the simple but effective set (piano, bookshelves, and desk) was designed as a group project, since it became clear that The Why Collective (the Founder and Artistic Director of which is Sydney Anderson) comprises people of many talents.

For example,the actors portraying student singers are also opera singers and we enjoyed hearing Mr. Rodriguez singing "Dies bildnis" from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Rachel Policar giving. "Volate amori" from Händel's Ariodante a performance colored by her character's inhibition, and Heather Jones' interpretation of "En sourdine" from Debussy's Fêtes Galantes. The challenge for each of the three singers was to sing it in the voice of the character they were portraying--no small feat.

During the last scene with Mx. Jones, she converts the "small sound" insisted upon by her teacher to a swelling large sound, thereby illustrating her liberation from authoritarian intimidation. We in the sudience feel free thereby to make our own large sounds. And isn't this enlightenment and spiritual enhancement what theater is all about?

It is our dearest wishes that the run of this work be extended so that more people can receive the message.

© meche kroop

DEGENERATE MUSIC

Nathaniel LaNasa and Gregory Feldmann

Guest Review by Ellen Godfrey:

Friday night in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the audience was treated to a performance by this year’s winners of the 2019 Joy in Singing International Art Song competition. This marks the 56th award debut recital and is the second year that the competition took place in Weill Hall. 

The mission of The Joy in Singing, Art Song Institute is to nurture the love for art song, and to explore the variety in classical songs through education and performance.  This mission is implemented by developing and refining exceptional vocal talent. It also offers workshops and training in all facets of song performance.

Thanks to the generous support of patrons and other music lovers, the foundation is able to offers multiple prizes each year and one grand prize. This year’s competition’s grand prize was awarded to baritone Gregory Feldmann and pianist Nathaniel LaNasa. 

New York based Gregory Feldmann is a rising young singer, both in opera and art song recitals.  Just a few weeks ago he sang the role of the Composer in Juilliard Opera’s sold out performances of Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All, held at the Met Museum. This summer he will return to Opera Theatre of St. Louis to sing Morales in their production of Carmen and also will cover Oliver Sacks in the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s Awakening.

Mr. LaNasa is very interested in contemporary classical music and is discovering fresh possibilities for sonority and gesture in music; he has had several works written for him. He is a vocal coach and a staff pianist at the Juilliard School of Music. He has also performed in musical venues in NYC, including Alice Tully Hall and in the New York cabaret, Le Poisson Rouge. The two artists are frequent collaborators.

On February 27th, the pair made their Weill Recital Hall debut performing songs that were written by composers who were censored under the Nazi regime. The mission of the Nazis was to destroy and suppress what they considered to be “degenerate” music. The pair were amazed how such music has been ignored and felt that the wonderful music created by these great composers, in the face of such stressful conditions, should be heard.

The concert was made up of six groups of songs. Before each group of songs, the two men gave a short preview of the songs and composers. Mr. Feldmann and Mr. LaNasa, both superb musicians, have a wonderful connection, obviously enjoying working together.  Each seems to know what the other is thinking. Mr. LaNasa plays with great sensitivity and deep feeling which is the best way to also describe Mr. Feldmann’s singing. His beautiful baritone is even from top to bottom and he has great control of his fine instrument. He is indeed a master storyteller, a quality we look for in singers of art songs.

The first group of songs was a light-hearted group, beginning with “Berlin im Licht”, a cabaret song by Kurt Weill, who fled the Nazi’s in 1933 and remained in New York the rest of his life.  The artists had just the right feel for this music.  The next three songs were written by Franz Schreker.  The Nazi’s removed him from the directorship of two of his posts in the 1930’s; he died in 1934.  His song “Sommerfaden” (summer threads)  is about the end of summer. Mr. LaNasa's delicate playing conveyed the light spirit of summer and the rushing waters. Mr. Feldmann colored his voice with tenderness.

The next group of songs was composed by Alexander von Zemlinsky, who fled from Austria to the United States in 1938 to avoid the Nazis. His song ”Entbietung” or “Invitation” is perfect for the baritone voice. The song concerns a man praising his loved one and asking when she will come to him. The singer's diction was very clear as he started off singing lightly with a crescendo toward the end.. Another song, “Nun schwills Der See so bang” (“Now the sea swells so fearfully”) is a short exciting song requiring a good sized voice with wonderful arpeggi supporting the singer. Both artists excelled.

The final group of the first part of the concert comprised songs by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, a pianist and classical composer, best known for his music for Hollywood movies. As the Nazi party was gaining strength in 1934, the famous theatre director Max Reinhardt invited Korngold to Hollywood. “Austrian Soldier’s Farewell” tells of a soldier saying farewell to a girl as he is about to leave for war; the music has a modern sound.  In "Vesper" Mr. Feldmann kept his voice high, still maintaining the beauty of the sound while Mr. LaNasa was brilliant in his imitation of the bells. Composers can't go wrong setting text by Josef von Eichendorff!

After the intermission we heard songs composed by Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, and Hanns Eisler.   Both Ullmann and Haas ended up in Theresienstadt after having been fired from their jobs in music. In 1944 both of them were gassed in the death camp Auschwitz-Berkenau. Eisler escaped death by going into exile in other countries when these works were banned by the Nazis.  He arrived in America in1938 and Brecht arrived there in 1941 after many long journeys. The program ended, as you will see, with the product of their collaboration!

Ullman’s  humorous Liederbuch des Hapis was composed in the face of the horrors of the war. “Worausbestimmung” was set in waltz rhythm and was marked by some dissonance. There was a jaunty tune played with great fun by Mr. LaNasa.  “Betrunken” began with some dialogue underscored by the piano  and then morphed into a drinking song.  Singers seem to love drinking songs and Mr. Feldmann revelled in his performance without losing his stellar vocal technique.

The next song cycle Four Songs on Chinese Poetry was composed by Pavel Haas to a text in Czech. In “Far is my Home, O Moon” the piano started with a dark color and mysterious sound, played gently.  One can feel the glow of the moon; the ending is very quiet.  In the song “I hear the cry of the wild geese”, the poet laments being so far away from home. This was sung with great care and understanding.

The program ended with “Friedenslied,” a strophic song composed by Hanns Eisler after World War II with lyrics by Bertold Brecht.  This song calls for peace to the earth, to the home, to all nations and all people. The song is both simple and profound, affecting the audience due largely to its superlative and sincere performance.

There was a standing ovation at the end calling for an encore, which brought forth Zemlinsky's "Empfängnis". Cheers to the artists for this inspired program and masterly performances. The unique program merits future performances both here and abroad.

© meche kroop

 

 

THE LOVES OF A POET

Nathaniel  LaNasa and Xiaoming Tian at Elabash Recital Hall

What does it take to hold an audience spellbound for a half hour?  You could easily answer that question if you attended the recital yesterday of baritone Xiaoming Tian working in harmonious collaboration with pianist Nathaniel LaNasa.  Not only were we held spellbound but we scarcely breathed. Mr. Tian, presently finishing up his Ph.D. and Doctorate of Music at The Graduate Center of City University of New York, took us on a journey involving the present moment colored by memories of lost love.  There was a lot of catharsis going on!

It is important for a recitalist to choose good material, songs that he can inhabit or wear (like the stylish suit he chose). Perhaps it was just great acting, but it seemed as if Mr. Tian was living through the panoply of emotions contained in Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe, Op. 48. Composed in 1840, the cycle comprises a selection of text from Heinrich Heine's 1823 Lyrisches Intermezzo, reordered to suit the composer's vision.

So, the raw materials are all there, with Schumann's memorably melodic vocal lines, his intuitive connection with the text, and Heine's remarkable poetry. (If only we had such poetry today to inspire contemporary composers!) The piano writing expands upon the mood of the text, comments upon it, and occasionally expresses what the poet cannot say in words.

Given these ingredients, it takes a consummate artist to let the text and music speak/sing for themselves. Mr. Tian is such an artist. He is free of excess and does not bombard the audience with special effects.  Rather, he creates a mood that draws the audience in.

We are never able to select our favorite song from among the sixteen but there is one that we always pay attention to because the singer can perform it any number of ways.  That song is "Ich grolle nicht" in which the poet begins by denying his anger at the woman who abandoned him.  By the end of the song his fury emerges. Many singers begin with irony but Mr. Tian began quietly and let the rage build up to a terrifying explosion. We were enthralled.

The slow tempo of "Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen" provided expansive room for an emotional introspection.  Mr. LaNasa made sure we could hear the murmuring of the consoling flowers.

"Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen" was notable for Mr. Tian's storytelling gifts. In this case, he was more generous with his gestures to illustrate the confusing nature of the text.

Leaving aside Mr. Tian's interpretive gifts, we cannot end without commenting on the velvety tone of his instrument, the richness of the timbre, the musicality of his phrasing, and the accuracy of his German. Diphthongs were perfect and consonants were crisp.

We first heard this fine artist in 2014 at a Classic Lyric Arts Gala and have heard his magnificent Masters of Music recital at Manhattan School of Music, and another recital at The Graduate Center of City University of New York. He has never disappointed us.  He is a young artist to watch!

We hope the artists will forgive us for departing after the Schumann.  We were rather emotional and wanted to preserve the melancholy mood and to process our memories.  That's just how powerful the experience was!

(c) meche kroop

SALON DE LA VOIX

Nathaniel LaNasa and Helaine Liebman at the National Opera Center\

The inauguration of a new vocal series is music to our ears both literally and figuratively.  Shall we say "fig/lit"? As so many talented singers are doing these days, young artists are not waiting around to be cast but are casting themselves in starring roles. We heartily approve of this trend.

Ms. Liebman's idea is to update the concert experience and to encourage music lovers to attend with an informal approach.  One helps oneself to a glass of wine, one meets and chats with the artists, one listens, learns, and enjoys.  One is even encouraged to ask questions and to submit suggestions for future recitals of which we hope there will be many.

In place of titles and libretti, Ms. Liebman introduced each song in an engaging fashion. We felt as if we were invited to a friend's home for a party with entertainment. And what entertainment it was! In a beautifully balanced program, we heard opera, art song, and cabaret--all serving to demonstrate the versatility of this excellent young soprano. Last year she performed a fine Micaëla for Amore Opera and we also heard her several months ago in ARE Opera's Gianni Schicchi. It was about time for us to see another side of her artistry.

The program opened with Ilia's aria from Mozart's Idomeneo--"Padre, germani, addio". Ms. Liebman conveyed all the ambivalence of the Trojan princess who has lost everything and is now a captive of the Greeks whom she hates, except for Idamante, the son of Idomeneo. With a bright resonant sound and the subtle use of expressive dynamics, we learned everything we needed to know about the character.

Four songs by Franz Liszt allowed the artist to show off her fine French. The texts were all by Victor Hugo and all were about love, but the moods were different.  Ms. Liebman employed a warm vibrato for "S'il est un charmant gazon" and the delicacy of Mr. LaNasa's piano augmented the romantic feeling. 

"Oh! Quand je dors" has an exquisite melody and builds to a thrilling climax.  Here, Mr. LaNasa's piano made much of some lovely arpeggi. "Comment, disent-ils" was delivered with charm and personality. Plus, there was a trill to thrill. "Enfant, si j'etais roi" had a different expansive mood and an insistent accompaniment on the piano.

How does one choose Schubert songs to perform from his oeuvre of over 600 lieder? Actually, it doesn't matter much because one cannot go too far wrong with anything Schubert wrote.  We found the three selections we heard a good "tasting menu". "An die Musik" was sung with earnest simplicity. The sentiment requires no embroidery.

"Gretchen am Spinnrade" in which Mr. LaNasa's piano gave us the obsessive background of the text as well as the relentless spinning wheel, allowed Ms. Liebman some moments of erotic rapture as she imagined Faust's kiss. This had us wishing that Schubert had written an entire opera based on the Faust legend.

In "Die junge Nonne", we were given a very clear character study and we knew exactly why this troubled young woman chose a cloistered life.

The Kurt Weill song from Street Scene seemed like a cabaret song.  We understood every word of "What Good Would the Moon Be" and enjoyed the melody.  This was not so for two selections from Daughters of Britannia by Iain Bell.  We could only catch a word here and there. The sounds were interesting and we liked the propulsive piano writing and some interesting figuration but the heroines are part of British history and so unknown to us that we really didn't care about them.

We won't mind if we never hear those songs again but the Rachmaninoff that followed was enchanting. We cannot believe that we used to think that Russian was an ugly language!  The more Russian songs we hear the better we love the sound. "Z'des khorosho" was particularly lovely.

"Siren" had a repetitive figure in the right hand of the piano that resonated particularly strongly with us.  But our personal favorite was (and probably always will be) "Ne poy krasavitsa pri mne" in which the text expresses nostalgia for a love left behind, accompanied by the most haunting melody. There is a vocalise in this song that always gets us right in the heart! We love the way the melody in the voice alternates with the melody in the piano.

"Ditja, kak cvetok ti prekrana" is Rachmaninoff's setting of a translation of the tender Heinrich Heine poem "Du bist wie eine blume" which was set by Robert Schumann and about a hundred other composers.  The program ended with the very timely "Vesenniye vody" or "Spring Waters" as we know it. This song was bursting with excitement as the snow melted and the streams produced white water.

We even got an encore, "Someone to Watch Over Me" by George and Ira Gershwin from their 1926 musical Oh, Kay! We love to hear American musical theater treated with the same care as lieder and chansons. It was the perfect end to a beautiful recital.

Watch our FB page (Voce di Meche) and we will let you know about the next installment of Salon de la Voix which we believe will take place in June in Brooklyn. You won't want to miss it!

(c) meche kroop

PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS

Nathaniel LaNasa

It is the time of year when students at Juilliard are fulfilling the requirements for their degrees and collaborative pianist Nathaniel LaNasa surely deserves the Graduate Diploma Degree for which he has evidently worked so hard. So how did he make it look so easy????  That's artistry!

Mr. LaNasa graciously thanked all the faculty who had contributed to the various facets of his education and explained to the audience what a collaborative pianist is and does, which is a great deal more than just accompanying. One could observe the truth of this by watching and listening. Mr. LaNasa chose his partners carefully--four singers and a violinist.  The material was also varied, some to our taste and some, not so much.

The part of the program we enjoyed the most was his partnership with soprano Kathryn Henry, on the basis of their performance of five selections from Richard Strauss' Op.10--his first published songs, filled with youthful enthusiasm and compositional promise, much like the artists!

Ms. Henry offers a generous sound, a pleasing vibrato, and clear German.  More importantly, she colored each song differently, giving "Zueignung" a full measure of passion, matched by Mr. LaNasa's piano. "Nichts" was given a lot of personality and a touch of humor, while the gorgeous "Die Nacht" established a mood of vague anxiety and just the right emphasis on the shift to the minor key.  "Allerseelen" was filled with painful longing, achieving some peaceful resolution with the piano postlude.

Baritone Gregory Feldmann was given similar support by Mr. LaNasa in three songs by Gabriel Fauré. His fine round tone was well matched by arpeggi in the piano in "Dans le forêt de Septembre". The ripples in the piano matched the vocal color of "La fleur qui va sur l'eau".

We have never enjoyed Olivier Messiaen's music but the bitter pill went down easily with the lovely soprano Nicolette Mavroleon tackling the nonsense syllables. We could only make out a few words like "green dove", "love", "water", "sky", and "time". We preferred "L'amour de Piroutcha" which had a lyrical line and a gentle piano part.

Messiaen often kept Mr. LaNasa's hands at the farthest reaches of the keyboard and he really got a workout. He explained that we were hearing extracts from a doomed love story based on a Peruvian legend.  Well, there's that.  In any case, Ms. Mavroleon seemed very involved in the work and can be forgiven for being "on the book" in the case of such a bizarre vocal line and text.

Even more bizarre was a contemporary piece by Tonia Ko called "Smoke and Distance".  This short piece did not appeal on an emotional level and seemed to us to be written from an intellectual perspective.  The singer, Lucy Dhegrae, merits major props for memorizing the vocal part, which involved strange sounds and humming.

It was the piano part that amazed us. Mr. LaNasa was called upon to pluck and strum the strings of the piano. We know this is not the first time a composer has called upon a performer to attack the piano in such a fashion but we prefer our piano played in the customary fashion!

We were back on more familiar territory when Mr. LaNasa was joined by Hahnsol Kim for Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat, Op.12 No. 3, an early work very rooted in the classical style. We heard a traditional Allegro, an expressive Adagio, and a lively Rondo with an appealing theme.

We were impressed by how the two artists related to one another, with the piano picking up and reflecting on the violin.  Good job Nathaniel!

(c) meche kroop

LIEDERABEND AT JUILLIARD

Gregory Feldmann, Thomas West, Kathryn Henry, Minjung Jung, Nathaniel LaNasa, Jinhee Park, and Tamara Banješević

We enjoyed another fulfilling Liederabend at Juilliard yesterday.  The lovely soprano Vivian Yau opened the program with some interesting songs written by Rebecca Clarke, a composer heretofore unknown to us, who seemed to be drawn to poetry of a mystical nature. Ms. Yau's beautiful timbre was well suited to the ethereal nature of the songs; her collaborative pianist Ji Yung Lee contributed some delicate arpeggi and the two artists matched each other in dynamics with some gorgeous pianissimi, well suited to the material.

Baritone Thomas West performed the next set with collaborative pianist Mariel Werner. We look forward to hearing Mr. West sing something more sympathetic to our ears. The 20th c. songs sung in English were not to our taste, and the English diction was largely unclear. For us, the problem lay in the text.

The only text we might have enjoyed (Hilaire Belloc's "Tarantella") had short punchy rhymed phrases and was set to rapid fire music by Witold Lutoslawski that was entirely as grim as the final verse. We might have enjoyed it more if Lutoslawski had set us up with something frisky and then punched us in the gut at the end. We only had this thought upon returning home and reading the text which was not clear during the performance. Unfortunately, the hall was very dim and we couldn't follow along.

The late 19th c. songs of Edvard Grieg were far more appealing and the performance of Tamara Banješević was compelling. Jinhee Park made a sympathetic piano partner and the two of them performed four selections from Sechs Lieder in happily comprehensible German. Perhaps it is the crisp consonants of German that make it so much better to sing than English.

We were held spellbound throughout. Grieg wisely chose text by Heinrich Heine for "Gruss",   Johann Wolfgang von Goethe for "Zur Rosenzeit",  and Emanuel von Geibel for the romantic "Ein Traum", which we never tire of hearing. Grieg succeeded in enhancing the words with his music; Ms. Banješević and Ms. Park succeeded in enhancing both text and music with their deeply felt performance.  It is exactly what one hopes to find in a lieder recital.

Pianist Nathaniel LaNasa was a worthy piano partner for baritone Gregory Feldmann. We particularly enjoyed the way he evoked the rolling waves in Alexander Zemlinsky's "Nun schwillt der See so bang".  Mr. Feldmann has a lovely timbre in his instrument and excellent German diction. 

Although contemporaneous with Mahler and Strauss, Alexander Zemlinsky is not as frequently performed. We were glad to be introduced to his oeuvre but did not feel compelled to seek out more of his songs. We found "Tod in Ähren" to be unrelievedly grim, whilst "Der Tag wird kühl" offered the two artists multiple opportunity for variety in the color palette.

What would a lieder recital be without some Richard Strauss! Thanks to soprano Kathryn Henry and pianist Minjung Jung, we heard three songs--all setting of text by Heinrich Heine, whose poetry was wisely taken up by so many composers.

The tessitura of "Mit deinen blauen Augen" seemed low for the soprano fach but Ms. Henry handled it beautifully. In "Schlechtes Wetter", Heine sees a small woman tottering down the street on a dark and stormy night; he speculates that she is shopping for ingredients to bake a cake for her spoiled daughter. What an interesting imagination!  But it gives the soprano ample story telling opportunity. 

In "Frühlingsfeier" Heine describes a disturbing picture of some wild women lamenting the loss of the beautiful youth Adonis in a pagan ritual. This Springtime ritual symbolizes the death and rebirth undergone by la belle nature. This song really requires Strauss' full orchestration but  Ms. Henry and her excellent piano partner Minjung Jung went a long way toward creating the wild passion.

Another great experience presented by the Juilliard Vocal Arts Department, this one curated and coached by Cameron Stowe.  Keep 'em coming!

(c) meche kroop

THE BEST FREE SHOW IN TOWN

Chris Reynolds, Yoon Lee, Natalia Katyukova, Jessica Niles, Nathaniel LaNasa, Kady Evanyshyn, Jacob Scharfman, Anneliese Klenetsky, and Ji Yung Lee

We really missed the Liederabend programming at Juilliard over the summer and are happy to note that the program got off to a stellar start yesterday with a magnificent program, curated and coached by Natalia Katyukova, accompanied by Chris Reynolds, Yoon Lee, and Ji Yung Lee. Over the past few years we have watched the audience grow from a smattering of lieder lovers to a throng. This fame is well deserved. One could not have found a better recital at any price.

It was admirable that each of the four featured singers took the stage with confidence, introduced her/himself, and told enough about their chosen work so that we in the audience could appreciate their involvement. We wish more recitalists did the same. A singer of lieder is a conduit through which the poet speaks and the composer resounds. Their individual interpretations can give new life to familiar works or introduce us to material that may be new to us.

Mezzo-soprano Kady Evanyshyn opened the program with five lovely songs by Clara Schumann. This is a composer who speaks  (sings) to us with Austrian Romanticism in full flower. Readers know how much we love melody! It was obvious from the first note that Ms. Evanyshyn loves Clara's music as much as we do. We are always elated to see her somewhat overlooked oeuvre on a program.

The wise choice of text goes halfway toward making a memorable song. Heinrich Heine's text is almost always a great choice. "Ich stand in dunklen Traumen" is a mournful tale of love and loss while "Sie liebten sich beide, doch keiner" is a more ironic story of love never realized--perhaps an even greater loss.

"Die Lorelei" is one of Heine's horror stories and allowed Ms. Evanyshyn and her collaborative pianist Ji Yung Lee the opportunity to indulge in totally different coloration with the rippling in the piano suggesting the waves and both artists conveying a sense of urgency.

It was a welcome relief to hear the peaceful "Der Mond kommt still gegangen". The final selection was "Am Strande", a German translation of Robert Burns' poem "Musing on the roaring ocean".

Ms. Evanyshyn has a lovely and gracious stage presence, using only minimal gesture and allowing the text and musical phrasing to shine through. She never allows her gifts to steal attention from the music.

Next on the program was soprano Anneliese Klenetsky with Chris Reynolds as collaborative pianist. She too introduced herself with grace and enthused about her discovery that Benjamin Britten set some Russian text. This was a discovery for us too and we found the songs as unsettling as Ms. Klenetsky did. The text for this cycle, The Poet's Echo, was written by one of Russia's preeminent poets Alexander Pushkin. The cycle struck us as the cry of despair from being unheard.

The performance was superb and Ms. Klenetsky captured the inherent drama with a self-possessed maturity and conveyed the mood of these non-pretty songs. Our favorite was "Angel" in which the gentleness of an angel overcomes the sullenness of Satan. 

In "The nightingale and the rose" we loved the way Mr. Reynolds captured the song of the nightingale on the piano. In "Lines Written During a Sleepless Night" the melody wanders in a searching manner the way an insomniac searches for sleep.

We love the sound of Russian and our love grows the more we become familiar with its sound. We would have to say that we enjoy Rachmaninov more than Britten and soprano Jessica Niles began by telling the audience how she chose these songs for their imagery and, indeed we could see through her eyes and hear through her voice.

We think it made quite a difference that she translated the songs herself since she seemed to know exactly what she was singing about, giving each phrase a sense of movement toward the "goal note". These are luscious songs and each one carries a mood of its own, all well captured by Ms. Niles and Yoon Lee, her collaborative pianist.

"At Night in My Garden" tells of a willow whose tears will be wiped away by the tresses of the poet. Such a tender picture! All sadness disappeared with the joy of "The Daisies". There is unmistakeable charm in "The Pied Piper" whom we wanted to follow. "Dream" was filled with wonder and was a fine antidote to Britten's song about insomnia!

Bringing the program to a stunning close was baritone Jacob Scharfman who introduced the songs of Erich Korngold and told of Korngold's birth in Austria and his success as a composer of music for film in Hollywood. Strangely, this was news to us since we always thought of him as the composer of the opera Die Tote Stadt! The songs were written by Korngold when he was still a wunderkind in his native Austria. Mr. Scharfman shared with the audience the reason for his choice; his forebears were also Austrian Jews.

The songs have an Early 20th c. feel and some of the lavishness of Richard Strauss. Mr. Scharfman also did much of his own translation. "Reiselied" is a most cheerful and energetic song of optimism, a setting of text by Joseph von Eichendorff, one of our favorite poets for lieder. "Osterreichischer Soldatenabschied" allowed shifts of mode from the piano of the wonderful Nathaniel LaNasa which were reflected vocally by Mr. Scharfman.

Perhaps our favorite was "Nachts" which conveyed a mysterious and elusive mood, emphasized by a repetitive motif in the piano involving alternation of a whole step, much slower than a trill. The program ended with "Versuchung"--a rather puzzling text.

Mr. Scharfman's performance was marked by the expansiveness of a generous spirit and a personal involvement with the text and music. There was a lovely resonance to his instrument and fine German diction.

All in all it was a delightful treat to hear such fine artistry. One could not have heard better at any price. If you haven't attended a Liederabend at Juilliard, you owe it to yourself to enjoy such a treat. But be advised that tickets are free and can disappear rapidly.

(c) meche kroop

A PAIR AND A FULL HOUSE

Nathaniel Nasa and Maria Fernanda Brea

Michal Biel and Xiaomeng Zhang

It is the height of irony that this is the second time that the same two young singers had recitals scheduled simultaneously--once at Manhattan School of Music and yesterday at Juilliard. What can a poor reviewer do in such cases? We have been enjoying and writing about both artists for years and didn't want to shortchange either of them. Until we figure out how to clone ourselves, we pursued the least negative course of action. We ran back and forth from one recital to the other and managed to hear some of each one.

We first heard baritone Xiaomeng Zhang when he gave his graduation recital at Manhattan School of Music two years ago, impressing us with his linguistic skills and bel canto artistry. Since then we have seen him on the opera stage at Juilliard a few times--as Giove in Cavalli's La Calisto, as the diplomat in Jonathan Dove's Flight, and also in Viktor Ullman's Der Kaiser von Atlantis.  He has continued to grow in artistry over the past two years whilst working on his Artist Diploma.

Yesterday's program included several of the works that he performed at his graduation recital, giving us the opportunity to observe changes. His voice remains flexible in the bel canto, witness his delightful rendering of Dr. Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale (bouncing off the delightful guest artist, soprano Meigui Zhang in "Pronto io son").  Yet it has also deepened and showed a great deal of breadth in the lower register.  We can't wait to see which roles open up for him in the future.

This newish resonance served him particularly well in Ravel's final work Don Quichotte a Dulcinee which, he pointed out, was left unfinished--an inheritance for Jacques Ibert.  Michal Biel's superb pianistic collaboration emphasized the pungent rhythms of "Chanson romanesque" and both artists achieved a soulful reverence in "Chanson epique".  Show me a singer who doesn't love a good drinking song and I'll show you a dud!  It's a counterpart to an actor's "death scene". Mr. Zhang made the most of "Chanson a boire".

Mr. Zhang gave an unfussy performance of the melodic "O del mio dolce ardor" from Christoph Gluck's Paride ed Elena, and a highly expressive account of Bellini's "Vaga luna che inargenti" with its long lyrical lines. We enjoyed the expressiveness in Verdi's "Non t'accostare all'urna" with its profoundly bitter text.

Paolo Tosti's "Non t'amo piu" was rendered with high emotionality as befits the ironic lyrics.

We almost got to hear Schubert's "Erlkonig" from the beginning but we didn't quite make it.  What we did hear of our favorite Schubert song was quite good and we can see that Mr. Zhang has worked on varying the coloration of the four different voices. We can't be sure because of not hearing the entire song but we think more work needs to be done on differentiation.

WHO IS SILVIE?

Nathaniel LaNasa and Silvie Jensen

Silvie Jensen is a versatile mezzo-soprano who has made quite a name for herself in many genres: opera, lieder, oratorio, and commissioned new works.  We were fortunate to be invited to enjoy her artistry in a private recital at Norton Hall--up close and intimate as lieder recitals are best enjoyed (and should always be, were it not for financial considerations).

The first half of the program was devoted to Schubert, and if there was ever a better composer of lieder we cannot think of one.  His setting of Franz Schober's "An die Musik", which opened the program, is the perfect tribute to the musical arts and an expression of the poet's gratitude.  Ms. Jensen sang it with consummate depth of feeling and communicative skills such that we were reminded of our own gratitude.

We are accustomed to hearing Die Winterreise sung by men and rarely hear it performed by a woman although there is a recording of it sung by Christa Ludwig.  Last night we heard Ms. Jensen sing several selections from it and pushed aside any judgments and just listened to the music.  Her artistry was such that we completely forgot the risk she was taking. Accompanied by the fine piano partner Nathaniel LaNasa, we were swept away to the lonely wintry landscape through which the poet plods, trying to escape from the despair of a broken heart.

Count on Schubert to limn a dozen shades of grief.  In "Gute Nacht", we hear the poet's disappointment as he sets out on his journey.  The song is strophic but our two artists made each verse sound new.  In "Der Lindenbaum" the gentle opening yields to the forceful pianistic and vocal depiction of "die kalten Winde" which chilled us, even in the warm room.

Both artists are experts at coloring the words.  The self-pity of "Wasserflut", the nostalgia of "Auf dem Flüsse", the false cheer of the dreamer in "Frühlingstraum", the menace of "Die Krähe", the morbidity of "Das Wirtshaus", and the mysterious resolve of "Der Leiermann" were all communicated.  Even in the repeated notes of "Der Wegweiser", there was not a hint of tedium.

We must add that Ms. Jensen's German diction was flawless and permitted us to pay full attention to the performance and none whatsoever to the translations.  Her French was just as fine in a cycle of songs by Poulenc entitled La Fraicheur et le Feu.

Although we do not understand Czech, we loved the sound of it and the delightful folk melodies of Bohuslav Martinu who wrote in the same time period as Poulenc.  We particularly enjoyed the charming "Touha" with its frisky piano part, as well as the lament "Smutny Mily".  We would love a second hearing of these songs.

Finally, Ms. Jensen and Mr. LaNasa performed selections from Britten's settings of folk songs.  We always love hearing the tale of "The Brisk Young Widow" and "The Salley Gardens" in which the poetry by W.B. Yeats inspired a lovely vocal line.

We were completely satisfied by this recital; but there was an encore that added a special thrill.  We never would have foreseen the smoky seductive timbre with which this cool Nordic beauty invested the "Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen.  Let us just say WOW and be done with it.

Although we understand that rehearsal time was short, we found the teamwork to be impressive.  Both Ms. Jensen and Mr. LaNasa are excellent interpreters and matched each other beautifully in their phrasing and dynamics.  We would gladly hear the two of them tackle the entire cycle of  Die Winterreise.  Perhaps next Winter?

© meche kroop