Pie Jesu

A piece I love by the artist I have always loved most. She has hidden herself in this music.

Spiritual Sacramento Philharmonic

The latest performance of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera took place in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, a beautifully decorated space with the usual resonance found in large churches.  They did an excellent job of selecting repertoire that would withstand the echoes.

Our conductor was Douglas Boyd, a former oboist from the UK.  I enjoyed his work.

The concert began with Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis for post-romantic orchestra.  I am a great admirer of Vaughan Williams and was pleased to hear that they succeeded in developing the color and phrasing to make the piece soar.  With him it's all in how you perform him.  A British conductor performs a British work.

This was followed by a complete contrast:  Psalm Tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter, a piece for a cappella choir by Thomas Tallis.  One of the psalm tunes is the theme from the previous piece.  These are short pieces in English which one might expect to hear in an Anglican church.  Tallis composed for both Catholic and Protestant churches during the Tudor period in England.

We finished by combining the resources of both of the previous pieces to present the Gabriel Fauré Requiem.  In addition we enjoyed soloists baritone Timothy Murray, Liisa Davila soprano and Dan Flanagan violin.

Fauré worked as an organist in a church in Paris, and would have heard his Requiem in circumstances very much like this.  This was the highlight of the program.  I especially enjoyed "Pie Jesu" sung by Ms. Davila.

It was a very unusual program for a symphonic orchestra such as ours.

Scarlata and Kalish at Sac State

Yesterday I attended a vocal recital with baritone Randall Scarlata and pianist Gilbert Kalish at California State University Sacramento as part of this year's New Millennium concert series.  I last saw Kalish in this same series accompanying Dawn Upshaw two years ago. 

What made this particular recital unusual was the emphasis on standard vocal repertoire. How often to you see that these days?  They performed sets by Ives (English), Fauré (French), Beethoven and Schumann (German) with an encore "Ständchen" by Schubert.  These are the mountains of classical song.  To give you an idea of the selections, in this entire program nightingales were mentioned at least four different times, including rossignol in French and Nachtigal in German.

Mr. Scarlata has a particular style of presenting which he employed in all four sets.  He uses gestures, facial expressions and walking rather more than is usually the case, but I found it moving and never too much. 

When Upshaw came, she also did some Charles Ives.  Perhaps Kalish is fond of him, as am I  I was not familiar with any of these but enjoyed their presence.  I like the idea that Ives would become standard repertoire.

Gabriel Fauré setting four texts by Paul Verlaine formed another group.  In my mind Fauré is the greatest of all French chanson composers.  There was a bit of name dropping when Scarlata mentioned discussing repertoire with the great French baritone Gérard Souzay.

For the Ludwig van Beethoven year (250 years since the birth of LvB) we were presented with the very first song cycle, Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte on poems by Alois Isidor Jeitteles.  It establishes the genre by focusing on an unhappy love affair. 

We finished with the greatest of all song cycles, Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe on poems by Heine.  Scarlata got so excited singing "Ich grolle nicht" that his face turned quite red.  This is a very beautiful set of songs that start sentimental and end tragic. 

There were appropriate changes in style as we moved from one composer to another.  The problem with performing standard repertoire is that one has ones own idea of what one should hear.  I loved the emotion but would have liked a more highly developed idea of legato.  Don't get the wrong idea.  I was very happy to hear this.

Whitsun 2020 - Cancelled

Pauline Viardot-Garcia

Cecilia Bartoli's Whitsun Festival at Salzburg in 2020 will be an homage to Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1821 – 1910), the sister of Maria Malibran.  Viardot's voice did not precisely mesh with Cecilia's, which explains why she has not featured her before.

The Pfingstfest as curated by La Bartoli usually features a fully staged opera starring herself that is presented twice.  Next year it will be Donizetti's Don Pasquale sung in a version ornamented for Viardot and directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier.  This should be fun.

Berlioz created an arrangement of Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice for Pauline which she sang over 150 times.  This will be the second opera and will not feature Cecilia.  I once reviewed this arrangement from a DVD here.

The remainder of the festival generally involves concerts.  One will feature the great choral works the Fauré Requiem and the Brahms Alto Rhapsody, both works which I love very much.  There will be a staged song matinee with songs by Viardot and starring mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux.

The festival will end with a gala concert designed as an homage to the entire Garcia family:  Cecilia Bartoli as Maria Malibran, Varduhi Abrahamyan as Pauline Viardot, and Javier Camarena as Manuel García.  There is much to love.  I haven't been traveling for health reasons, but perhaps I should at least consider this.  The dates are May 29 - June 1.

P.S. Cecilia Bartoli has extended her Whitsun Festival contract to 2026.

Philippe Jaroussky in Berkeley

Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor, and Jérôme Ducros, piano, appeared May 12 for Cal Performances in Berkeley with a program of songs by Fauré, Debussy, Hahn, Poldowski, Bordes, Séverac, Chauson, Honegger, Saint-Saëns, and Chabrier, all in settings of poems by Paul-Marie Verlaine (1844 – 1896).  I don't recall anything like this.  This is a very high bar to set for oneself.

This type of song is called a mélodie, and is considered to have started with Les nuits d'été  by Hector Berlioz.  It's considered the French equivalent to the German Lied.  In a Lied the piano is sharp and angular, while in a mélodie we hear much more legato and almost impressionist playing.  Enough history.

The program was performed virtually without applause.  To elicit applause he would sing something more flamboyant and throw up his arms.  At the end it was a setting of "Chanson d'automne" by Charles Trenet, the composer closest to modern times whose song sound much like a modern pop song.  The rest of the time they immediately went on virtually without pause to the next song.  Short piano solos were interspersed while Jaroussky sneaked off to the wings.

The same poems appeared repeatedly with different composers:  "Green," "Clair de lune," "En sourdine," "Mandoline," etc.  It was deeply satisfying, a marvelous exploration of a style of music heard here almost only on recording.  It suited the sound of his voice.  Yes, we were surprised how much we liked it

The last encore was the most famous setting of one of these texts:  "L'heure exquise" by Reynaldo Hahn.

Joyce at Carnegie Hall

This concert has a theme and it is Venice.  It is a theme that works well.

Antonio Vivaldi

   Ercole su'l Termodonte

• "Onde chiare che sussurrate"
• "Amato ben"

Gabriel Fauré 
   Cinq mélodies "de Venise", Op. 58

• 1. Mandoline 
• 2. En sourdine 
• 3. Green 
• 4. À Clymène 
• 5. C'est l'extase

Gioachino Rossini
    La regata veneziana

• 1. Anzoleta avanti la regata 
• 2. Anzoleta co passa la regata 
• 3. Anzoleta dopo la regata

Gioachino Rossini
   Otello ossia il Moro di Venezia

• III: "Assisa a piè d'un salice" - " Che dissi!" 

Michael Head
  Three Songs of Venice

• 1. The Gondolier 
• 2. St Mark's Square 
• 3. Rain storm

Reynaldo Hahn
  Venezia

• 1. Sopra l'acqua indormenzada 
• 2. La Barcheta 
• 3. L'avertimento 
• 5. Che peca! 
• 6. La Primavera 

Carnegie Hall chose Joyce DiDonato's recital with David Zobel as their first ever stream.  It's simply exquisite.  Believe it or not, almost all of this music is on my iPod, even the Vivaldi.

Joyce is moving to the very top of the heap.  Recently she sang for game 7 of the world series.  My favorite part of this event was when toward the end she extemporized a small ornament and the crowd roared.  It was an acknowledgment of who she really is.  It made me want to hear the ornamented version.

For me her gifts as an interpreter are at their peak.  This is a very well programmed and sung recital.  If you don't know La regata veneziana, it is sung by Momolo's girlfriend.  Momolo is a gondolier, and he wins the regata.

Writing this blog is for my soul, to teach me once again after years of abandonment that music is my first and always greatest love.  I love the big emotions of opera, but my deepest love is for songs.

Dear Carnegie Hall:  Good choice.

Dear Joyce:  Be always yourself.  You will have figured this out already.

2 encores
Canzonetta Spagnuola Rossini
No ti scordar di me De Curtis

Poeme D'Un Jour

My copy arrived today.  The whole thing is in French and Spanish, and all of it is gorgeous.

Ailyn Pérez is a lyric soprano with a range of colors at her disposal.  In her 40s she will probably become more of a spinto, but for now she is firmly in the lyric Fach.  She probably most closely resembles Victoria de los Angeles who sang a little Wagner for no reason that anyone can recall.  Ailyn is already slightly heavier, slightly darker than Victoria.

They also share the gift for French and Spanish repertoire.  Ailyn uses her colors to great effect in this very stylish album.
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Véronique Gens

An important French singer who hasn't performed at the major US opera houses is Véronique Gens. She began her professional career right out of school with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.  She is a lyric soprano who specializes in the French Baroque.

We know she performs outside France at least occasionally because I saw her at Wigmore Hall during the time I was living in London.  I was annoyed that she hardly looked up from her music stand throughout the recital, as though we were simply not there.

I own a few of her CDs, including the ones shown below.   She's rather low key, but still very much a pleasure to listen to.



The examples are neither one French Baroque. I wanted something with visuals.


This is from one of her recordings. I always feel it is important to hear French singers singing in French.

Night and Dreams

I’m glad I decided to buy Night and Dreams instead of the more typical Wesendonck album. 

Measha Brueggergosman is an artist who has self-consciously eschewed opera in favor of the concert stage.  I have wondered what would become of this singer, seemingly so obviously destined for Strauss operas, or perhaps even Wagner.

There are, of course, lots of people who only want to hear lyric sopranos in virtually all repertoire, and some of them even read this blog.  Measha is a spinto with a lovely full tone who can color her voice light or heavy, dark or bright.  She can also find the line with these colors.  Without the line there is nothing. 

There are language coaches listed for French, German, Brazilian and Spanish.  French repertoire is represented by Fauré, Chausson, Poulenc, Liszt, Debussy, Duparc and Hahn.  For German we have Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Wolf and Strauss.  Spanish is Montsalvatge and Falla.  That must mean that the song by Francis Hime is in Brazilian.  Is that enough?  No?  Then there is Sleep by Peter Warlock in English.

I prefer the late romantics of any language in her voice.  Every song selected for this album does not successfully go spinto, but enough do.  More passionate renditions you will not hear.

Justus Zeyen is the piano accompanist, transparent and gorgeous in every style.

Learn to love big.  You won’t regret it.
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Pie Jesu contest

This is in case I am run over by a bus in Italy. Pick your favorite.

Journalism. These are five excellent versions of the "Pie Jesu" from the Requiem by Gabriel Fauré.