Lise -- Vocal Arts DC 👍🏻

 

March 19, 2021?  This picture is of the people performing, Lise Davidsen and James Baillieu, but the venue shown is wrong.  This recital is in London on a different date.  I am discussing the Lieder recital streamed from London to Washington, DC.

I feel a certain musical kinship to Lise, not for her glorious Wagner and Strauss operatic triumphs, but more for her Bach, Brahms, Schumann and Strauss Lieder.  When I started at IU, I told the professors that I had performed the alto solos for all the major works of Bach.  They responded, "No you haven't."  So I said,  "Matthew Passion, B minor mass, Magnificat, St John Passion, Christmas Oratorio.  What does that leave?"  I love it that Lise has sung some of the same music.   I once did a whole recital of Lieder by Brahms so it is nice to see a couple of them here.

"Auf dem Kirchhofe" Op.105 No. 4    Johannes Brahms
"Da unten im Tale"  WoO. 33 No. 6
"Mädchenlied"  Op. 107 No. 5
"Liebestreu" Op. 3 No.1
"Von ewiger Liebe" Op. 43 No. 1

Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart     Robert Schumann

Abschied von Frankreich
Nach der Geburt ihres Sohnes
An die Königin Elisabeth
Abschied von der Welt
Gebet

Luonnotar  Op. 70                             Jan Sibelius  She tells us this is a tone poem.

Five Songs  Op. 37                          Jan Sibelius

Three Songs from Six Songs  Op. 48                   Edvard Grieg

From Acht Gedichte aus "Letzte Blaetter"  Op. 10        Richard Strauss

Zueignung

Allerseelen

Die Georgine  "ob spät, ob früh, es ist deselbe"  [Early or late it is the same.]  She has come to me late in my life,  It is a wonderful gift.

 

"Wiegenlied"      Richard Strauss  I have grown to love this in Lise's version.

"Malven"      Richard Strauss

 

"Befreit"      Richard Strauss

 

"Caecilie"      Richard Strauss     This makes a great ending.

This is an entirely different style of singing than the Wagner and Strauss operas she is rapidly becoming famous for.  It is true Lieder singing.  I'm pretty sure the only two languages are German and Finnish.  The film includes the original text with an English translation below it.

Between each group she talks to us, generally about the songs and about how much she is missing the audience.  She would like to say hello to each of us.  I can only hope that this will happen.  I wish her a wonderful career and a life of happiness.  I've never been famous, but I've had fun.

If you want a disinterested review of Lise Davidsen, you will have to look elsewhere.  I find that I love it because she does.  In the not too distant future there should be a Grieg song album.

Dichterliebe

Sometimes I post films of music just because I love them.  This film of Jonas Kaufmann singing Schumann's Dichterliebe is an example.  I tried while I was still singing to fit in things that I wanted to perform.  Many I succeeded, but a few I did not.  I regret that I never sang Dichterliebe, a truly glorious cycle. I wanted very badly to play Orlovsky, but no one seems to have been able to picture me as a guy.  Sigh.

For me you cannot beat Jonas in Lieder.  My heart says this is the best.  Enjoy.

Jonas has said this before, and I've heard it from others as well.  Without an audience it's not the same.  If I could give him a hug, I certainly would.  Bravo.  There's no one like you.

Netrebko Recital

Day:

The Program 

“Lilacs,” Op. 21, No. 5 By Sergei Rachmaninoff 

“Before my window,” Op. 26, No. 10 By Sergei Rachmaninoff 

“How fair this spot,” Op. 21, No. 7 By Sergei Rachmaninoff 

“The lark’s song rings more clearly,” Op. 43, No. 1 By Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 

“Morgen!” Op. 27, No. 4 By Richard Strauss 

“Il pleure dans mon cœur” By Claude Debussy 

“Depuis le jour” From G. Charpentier’s Louise 

“It was in the early spring,” Op. 38, No. 2 By Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 

“Tell me, in the shade of the branches,” Op. 57, No. 1 By Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 

“Mattinata” By Ruggero Leoncavallo 

Night:

“Uzh vecher … Oblakov pomerknuli kraya” From Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades  (duet with Elena Maximova)  [Once upon a time I was the alto in this duet.]

“The clouds begin to scatter,” Op. 42, No. 3 By Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 

“Nights of Delirium,” Op. 60, No. 6 By Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 

“Die Nacht,” Op. 10, No. 3 By Richard Strauss 

“Ständchen,” Op. 17, No. 2 By Richard Strauss 

“Songs my mother taught me” from Gypsy Songs By Antonín Dvořák 

“The Dream,” Op. 8, No. 5 By Sergei Rachmaninoff 

“Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour” (Barcarolle) From Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (duet with Elena Maximova)

“Amidst the day,” Op. 47, No. 6 By Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Languages:  Russian, French, Italian, German, Czech

This is Anna Netrebko's Met recital from Vienna.  They talk a lot about her career at the Met, but my first time with Anna was at the San Francisco Opera in Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila in 1995.  This was during the reign of Lotfi Mansouri who brought the production, conductor and cast from Russia for us.  Of course, Anna was the person we noticed most.  We've all been fans ever since.  

She is accompanied by pianist Pavel Nebolsin and is joined in 2 duets with Elena Maximova.  This was hosted by Christine Goerke.

Anna performed this recital as only Anna would.  It was a lot of fun seeing her stroll around and dramatize each song.  The Russian songs are her specialty.  I am a long time fan and look forward to future performances.  It is good to remember that Anna had covid last year.

Joyce

This is the recital from the Metropolitan Opera starring Joyce DiDonato with Carrie-Ann Matheson on the piano and the ensemble Il Pomo D'Oro.  I'm going to tell who accompanies each piece.

• “Addio Roma” from Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Il Pomo D'Oro

• Didon’s Final Scene from Berlioz’s Les Troyens, Matheson.  I am very impress with Carrie-Ann Matheson as accompanist.
  

• “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” by Gustav Mahler, Matheson.  Wonderful Mahler.  Sing more Mahler for us.
  

A clip from Maria Stuarda is inserted here while Joyce takes a break.

• “Oh Shenandoah” Traditional

• “As with rosy steps the morn” from Handel’s Theodora, Il Pomo D'Oro

• “Illustratevi, o cieli” from Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, Il Pomo D'Oro

• “Dopo notte atra e funesta” from Handel’s Ariodante, Il Pomo D'Oro.  This is the most heavily florid piece on the program so far.  It's nice to hear Joyce sing some coloratura.
  

The second pause comes here.  They have put in an interview concerning Dead Man Walking.

• “I Dream a World” (World Premiere) by Kenyatta Hughes, arranged by Craig Terry, with text by Langston Hughes, Matheson and cello.

• “Intorno all’idol mio” From Cesti’s Orontea, Il Pomo D'Oro.

• “Voi che sapete” From Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Matheson.  This is the role Joyce made her Met debut in.
  

• “La vie en rose” By Louiguy, arranged by Craig Terry, Matheson.  And now for something completely different.  Joyce has given herself much to enjoy. 
  

• “Canción al árbol del olvido,” Op. 3, No. 2 by Alberto Evaristo Ginastera, Matheson.

• “You'll Never Walk Alone” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, arranged by Craig Terry, Matheson.

This is all about lonliness, isolation and leaving.  She has chosen each piece for love, and it is a great success.  Sing what you love.  

Lise Davidsen from Norway

Lise Davidsen with James Baillieu, piano.

 
I have changed the picture to this one that shows both of the faces of the performers in Lise Davidsen's Metropolitan Opera sponsored recital on Saturday.  For the performance they were dressed in normal recital clothes.

Lise began with what is already her signature piece:  “Dich, teure Halle” from Wagner’s Tannhäuser and followed it with “Allmächt’ge Jungfrau” from the same opera.  I reviewed her performance of this at Bayreuth in 2019 and said: "Lise Davidsen is utterly magnificent.  I adore her 'Dich teure Halle.'"  It's somewhat less impressive with piano but is still excellent.  I have also seen her in a production of Fidelio from the Royal Opera described here.

In a similar vein she performed “Es gibt ein Reich” from R. Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos.  This also displays perfectly her suitability for German repertoire.  I enjoyed this very much.

Operatic pieces included one Verdi,  “Morrò, ma prima in grazia” from Un Ballo in Maschera, and one Puccini, “Sola, perduta, abbandonata” from Manon Lescaut.  All of her operatic selections were easy for her.  She is never pushing or struggling with the notes.  She has been taught an excellent legato as well.  Or perhaps she comes by it naturally.  Operatic works were alternated with song repertoire.

• “Ved Rondane,” Op. 33, No. 9 By Edvard Grieg 
• “En Svane,” Op. 25, No. 2 By Edvard Grieg 
• “Våren,” Op. 33, No. 2 By Edvard Grieg

• “Säf, säf, susa,” Op. 36 By Jean Sibelius 
• “Var det en dröm?” Op. 37 By Jean Sibelius 

• “Ruhe, meine Seele!” Op. 27, No. 1 By Richard Strauss 
• “Cäcilie,” Op. 27, No. 2 By Richard Strauss 
• “Heimliche Aufforderung,” Op. 27, No. 3 By Richard Strauss 
• “Morgen!” Op. 27, No. 4 By Richard Strauss  

She finished with pieces approaching pop songs, ending with "I could have danced all night" where we were invited to sing along.

• “Johnny” By Benjamin Britten 
• “Heia, heia, in den Bergen ist mein Heimatland” From Kálmán’s Die Csárdásfürstin 
• “O lovely night!” By Landon Ronald 
• “When I have sung my song to you” By Ernest Charles 
• “I Could Have Danced All Night” From Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady.  I sang along, of course.
  

That's Norwegian, Finnish, German, Italian, and English.

She grows on me very quickly.  The Queen of Norway loves her.  This is an excellent selection of pieces for her voice.  She sings from a place of joy and peace.  We should await a long career.

She was hosted by Christine Goerke.

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.

Winterreise

This recital by Joyce DiDonato, mezzo, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, piano, of Schubert's Die Winterreise has a gimmick.  This is a long letter from her beloved which she reads as she sings.  This overcomes the masculine oriented text and allows her to read the text.  Interesting.  It also allows her to dramatize more than normally is done in a recital.  She begins seated and stands later on.  I think Joyce enjoys Lieder as theater.  Why not?

She is performing with the lid all the way up on the piano, something that doesn't often happen in a piano vocal recital.  This may be the explanation for my experience of poor balance between voice and piano.

I love this cycle and enjoyed Joyce singing it.  It won't pull me away from Jonas Kaufmann's version.

Lawrence Brownlee and Eric Owens

Lawrence Brownlee and Eric Owens came to visit at Mondavi to perform arias, spirituals, pop songs and whatever else they wanted.  They brought Myra Huang to accompany them on the piano.  She skillfully navigated the range of musical styles on this concert.  The whole concert was performed with the lid all the way up which sometimes worked and sometimes didn't.

The program was divided into two parts:  the operatic repertoire they are famous for and spirituals, pop songs, and gospel songs.  We'll begin with the classical.  The house lights remained up for this part.

Larry and Eric are at opposite ends of the male operatic voices.  Eric is a bass-baritone while Larry soars high above almost everyone in the coloratura tenor category.  Eric does Wagner and Gershwin while Larry does Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti.  There isn't a lot of overlap in their repertoire.

To represent his usual stuff Larry brought us:

• Il mio tesoro from Mozart's Don Giovanni
• Una furtiva lagrima from Donizetti's Elixir of love
• Ah mes amis from Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment

This pretty much covers it.  The Donizetti arias are the main ones that receive encores these days, and he gave encore worthy performances.

"Una furtiva lagrima" came after they sang a duet from the same opera where the baritone conman sells the tenor a bottle of wine as a supposed love potion, "Voglio dire."  This is more fun when it's acted.

Eric sang

• Se vuol ballare from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro
• Infelice! E tuo crevedi from Verdi's Ernani
• Le veau d'or from Gounod's Faust

They finished with "Au fond du temple saint" from Bizet's Pearl Fishers, one of the greatest male duets in the repertoire.  I enjoyed all of this, but Larry in his high tessitura more successfully soared over the piano.

The lights went down for part 2.  The rest of the program started with spirituals such as Marian Anderson used to sing.  I thought of her when they performed a duet of "He's got the whole world in his hands."  This was her trademark song.  Eric excelled in "Deep River."

I didn't know all of the pop songs, but Eric Owens singing "Some enchanted evening" was wonderful.  The selection was puzzling.

They finished with two gospel songs.

• I don't feel no ways tired
• Every time I feel the spirit

It seemed like a concert as co-biography.  There was an encore but my memory has failed me.

It was a pleasure.

Jason Sia Music at Noon

Jason Sia, pianist, appeared this week on the Sacramento concert series Music at Noon which occurs every Wednesday at Westminster Presbyterian.  For this audience he focused on the great composer-pianists Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Franz Schubert.  It may just possibly be even harder to impress an audience when you perform blockbusters.  Jason is an excellent pianist who seems to have mastered the romantic style.  He will perform later this spring at Carnegie Hall in New York.

____________________________
Jason said:

What a joy to share music with the "Music at Noon" community yesterday. I am deeply thankful to Westminster Church, Brad Slocum, the staff, and the great audience for their support!! Everyone seemed to enjoy the concert, and I especially enjoyed it after the concert when audience members told me how much the music meant to them-- because it brought back beautiful memories for them.

Clarinet Virtuoso Katsuya Yuasa

On his tour as the winner of the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation Performance Award clarinetist Katsuya Yuasa stopped by our local university for a recital, along with his accompanist Sakurako Kanemitsu.  He is both a skilled and an entertaining musician.

I was most interested in the chosen repertoire which went back only as far as 1899.

• Solo de Concours (1899) by Andre Messager is a post romantic piece whose life began as an academic exam requested by Gabriel Fauré.  I like for the romantic style to at least make a showing, and this was excellent.

• Flute Sonata, Op. 94 (1943), 1. Moderato, by Sergey Prokofiev is more modern, and was arranged for clarinet by Kent Kennan.  Prokofiev is supposed to have composed this in his free time.

• Premiere Rhapsodie (1909/10) by Claude Debussy strangely also requested by Fauré.  I admired his technique here but always feel that Debussy requires something more.

• Pocket Size Sonata (1957) in three short movements by Alec Templeton adds jazz to our clarinetist's broad range of styles.  He's very musical.

• Fuer Arvo (2018) by Ryan Suleiman was presented as a world premier.  The composer was present.  And yes, the Arvo is Arvo Pärt.  It is a response to one of the older composer's compositions.  I have taken the liberty of redating this piece from 2017, since music is normally dated on the date of the world premier performance.  This was minimalist like Pärt.

• Fantasie for Solo Clarinet (1993) by Jorg Widmann was for the clarinet alone.  This piece is for fun, to show off all the many things you can do with a clarinet, including slurs that I may only have heard in Rhapsody in Blue.  He has this stuff all down.

• Time Pieces, Op. 43 (1983) in four movements by Robert Muczynski finished the recital. 

I found that our performer's enthusiasm for performing along with his skill made this a very pleasing recital. Good luck in the future.

Dawn Upshaw in Sacramento

Dawn Upshaw came to Sacramento for a recital at CSUS as part of the New Millennium concert series.  Her accompanist was Gilbert Kalish.  I last saw her in San Francisco in 2010.  After a rather spectacular career, this lyric soprano seems more like the single mom she is.  Die Zeit, sie ist ein sonderbar Ding.

The theme of the recital was love.

She performed two groups by female composers.  The first was "On Loving," three songs by Sheila Silver.  These songs can be found on YouTube.  I believe these songs were composed in memory of Gilbert Kalish's wife.

The second group by a female composer was four songs by Rebecca Clarke who mostly composed for her instrument, the viola.  From this group I most enjoyed "Infant Joy."  It also can be found on YouTube.

The rest of the program was wide ranging and began with familiar songs by Franz Schubert.  "Gretchen am Spinnrade" was my favorite.  I do also love "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt."

Mr Kalish played a movement from Charles Ives' Piano Sonata No.2, which was followed by three of Ives' songs.

My favorite group of the concert was five songs by Béla Bartók.  In school one is taught that Bartók was an ethnomusicologist.  This means he went around his native Hungary with a recorder taping every song he heard.  There are supposed to be hundreds of these, but this is the first time I have heard them on a concert.  They were fascinating.

The program ended with three songs by William Bolcom.  There are also YouTube films of these.

There was an encore:  Ives' "Two little flowers", a song I love madly which I must surely have sung at one time or another.

Curiously, Gilbert Kalish can be found accompanying many of these songs on YouTube.

______________________
Highlights of the career of Dawn Upshaw as seen from this blog.

• DVD of L'Amour de Loin by Kaija Saariaho.  This is the one you want. 

• DVD of Handel's Theodora. This is the famous staging by Peter Sellars.

• DVD of John Adams El Niño. 

• CDs of works by Oswaldo Golijov including Ayre, 2005,  and Oceana.

• A live performance of Ayre in Berkeley.  This did not seem possible since so much of it is electronic.

• Her recording of Henryk Górecki's Symphony 3 "Sorrowful Songs", 1992, which has sold over a million copies.  

Sacramento State Faculty, Alumni, and Friends Gala

This concert is part of the New Millennium Concert Series.  All the publicity photos have been of flutist Laurel Zucker.  However, the Faculty Gala concert at Sacramento State began with a group by Percussionist Daniel Kennedy.

The stage was littered with instruments and stands much as shown in the picture above.  He is said to be dedicated to the performance of contemporary percussion repertoire.  I only know about the traditional kind.  He played:

• Five by five, an improvisation on an instrument called a solo riq.  It looked a bit like a tambourine.

• To the Earth, by Frederic Rzewsky, played on ceramic pots such as you might plant flowers in.  There was also talking, but his voice was unamplified and not loud enough for me to understand.  He struck a gong to announce the end of the piece.

• Poly Patterns, an improvisation played on caxisis, small objects held in each hand.

• Shradanjali, by John Bergamo.  Daniel played the tabla and was assisted by Nariman Assadi on the tombak.

This was a new experience for me.

Next Laurel Zucker and John Cozza performed Sonata for Flute and Piano by Francis Poulenc in three movements.  Poulenc has long been a personal favorite.

The final group featured The Peregrine Trio (George Hayes, violin, Burke Schuchmann, cello, Miles Graber, piano) playing Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Opus 87 by Johannes Brahms.  Like all of Brahms this is a very traditional piece.  They sounded well together.  I especially liked the beautiful playing of the cellist.  I love Brahms.  This program was designed for me.

Simon Estes in Sacramento

The great operatic bass-baritone Simon Estes appeared in recital here in Sacramento at the Sacramento State Capistrano Hall recital hall.  I remember him best from his appearance on television when Leontyne Price gave her farewell performance in Aida at the Met.  He will be 80 in March.  He sang seated and alternated his groups with a few numbers by Omari Tau, a local baritone.  Mr. Estes was accompanied by Judi Goble, pianist.

He opened with Malotte's "The Lord's Prayer."  He then performed two operatic arias:  "Il Lacerato spirito" from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra and Zacharia's Prayer from Verdi's Nabucco.  They were both nicely done.  This group ended with "Precious Lord, Take my Hand".

Omari Tau then came out with the Sacramento State Opera Theater Chorus, Virginia Electra, pianist, and performed "Ain't Gonna let Nobody Turn Me Around".  Omari and Virginia then performed "This Little Light of Mine" which I prefer at a slightly faster tempo.  Omari and the students kept their selections in tune with Mr. Estes' selections.  This is Omari Tau's theater style.   Next Thursday he will perform Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat here in this same performance space.

Simon Estes has had a glorious career, singing in all the great houses.  It is satisfying to hear how much of his fabulous vocal instrument still remains.  The middle group were spirituals.

The Opera Theater chorus sang something from Ragtime, followed by Omari Tau in "Make Them Hear You' from the same show.  The Broadway theme provided an introduction to these great Broadway songs sung by Simon Estes:

"You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel
"Climb Every Mountain" from The Sound of Music

He closed with "Without a Song" by Vincent Youmans.

 Thank you for continuing to sing.  It was a joy.

Carrie Hennessey Puccini Recital

Just when you thought Carrie Hennessey had already done the most impossible recital you could imagine, she does something even more impossible:  Thirteen Puccini arias.  This was accompanied by Jason Sherbundy on the piano, played with the lid all the way up.  The recital is titled To Live and Die for Love, the Heroines of Puccini.

'O mio babbino caro' from Gianni Schicchi. This is Lauretta, and after declaring in this aria that she will jump off the Ponte Vecchio if she cannot have her true love, lives happily ever after.

'Signore, ascolta' from Turandot followed by 'Tu che di gel sei cinta' from Turandot. In the opera these are sung by Liu who commits suicide to keep Calaf's name secret.

'Senza mamma' from Suor Angelica. She finds that her child has died and commits suicide.  Then the pianist played the Intermezzo from Suor Angelica.

We then were treated to three arias from La Bohème. 'Si, mi chiamano Mimi,' followed by 'Donde lieta uscì.'  These are sung by Mimi who dies of natural causes at the end of the opera.  'Quando me'n vo,' which is sung by Musetta who does not die.  Carrie wandered up and down the aisles trying to seduce us.  I think she was successful.

Intermission

'Chi il bel sogno di Doretta' from La Rondine.  Doretta is not a character in the opera, and in her aria she only falls in love..

'Un bel di' from Madama Butterfly followed by 'Tu, tu piccolo Iddio' also from Madama Butterfly. Cio-Cio-san commits suicide using the Japanese ritual.

'Vissi d'arte' from Tosca.  Is it necessary to explain this?  She leaps off the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome.

Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut came next.  The recital ended with two arias from Manon Lescaut:  'In Quelle Trin Morbide' and 'Sola Perduta, Abbandonata.'  Just before she dies in the desert of Louisiana Manon sings "I don't want to die."  There is, of course, no desert in Louisiana.

Carrie sings big and continued to sing big all the way to the end.  There was no encore and the pianist did all of the talking.  It is difficult to imagine doing something this difficult.  Tristan?  She is a lirico-spinto and avoided the dramatic roles of the ice queen and Minnie.

Carrie has followers who shout and scream.  This is fun.

Carrie Hennesey in Recital

Carrie Hennessey and her accompanist Jason Sherbundy, piano, gave an extremely ambitious recital at Pioneer Church in Sacramento.  I could not help thinking the selections were made for love.

L'Aria di Doretta from Puccini's La Rondine (1917)

In the opera this is a party song and is supposed to be extemporized.  It was the perfect start for this recital of soaring, almost operatic music.

Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder (1949)


"Frühling" (Spring)
"September"
"Im Abendrot" [usually last, composed first]
"Beim Schlafengehen" (When Falling Asleep)

I probably have more recordings of these than anything else.  Elisabeth, Jessye, Renee, maybe others.  They are the peak of song repertoire.   The rearrangement was probably done to place two songs with the unique soaring phrases found only here at the beginning and end.  Carrie has her own personal style which adds an extra layer of intensity.

Barber's Knoxville, Summer of 1915  (1947)

The text is by James Agee whose father died in a car accident in 1916.  It seemed to me that this was a perfect choice for the approach to Fathers Day.  I wasn't sure the operatic style exactly suited this, but it was still very moving.

"I want Magic" from Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire (1998)

"Don't turn on that light."  Carrie has played this role and loves this music.

There was an encore:

Rachmaninoff's Vocalise (1915)

After such a difficult concert, one would choose this for an encore.  After the concert was over, we were told that Carrie was sick with a cold.  It is allergy season in Sacramento.  There were tiny indications, but all in all this was very successful.  I put in the dates for the pieces so it would be clear that everything was from the twentieth century.  Wonderful music, terrific singing.  Who says the recital is dead?

Keith Bohm Recital

Saxophonist Keith Bohm played a recital at Crocker Art Museum today with pianist John Cozza.  I found the selected repertoire extremely entertaining.  A few comments.

Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1959) by Lawson Lunde (b.1935)

This American composer has written for children's shows.  This piece is in three movements and is very tonal.

Night Bird (1996) by Karen Tanaka (b. 1961)

This Japanese composer has brought us a piece in one movement for recorded synthesizer and live saxophone.  The synthesized part sounds very dark and forbidding.  It didn't say "bird" to me, but I still enjoyed it.

Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (1965-70) by Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)

This Argentine composer was the only one that I had heard of.  To summarize this is the four seasons of Buenos Aires in the form of a tango for saxophone and piano.  Fun and exciting.  It will not make you think of Vivaldi.

Improvisation 1 pour Saxophone Alto seul (1972) by Ryo Noda (b. 1948)

This is also a Japanese composer who has written an improvisation for solo saxophone.  They put up the lid on the piano for this.  Keith explained this at some length.  It involves various kinds of technical tricks such as different types of tonguing. At the end Keith turns and plays into the piano, and we notice that John is holding down the sustain pedal.  I know improvisation was popular for a while, but I don't know if it still is.

Rumba (1949) by Maurice C Whitney (1909-1985)

We are informed that rumba is one of the mainstays of saxophone literature.  The piano is back for this piece of South American rhythm by an American composer.

The variety of styles on display was attention grabbing.  My favorite was probably the tango four seasons.  The recital isn't dead.

Michael Fabiano at Mondavi

I went out in the pouring rain to see Michael Fabiano at Mondavi in Davis. His accompanist was Laurent Philippe.  He said they'd been working together 12 years.  We were seated at small tables on the stage.  This is an enjoyable intimate arrangement.

I have seen Michael live at the San Francisco Opera in Lucrezia Borgia, Luisa Miller, and Don Carlo.  In 2014 I predicted he would win the Richard Tucker Prize, and he did.  That was fun.  Next season in SF he will sing in Manon opposite Nadine Sierra, and at the Met next season he will simulcast in La Boheme.

I got the impression that Michael very much loves his chosen repertoire for this recital.

Four songs by Puccini (Italian)

Four songs by Duparc (French)
    Duparc is not performed nearly enough.  These were virtually theatrical performances.

An aria: "Ne pouvant reprimer les elans" from Hérodiade by Massenet. (French)

Five songs by Toscanini (Italian)
    Who knew Toscanini composed?

"Kuda, Kuda, kuda" Lensky's aria from Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky (Russian)
     This is very timely since it is currently playing at the Met.

Three songs by Barber, including "I hear an army" for a rousing finish.  (English)

He is a serious artist and does not hesitate to use his operatic voice in song repertoire when suitable.  It was very much worth the trip.  There were two encores:

Duparc's "La vie anterieure" (French)
'Lamento di Federico' from Cilea's L'arlesiana (Italian)

 

Pinchas Zukerman

Pinchas Zukerman played at our local college.  We were lucky to get him.  I asked "What's he going to play?"  The answer was, of course, violin sonatas.

Mozart
Beethoven
Brahms

This included a piece by Brahms called "Sonatensatz," which means movement from a sonata, a postumous composition.  I explained to the people sitting with me that Satz is German for sentence and is what they call a movement.  So why do we call it a movement?  I will communicate your sympathy.

I enjoyed the Brahms most.  I generally do. 

As an encore, he played a short romantic piece by a female composer named Maria Teresa....  I should have written it down.

Vocal Recital at Sacramento State

California State University, Sacramento is just across the river from my house.  Their music department has recently been retitled a School of Music.  Last night a group of guest singers presented what was for me an unusual concert.

Kimberly James, mezzo
Tod Fitzpatrick, baritone
Rebecca Sherburn, soprano
Louise Thomas, piano

What made this concert unusual was the presence of a title:

Love, the Fair Day

American Parlor Songs

Would I know a parlor song if I heard one?  Apparently not.  The three singers grouped themselves in various combinations with only two groups of solo songs.  There were two different female composers:  Amy Beach and Mabel W. Daniels.  I had at least heard of Amy Beach, but her songs were unfamiliar.  As were the songs of the male composers:  Edward MacDowell (not entirely unfamiliar), George W. Chadwick, Arthur Foote and Henry Hadley.  The composers in bold were members of a group called the Boston Six, which also included Horatio Parker, a man whose works I have actually performed.  So close and yet so far away.

The songs were oddly international.  "A Canadian Boat Song."  "Bedouin Love Song."  "A song from the Persian."  I enjoyed "The Skylark" because it reminded that once in Europe I witnessed the mating song of the male skylark.  They fly into the air and sing a long song while hovering in one spot.  I digress.

The songs were all lovely and performed in a very genteel manner.  I have never been to Boston which may be why a concert of parlor songs seemed like a visit to an unfamiliar place.  We are so well behaved.  One might wish to go home and play some loud rock and roll.

Schubert from Wigmore

Mary Bevan soprano
Tara Erraught mezzo-soprano
Allan Clayton tenor
Henk Neven baritone
James Baillieu piano

I apologize for leaving out the pianist and string quartet.  You can go on to medici.tv and view them for yourself.  The Wigmore Hall series seems to be free.

I sang a bit of Schubert and don't think I was so sedate as these singers.  Let's just say I overdid everything.  Schubert is the most likely to make me miss the life of music.

I don't think I've heard "Die junge Nonne" since I sang it at 19.  Tara does a lovely job.  It helps if you understand the words.