CAME FOR THE BRAHMS, STAYED FOR THE MENDELSSOHN

 Chaeyoung Park, Aristo Shan, Erin Wagner, Megan Moore, Daniel McGrew and Randall Scarlata

Regular readers will recall our respect for Young Concert Artists. For six decades they have been discovering young artists in the field of classical music, developing their respective artistry, and launching their respective careers. The means by which they achieve this consist of a three year program encompassing mentorship, community engagement, debut recitals, and worldwide performance opportunities. Indeed some of our very favorite young singers have been brought to our attention through YCA.

Monday night's 2025 Season Finale  offered the opportunity to hear young artists in both vocal and instrumental fields, the latter of which we rarely have time to attend since vocal recitals and operas keep us very busy. We will address the vocal portion of the program first but please, Dear Reader, stay until the end since we made a rare discovery in the instrumental field.

The vocal portion of the evening comprised selections from Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes Op. 52, a work we have enjoyed and reviewed many times. Brahms' vocal output is perhaps less profound  than that  of Schubert, but his gifts are not at all lesser in impact. We love the folksy melodies and the simple emotions conveyed therein.  We particularly love the way he wrote for various combinations of voices.

And therein lies our disappointment in this particular performances. We attribute the problem to the acoustics of the hall. Although individually the tone and expressiveness of the voices were fine, the balance between the voices was uneven. Sounding the best were the voices of the two mezzo-sopranos, Erin Wagner and Megan Moore who blended beautifully. But when tenor Daniel McGrew and baritone Randall Scarlata joined in, the balance shifted so far to their "side" that Brahms' exquisite balance was lost. Pianist for the performance were Chaeyoung Park and Aristo Shan, both of whom were heard during the evening in works by respectively Prokofiev and the contemporary Zhou Tian.

Fortunately, the favorable impact of the evening was restored by a glorious performance of Mendelssohn's String Octet in E-flat major, Op.20.  The four movement architecture was familiar and very much of the period, offering a lively Allegro followed by a pleasingly tuneful Andante. However, it was the Scherzo that bedazzled our ears. Building the excitement to fever pitch was the use of a motif repeated in higher and higher keys. We are far from expert in instrumental music but anything that reminds us of vocal fioritura pleases us enormously.

Considering the artistry of eight string players in three "fachs"--violin, viola, and cello--they exhibited great variety of color with interweaving melodies and strong rhythmic pulse. We will end by heaping praise on the lead violinist Lun Li whose violin seemed to be a dancing partner. There was an intimacy between artist and instrument that we have never seen or heard before--a partnership that kept us on the edge of our seat. They not only danced together but Mr. Li made the violin sing.

In hearing the human voice, the artist and the instrument are physically one and the same  In this case Man and Violin acted as one in a spiritually transcendent manner. We simply could not get over the impact. We single out this performance as being ground breaking although the other seven string players were excellent.

We do not read program notes until after the performance, wanting to approach the performance as a neophyte. However, we were not surprised to learn of Mr. Li's many honors but reading that he was playing a 1735 Stradivarius on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation put us in a state of awe. We had never heard a Stradivarius before and we can only say that the treasured violin was in the right hands. We kind of wish it belonged to him in fact as well as in spirit.

© meche kroop

PARRISH'S PARISH

 Joseph Parrish and Friends

Rising star bass-baritone Joseph Parrish has been on our radar for some time now. We believe the first time we reviewed his performance was about 4 years ago when he appeared as a most believable Baron Pictordu in Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon. There are many reviews right here on this website that one can access by entering his name in the search bar. One might read about the countless competitions he has won with arias in many languages and many styles. 

Although we have never made use of Artificial Intelligence in writing our reviews, we are not above quoting our own writing, since his performance at Merkin Hall, under the auspices of Young Concert Artists, so perfectly reflects our prior observations of a performance at The Crypt presented by Death of Classical. We will highlight what we felt to be essential at that time and what continues to be a hallmark of his artistic mission.

"The program began and ended with Mr. Parrish accompanying himself on the piano, evidence that this is an artist who will do things his own way to achieve his own goals, a quality we admire and prize. Apparently, the theme for this recital was a demonstration of the similarity between German lieder and American spirituals, inasmuch as both deal with love, loss, pain, elation,and spirituality. There was a seamlessness to the recital which interspersed works by Liszt, Brahms, and Mahler (our favorite being "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen") with works by Burleigh, Hogan, and Johnson and spirituals that we have heard before but which, in this context, felt entirely new. "Deep River" was sung with art but no artifice.

Except for the opening and the enthusiastically "demanded" encores, piano accompaniment was finely rendered by Francesco Barfoed whose sensitive playing served to underscore the idea that there should be no artificial categories like "art song", "popular song", or "folk song". We first became aware of this concept at Steven Blier's New York Festival of Song; Mr. Blier also mixes things up, so to speak, finding similarities more important than differences."

It would seem that Young Concert Artists gave Mr. Parrish free rein to design his own recital and to prove the above mentioned intent, Afro-American art songs and Spirituals were programmed alongside German lieder, allowing the audience to perceive and appreciate the resonance.

To hear Harry Burleigh's "You ask me if I love you?" next to Gustav Mahler's "Liebst du um Schönheit", written approximately a century earlier to text by Rückert, was a revelation.  Similarly, performing Burleigh's "Her Eyes Twin Pools" next to Schubert's "Ständchen", from about two centuries earlier, reinforced our awareness that love strikes us all, no matter our race, nationality, or generation. 

Having written numerous encomia in prior reviews about Mr. Parrish's magnificent instrument and engaging stage presence, we will only point out one feature that took our breath away; that was the delicate pianissimo at the end of the Burleigh song, at which point the poet James Weldon Johnson speaks of losing his soul in the depths of his lover's eyes. What a magical moment, with impeccable vocal technique used in the service of emotion--probably carefully devised but seemingly spontaneous.

Excellent accompaniment was provided by the superb pianist Francesco Barfoed who has accompanied Mr. Parrish on prior occasions, most memorably at a concert in The Crypt which we quoted above.

This half of the program was well known territory for us whilst the second half of the program brought new delights. We re-entered the theater after intermission to find onstage risers and watched as a large group of enthusiastic bright-faced youngsters filed onstage and arranged themselves on the risers. This was the renowned Washington Performing Arts Children of the Gospel Choir led by Artistic Director Michele Fowlin. Accompanied by Anthony "Tony" Walker, Music Director of the choir, these youngster delighted the highly responsive audience with a program of Spirituals, mostly unknown to us.

The first piece on the program was the New York premiere of a piece by Alistair Coleman, a Young Concert Artists composer, entitled "Psalm" with text by Paul Celan, translated by Pierre Joris. It was commissioned specifically for Mr. Parrish and seemed to us to be quite accomplished for a young composer. It began sparely and rose in complexity.

Various composers have arranged Spirituals, among them Margaret Bond, Moses Hogan, and Hall Johnson. Among the selections, we most enjoyed "Deep River" and "Ride on King Jesus", likely because they had the ring of familiarity. The young choristers seemed to be having a great time with the program, as did the audience, judging by the standing ovation and thunderous applause.

We thought a great deal of the generosity of spirit Mr. Parrish demonstrated by sharing the stage with these youngsters and what a thrill it must have been for them. The excitement was exhilarating for all. 

Let us not fail to mention the stirring encore "Great is Thy Faithfulness" which was popularized by the Billy Graham Crusade, by crossover artist Steve Green, and by Carrie Underwood. One could not have hoped for a better ending.

© meche kroop

Joseph Parrish and Friends

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

EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE

Shawn Chang and Erin Wagner

We have had 5 years to watch the artistic growth of mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner, an exciting artist whose worth has been noted and appreciated by both Steven Blier's New York Festival of Song and by Young Concert Artists. We recall admiring her performance as The Mother in Britten's Albert Herring  during her days at Manhattan School of Music. We remember some Barber also (his Hermitage Songs) at a Gerda Lissner Competition Winner's Recital. There was some lovely Schumann at a Juilliard Songfest (Frauenlieben und Leben). We decided she was someone to watch.

And then Covid interrupted everyone's career! But Ms. Wagner bounced back with some impressive Strauss ("Sein wir wieder gut" from Ariadne auf Naxos) impressing us with a strong upper register and winning her a major award from The George and Nora London Foundation.  And since then, some most enjoyable contributions to a NYFOS program and this Young Concert Artists solo recital at Merkin Hall.

Of course, there have been many more honors and prizes and a stint at the Houston Grand Opera Studio but it is only our loss that we did not get to hear all of them.

Dear Reader, we are very particular in our preferences and what stood out for us at this YCA recital was a quartet of songs by Franz Schubert whose lieder, in our opinion, have never been equalled in melodic invention, storytelling, correspondence between voice and piano, and just basic listenability. Although we love the songs of Schumann, Brahms, and Mahler, if we had to choose just one, it would be Schubert.

Four of his songs were sung in sets of two. In "Wehmut", Mattaus von Collin's  text speaks of the melancholy which tinges the appreciation of  the beauty of nature. In "Herbst", the poet (Ludwig Rellstab) compares the loss of love with the autumnal losses in nature. What impressed us was how Ms. Wagner's vocal coloration encompassed sorrow, anxiety, and also the joys of nature.

Goethe's text for "Hoffnung" inspired Schubert to write a jaunty melody that provided some relief to our saddening mood and allowed Ms. Wagner's lighter coloration to give us cheer. However, our very favorite of the four songs was "Frühlingsglaube" in which the poet (Johann Ludwig Uhland) used imagery of the coming Spring to lighten his tormented heart. And just listen to the way Schubert's melody echoed the rhyme scheme of A-A-B, C-C-B! This familiar melody took possession of our brain and Ms. Wagner's lovely voice has echoed in our ear ever since.

We do not care for most 20th c. poetry and decry the unmelodic music it has dictated. And thus we did not enjoy the two songs by the Ukrainian composer Stefania Turkewich nearly as much, although Ms. Wagner injected them with intense drama. 

One cannot fail to admire the spirit of Viktor Ullmann who managed to write music under the harsh rule of the Nazi regime whilst confined to the concentration camp at Teresienstadt. Still, we found his cycle of sonnets with text by the 16th c. poet Louïze Labe to be a bit long, dwelling on a broken heart like a friend who goes on and on, making one try very hard to listen whilst not really relating.  After making note of Ms. Wagner's fine French, we found our attention turning to the piano writing which collaborative pianist Shawn Chang performed with a light sweet touch.

Thankfully, we got to hear more Schubert in the second half of the program and found it curious that the text he chose (by Johann Mayrhofer) utilized the same rhyme scheme as Uhland did. Again we observed how this dictates a most singable melodic line. What was interesting about the performance was that we just heard the same piece "Iphigenia" sung the night before by a soprano who  handled it quite differently. Both young singers are admirable artists and how wonderful it is to hear different interpretations in close temporal proximity. Ms. Wagner made her plaintive pleas to the gods with beautiful and apt piano accompaniment.

In "Die Götter Griechenlands"  Schiller used a different rhyme scheme (A-B-A-B-A-B)  and we loved the way Schubert gave the same motif to the voice and the piano in alteration. And we loved the way Ms. Wagner made the most of it.

Us Now  was composed by Mr. Chang, a setting of text by Jacqueline Suskin who seems to have discovered the philosophy of Existentialism, a philosophy which has guided our very own life. But the text came across as a lecture. Frankly, we listen to music in order to feel, not to think. After the concert, we read Ms. Wagner's lengthy and thoughtful essay about the current situation in the world, hence "Everything Must Change" as the title of the concert. Of course, it would be a fine thing if music could change the world but we just don't see it. We prefer such themes as "Springtime" with a singer giving us appropriate songs that fill us with hope (like Rachmaninoff's "Rushing Waters").

Although we are in agreement with her opinions on the state of the world we were unable to understand the choice of music and felt as if we failed to grasp something. We checked this out with our art loving companion, with whom we have had discussions on the state and fate of the world, and learned that our opinion was shared.

Two unusual pieces ended the program. One was a song by a band called Radiohead with whom we were unacquainted. The lyrics of "Everything In Its Right Place" were nonsensical and obsessively repetitious and the melody was fragmented; but apparently it  meant something to the artists since Mr. Chang did the arrangement and Ms. Wagner had great fun singing it. We looked up the original online and didn't enjoy that either.

The second one sounded better to our ears. It was a bluesy song called, of course, "Everything Must Change"-- by another artist unfamiliar to us named Bernard Ighner. It was also arranged by Mr. Chang and we loved the simplicity of the melody and lyrics. Indeed, it had the immediacy that we love in Schubert. Of course, we looked that up online also and enjoyed the original recording. But not as much as Schubert!

We also needed to look up the encore song-- Randy Newman's  "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" and, although popular music is not our fach, we can see why people love it and respond to the melody and lyrics. It was brave of Ms. Wagner to "cover" it after hearing Bette Midler's version and Nina Simone's.

© 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