Recordings Review: One Man Against the World

Jonas Kaufmann sings Mahler solo.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The mysterious Jonas Kaufmann.
Photo by Julian Hargreaves for Sony Classical.

How does a singer start his next act? If you're Jonas Kaufmann, the heartthrob tenor who is known for his good looks, stage presence and (more recently) frequent cancellations, you do it on record. Mr. Kaufmann is known for the lighter Wagner tenor roles (Lohengrin, Parsifal) as well as heroic parts in the operas of Puccini, Bizet and Massenet. However his newest recording, released this spring by Sony Classical is something different: a solo flight through Mahler’s autumnal epic Das Lied Von der Erde.

Concert Review: The Price of Reinvention

Soprano Natalie Dessay returns to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Natalie Dessay. Photo © Sony Classical.

Natalie Dessay is no stranger to adversity. Throughout her career, the French soprano has battled ahead, undergoing surgery to keep her voice in fighting trim and dazzling audiences with a high coloratura that was at home in Donizetti, Mozart and Richard Strauss. Ms. Dessay retired from the operatic stage in 2013, with her last Metropolitan Opera appearances coming in a tumultuous run of Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto. Four years went by until her return, which came on Wednesday night upon the hallowed boards of Carnegie Hall.

Concert Review: A Composer in Rehab

Karyn Levitt offers a cabaret tribute to Hanns Eisler.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Karyn Levitt (center) in concert at the Metropolitan Room.
Photo by the author. 

The name of Hanns Eisler is shrouded, both by the mists of time and the fact that he is one of the few composers to have his work banned  by the Third Reich. Ten years later, he was booted out of the United States, thanks to the anti-Communist witch hunts of the House Un-American Activities Committee. New York soprano Karyn Levitt is out to correct those injustices and place Eisler back in the orbit of important 20 century composers. Her CD, Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Song Book was the first step, but a more important one is to get the music of Eisler in front of a live audience.

Concert Review: The White Tiger Returns

Dmitri Hvorostovsky in recital at Carnegie Hall. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

He'll take Manhattan: Dmitri Hvorostovsky.
Photo by Pavel Antonov for Hvorostovsky.com

On Wednesday night, Dmitri Hvorostovsky returned to Carnegie Hall for a program of Russian songs and lieder by Richard Strauss. On paper, this would seem a normal yearly recital, part of the yearly routine of an international opera star. What is unusual though is that Mr. Hvorostovsky (who last appeared at the Met in Il Trovatore last fall. is in the middle of a long battle against brain cancer. His diagnosis was announced in June of 2015. Since then, he has cancelled performances,  undergone hospitalization and suffered through prolonged, presumably painful treatment.

Concert Review: Gowns, Gods and Generals

Lisette Oropesa opens  2016 recital series at the Armory.

by Paul J. Pelkonen 

Lisette Oropesa (right) and pianist John Churchwell at the Park Avenue Armory.
Photo by Da Ping Luo © 2016 Park Avenue Armory.

Lisette Oropesa is rapidly advancing to the front rank of sopranos that sing lyric repertory on the world’s operatic stages. Now 32 and a decade out of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Program, the willowy Cuban-American soprano appeared this week at e Park Avenue Armory, with two concerts to open that institution’s 2016 series of recitals in the historic Board of Officers Room.

Concert Review: From the Depths to the Heights

The Philharmonic is bringing Wagner back.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A couple of swells. Eric Owens (left) and Alan Gilbert at the Japan Society in 2008.
Photo by George Hirose for AlanGilbert.com

The New York Philharmonic tested its reputation as an opera orchestra on Thursday night, with the first concert of an ambitious program featuring most of the third act of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre, the most performed and best-loved episode in his mythological magnum opus Der Ring des Nibelungen. This concert was the first new program of 2016 under the baton of Alan Gilbert and marked Eric Owens' first New York appearance singing the role of Wotan.

Concert Review: He Died For His Art

The Ullmann Project launches at Merkin Concert Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Doomed genius: Viktor Ullmann in 1924.

Image © The Arnold Schoenberg Center, Vienna.

Some composers are remembered more for the circumstances of their demise rather than the extraordinary achievements of their respective lives. Of those, Viktor Ullmann stands out. A songwriter, a piano composer and a creator of opera, he looked death in the face and laughed, creating the anti-Nazi opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis while interred in the Theresienstadt prison camp from 1941 to 1944. A fairy tale where Death takes a much-needed vacation in the face of total war, it was quickly banned. Ullmann was then killed at Auschwitz.

Concert Review: Double Reeds and Souls in Need

Matthias Goerne at Mostly Mozart.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Matthias Goerne appeared at Mostly Mozart this week.
Photo by Marco Borggreve © harmonia mundi. 

The Mostly Mozart Festival took a serious turn on Wednesday night with a program focusing on the twin ideas of loss and death. The program marked the return of music director Louis Langrée to the helm of the Festival Orchestra, with a program that started and ended with Mozart symphonies, flanking vocal works by Bach and Schubert. With special guest Matthias Goerne singing the vocal works on the program, this was an example of what this Festival does very well indeed, hewing close to its core composer and supplementing the Mozart catalogue with works that came before and after.

Concert Review: The Odd Couple

Dorothea Röschmann and Mitsuko Uchida at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pianist Mitsuko Uchida (left) and soprano Dorothea Röschmann.
Original photo of Dorothea Roschmann  © Sony Classical. Photo of Ms. Uchida by Justin Pumfrey © Universal Music Group.
Photo alteration by the author because it's nice to have them in the same picture.

Every once in a while in this business you get to see something unique. That happened on Wednesday night at Carnegie Hall, when soprano Dorothea Röschmann gave a lieder recital accompanied by a world-class pianist: Mitsuko Uchida. It is unusual to hear an internationally known virtuoso and a regular touring visitor to Carnegie Hall with a vast repertory in the role of accompanist, but the pairing proved inspired.  The evening, a stop on the artists' current North American tour, featured art songs by Robert Schumann and Alban Berg, in a concert that made the cavernous Stern Auditorium seem intimate and warm despite the crowd in attendance.

Concert Review: The Modern Orpheus

Jonas Kaufmann enthralls Carnegie Hall in his recital debut.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Take him to your Lieder: Jonas Kaufmann.
Photo © 2013 Sony Classical.

The German tenor Jonas Kaufmann is among the most popular artists currently appearing at the Metropolitan Opera. His potent, versatile voice and dark good looks appeal in roles like Don José, Parsifal and Werther. For Thursday night's concert, the singer's recital debut at Carnegie Hall, Mr. Kaufmann turned his attention to lieder, offering a carefully curated program that instructed as it enthralled.

Concert Review: Lied, Down the Garden Path

Winterize brings Schubert outdoors.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Christopher Dylan Herbert sings Schubert in Winterize.
Photo by the author.

Schubert's Winterreise is a harrowing descent into solitude, madness (and probably, hypothermia) told over 24 songs. Based on poems by Wilhelm Müller, this is the composer's crowning achievement in the field of lieder, a forbidding journey for any singer. Most performances take place in a concert or recital hall, with a formally attired singer and accompanist tracking the hapless protagonist's journey, a setting of relative comfort for audience and artists.

On Friday afternoon, New York baritone Christopher Dylan Herbert walked a different path, performing the song cycle at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as part of a city-wide arts project, Make Music New York. This particular performance, dubbed Winterize, took place in the sere, leafless grounds of the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens on the first day of winter. Under a chilly, leaden sky, the songs of Schubert had new meaning and weight, especially as clouds rolled in over Prospect Heights and the wind picked up.

Although singing in the cold, Mr. Herbert proved to have a rich, theatrical baritone that had no difficulty being heard in this outdoor setting. He projected the emotions behind this descent into madness, capturing the irony of the cycle's more fantastical moments and the self-flagellating character of Schubert's protagonist. From the steady tramp of "Gute Nacht" through the manic determination of later songs like Mut, this was a consistent, and sometimes harrowing performance. He managed the wide spectrum of sounds, even floating a lovely "head voice" in the more difficult passages of Die Nebensonnen and the haunting despair of Der Leiermann.

Obituary: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

The master of lieder dies at 86.

by Paul Pelkonen

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in a publicity still for his
1968 recording of Hindemith's Cardillac.
Image © 1968 Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Classics.

German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau died earlier today. He was 86. According to the Berliner Morgenpost, the Berlin native was in the Bavarian mountains "near Starnberg" when he passed away. The death was announced by his wife of many years, opera singer Julia Varady. 

Mr. Fischer-Dieskau was one of the most important German baritones of the recordings era. His signature achievement was his cycle of Schubert lieder, consisting of over 400 songs. Mr. Fischer-Dieskau's recordings (most made with accompanist Gerald Moore) were instrumental in bringing the lied relevant in the 20th and 21st centuries, allowing listeners to have the experience of a song recital in their own homes.

Although his voice was considered a "light" baritone, Mr. Fischer-Dieskau was a master at driving every syllable of a lyric home, bringing deep, profound meaning to song cycles like Winterreise and Brahms' Four Serious Songs. The singer's signature sound, rich, mellow and pliant in both its upper and lower ranges became one of the most recorded voices of the 20th century. 

Concert Review: Roast Goose with Chestnuts

The New York Philharmonic's holiday feast.
by Paul Pelkonen.

Cooking with a baton: New York Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2011 The New York Philharmonic.

On Wednesday night, the plain hardwood walls of Avery Fisher Hall's stage were draped with long skiens of crimson and purple fabric. I asked an usher on the way in, why the adornment?

"Oh, it's the holidays," she said. "And we're glad to have Alan Gilbert back."

This concert marked the first return of the Philharmonic music director to his home podium after a two-month absence, including a tour of Europe. But the program chosen for his return was dull by this conductor's standards, featuring familiar works by Haydn, Schubert and Ravel.


The concert opened with Haydn's Symphony No. 88, a rarely heard piece that stands as a kind of "odd man out" between its more famous brothers written for Paris and London. The work shows Haydn in post-Ezterházy experimentation,  expanding his orchestral palette. Mr. Gilbert took an incisive approach to the four movements, drawing crisp textures from the timpani and percussion and some lyric playing from principal cellist Carter Brey.

The orchestra was then joined by Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter for a set of Schubert songs, heard here in orchestral transcription. The selections were a "greatest hits" from the huge Schubert catalogue. Ms. von Otter's voice may be narrowing, but she still proves an engaging storyteller and a compelling stage presence.
Highlights were the Britten orchestration of Die Forelle ("The Trout") and Max Reger's mournful, searching version of Gretchen am Spinnerade, based on Goethe's Faust. The set ended with the same composer's version of Erlkönig. Although the orchestration lacks the impact of the piano original, Ms. von Otter drew chills when she changed voices and embodied Schubert's supernatural kidnapper.


The second half of the concert opened with the charming ballet suite Ma mère l'oye, Ravel's setting of children's stories commonly accredited to one Mother Goose. This work has its origin in a set of five works for piano four hands, written for the Swiss composer's niece and nephew. Here, it was Mr. Gilbert who made a case for the orchestrated version, drawing shimmering, exotic textures from the Philharmonic players.

In its orchestrated form, Ravel's orchestration allowed the listener to experience instruments that are not always featured. Especially interesting to the ear was the virtuoso part for contrabassoon, (played here by Arlen Fast)  in Les Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête and the soaring walls of sound built by the horns and trombones. The final orchestral swell of Le Jardin féerique rose to an inspired height, buoyed by trumpets, oboe and clarinet.

The concert climaxed with La Valse, another reliable piece by Ravel. This allowed the percussionists to shine as the orchestra (finally appearing at full strength) swung through the demented triple-time textures and expertly navigated the pitfalls of meter and rhythm written meticulously into the score. Mr. Gilbert turned terpsichorean himself, dancing on the podium as the waltz turned and whirled. He seems more relaxed conducting without a score, anticipating each turn of the music and taking aim with his baton at soloists when the turn came for them to shine.


Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen.

From Mahler to Meat Loaf

Rock's Roots in the 19th Century Art Song

A modern composer: Jim Steinman.

Today, the 19th century art song (lieder in German, chanson in French) is not as popular a form of so-called "classical" music as the opera or the symphony. Art songs are small and intimate, micro-pictures and stories that last from three to seven minutes...wait...doesn't that sound like a description of rock and roll radio?

These compact works by composers like Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz and Wolf are essential to an understanding of the development of Romantic music. But you could also look at them as ancestors of the modern rock song as developed in the last half a century. Like rock songwriters, composers of art songs were interested in breaking new ground, ignoring the constraints of form to create original musical settings that resonate today.

Schubert's "Der Erlkönig" which has some of the drive and drama of rock.

Performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

For the last 50-odd years, the rock world has been blessed with a surfeit of good songwriters, from the Brill Building composers to the sandbox fantasias of Brian Wilson. Wilson also incorporated complex harmonies, orchestrations and oddball electronic instruments like the Theremin on his masterpiece "Good Vibrations."

The Beach Boys: 'Good Vibrations' from the aborted Smile project.

The team of Lennon and McCartney, and occasionally Harrison, actually absorbed classical influences (largely through their producer, George Martin) and studio techniques that were originally created for the preservation of operas and symphonies on vinyl. By the way the idea for this song came from a circus poster.

The Beatles: "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" from Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Folk music developed in North America, where "folkies" like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger gave way to Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Those three artists also struck out in new and different directions: Dylan plugged in, Neil un-plugged and Joni worked with jazz bass god Jaco Pastorius. Like the composers a century before, songwriters put the importace of art over the happiness of their audiences or even commercial success:

Neil Young pushes the envelope. "Sample and Hold" from Trans © 1982

Like 19th century lieder, some rock songs are often based on poetry or literature. Heavy metal bands (Iron Maiden, for one) regularly raid the Oxford Book of English Verse, producing songs like "The Trooper", (Tennyson) and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (Coleridge):

Iron Maiden performing 'The Trooper' from Death on the Road.

These poems get rewritten into elaborate musical arrangements of power and bombast, much like the orchestral songs of Berlioz or Mahler. And speaking of bombast, the songs of Jim Steinman combine Wagnerian chord progressions with the '50s songwriting sensibility of Lieber and Stoller. He even rewrote some of his songs for a German musical called Tanz der Vampire, which brings things full circle:

Jim Steinman's "Gott is tot" from the musical Tanz der Vampire.

This song was originally in English and called "Original Sin."

Today, the music of a century ago continues to influence what we put into our IPods. In between outfits, Lady Gaga has repeatedly demonstrated the influence of her own classical training. Metal has its share of heldentenors. And classical instrumentalists have even tried their hand at reworking pop songs, like these guys: 2Cellos, covering Michael Jackson.

Concert Review: Nordic Combined at the Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert. Photo by Chris Lee

At the last concert before the New York Philharmonic unveils their 2011-2012 season, Alan Gilbert led a vital, intriguing combination of Beethoven, Sibelius, and Carl Nielsen. The concert featured two guest appearances from soprano Karita Mattila, who sang works by Beethoven and Sibelius while wearing two different gowns.

Beethoven's Eighth Symphony is one of his shortest and least-played. This cheerful little piece with its far-ranging opening theme allowed Mr. Gilbert to show his considerable skill in classical repertory. As the second theme entered, the Philharmonic's music director played Beethoven's little game of "hide-the-theme" with great glee. The second movement, with its repeating, metronomic rhythm was played with precision. The Minuet moved with the courtly precision of another century and the bucolic Rondo allowed the orchestra's winds and strings a chance to stretch.

Ms. Mattila then joined the orchestra for "Ah! Perfido!", a Beethoven stand-alone concert aria. Beethoven was a master pianist and orchestrator, but less skilled at writing for the voice. Ms. Mattila produced hearty tones, singing the aria's climactic passage with a full forte that overpowered the orchestra.

She and Mr. Gilbert sounded far more balanced in the three songs by Sibelius that opened the second half of the concert. These works, set to texts in the Finnish composer's preferred language of Swedish, were sang with great care and naturalism by the soprano, expertly accompanied. She ended her appearance with a brief encore, an a capella rendition of a traditional Finnish folk song. It was sung with great charm and emotion.

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) a tonal symphonist from Denmark whose six quirky works in that genre provide symphony lovers with a great deal of enjoyment. Although Feb. 1 was the anniversary of Nielsen's Symphony No. 4, (The Inextinguishable) Mr. Gilbert programmed the Second instead. Entitled The Four Tempraments, its movements explore four different aspects of the human personality in accordance with the archaic medical belief that the body is ruled by four "humors": choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic and sanguine.


Those are the subtitles of the four movements of this brassy, engaging work which was led with great flair by Mr. Gilbert. The Philharmonic's famous brass section, led by Joseph Alessi and Philip Myers, had a field day with Nielsen's muscular choleric movement, charging pell-mell over a rich texture of strings. Mr. Gilbert conducted the phlegmatic movement with great lethargy, showing that he got the composer's joke. The melancholic adagio produced some of the evening's most beautiful playing. The sanguine finale roared forth, presenting the extroverted, raging side of the personality with a full-blooded performance.

This concert marks the start of a Nielsen initiative by Mr. Gilbert, who intends to revive interest in the composer by programming all six of his symphonies in coming seasons. If Tuesday night's performance is any indication, this bold move will provide Philharmonic audiences with something to look forward to in the seasons to come.

The Superconductor Top Ten: A Schubertiade

Franz Schubert. Portrait by Wilhelm August Rieder 

Today marks the 214th birthday of Franz Peter Schubert, songwriter, symphonist, and composer par excellence. So to celebrate, here's a list of ten really good pieces by this brilliant composer, who died at the age of 31. No particular order.

1) Symphony in B Minor ("Unfinished")
From its tremolo opening to the noble theme, sung forth in the cellos, this two-movement torso features everything that makes a Schubert work great: powerful, innovative use of modulation, and above all melodies that at first soothe and ultimately end on a disquieting, unfinished note. Schubert sketched a third movement, and may have planned a fourth, but the Unfinished stands as a masterpiece.


2) Der Doppelganger
Many of Schubert's best songs are horror stories in miniature. Schubert's second-to-last lied explores psychological horror: the idea of having to confront your own duplicate--and your own madness.

3) Erlkönig
With its difficult, galloping piano part, this song about a father trying to save his child from a demonic figure (the "Erl King") is one of Schubert's most popular Lieder. The singer has to play four parts: the narrator, father the terrified child, and the wheedling, seductive Erl King. All this in four minutes.

4) Der Wanderer
This soul-searching ballad is one of the most famous Schubert songs, from its introspective opening recitative, to the introduction of a lilting, almost gleeful 6/8 figure in the second half that brings the work to a climax. It also served as the launch-point for the later "Wanderer Fantasy", one of the composer's famous piano works.


5) String Quartet No. 12: Quartettsatz
Schubert spent much of his brief career pushing the boundaries of form in chamber music. (Often he would do so by simply not finishing works.) This is the first movement from the never-completed String Quartet No. 12. It stands on its own, especially with its warm, harmonized second subject. Premiered after the composer's death.

6) String Quintet in C Major D. 956
The best "gateway" to the music of Schubert is this exquisite, melancholy quintet that (unusually) replaces the traditional second viola with a second 'cello--allowing the two low instruments to interweave and comment on each other's basslines as the violins duel in the upper register. Genius.

7) Der Winterreise
The most famous song cycle ever written. The hero, rejected by his lover, begins a trek into white oblivion, slowly going mad in the freezing dead of winter over the course of 24 songs. Winterreise broke fresh ground when it premiered, and its narrative never fails to chill one to the marrow.

8) Piano Sonata No. 6 in E Minor
Like many Schubert works, this piano sonata shifts moods as it develops. An up-tempo opening gives way to the suffering brooding beneath the surface. Schubert wrote 21 sonatas. His work does not have storm and fire of Beethoven or the dazzling virtuososity of Liszt. But it has endured through the emotional, melodic nature of the music which speaks to listeners 200 years later.


9) Nachtgesang im Walde
Written for four horns and a male chorus, this short part-song is one of Schubert's fine examples of secular choral writing. The opening evokes the mystery of the woods at night, and the later pages shift to celebratory hunting music. The combination of chorus, nature images and mysterious minor chords points the way forward to Mahler.

10) Impromptu No. 2 in E Flat
This work opens rolling wave of arpeggiated notes displays Schubert the consumnate pianist. It requires fluid legato playing and a dexterous technique. Once the main theme arrives, the swift passage becomes expert accompaniment to the noble main theme. Played by the right pianist, the effect of this demanding piece is breathtaking.

Recital Review: Discovering Liszt at the Weill

No, Liszt didn't show up and play. But it's a cool picture!
Photo from PianoPleasures.com

On Saturday Afternoon, Carnegie Hall presented a "Discovery Day" featuring piano works and songs by Franz Liszt, bookended with appearances by noted Liszt scholars Alan Walker and Charles Rosen. The five-hour program also featured a dramatic reading with actors reading Liszt's correspondence, reviews, and personal accounts to form a sort of aural biography of the composer and virtuoso.

These performances marked the start of Carnegie Hall's 2011 Liszt initiative, celebrating the composer's 200th birthday with a series of concerts and lectures. Dr. Walker opened the proceedings with an engaging 50-minute lecture on Liszt's role as the cultural ambassador of the 19th century. The English musicologist and author of an exhaustive three-volume biography of the composer spoke with an engaging style, explaining the complexities of Liszt's life and illustrating his role in musical culture.


The concert proper opened with a slew of piano works, played expertly, if not always passionately by soloist Gregory DeTurck. The pianist focused on different aspects of Liszt' piano personality: the virtuoso, the traveler, the opera aficionado. The Reminisces de Norma were a highlight, as Bellini's operatic themes were reimagined and spun into dizzying piano arpeggios and pounding rhythms. The Legend No. 2 was stirring, highlighting Liszt's deep Catholic faith and ending with the suggestion of a key theme from Wagner's Parsifal. (The Liszt work predates Wagner's Grail opera by 20 years.)

The piano recital ended with the ground-breaking Bagatelle Without Tonality and the mournful, introspective Unstern! Sinistre, disastro, both written during Liszt's final, experimental decade. The heavy, decending piano chords of the latter work seemed to open a black abyss of sound, threatening to suck Mr. DeTurck down into the depths of Liszt's melancholy. The dramatic reading followed, with Broadway actors Michael Cumpsty, Robert Stanton and Wendy Rich Stetson trading off on anecdotes from Liszt's life, alternated with recorded piano and choral music.

The second half of the evening featured Angela Meade, an up-and-coming soprano with a powerful instrument that seemed outsized in the cozy confines of the Weill Recital Hall. The programme was all the more remarkable for being sung in four different languages, exhibiting Liszt's cosmopolitan style and affinity for diverse languages and cultures. The Three Petrarch Sonnets opened, in an almost operatic style. Pianist Bradley Moore, an assistant conductor at the Met (who will be working with Ms. Meade on the forthcoming revival of Armida) provided expert accompaniment.


"Go Not, Happy Day" (based on Tennyson) and two settings of Victor Hugo texts followed, with Ms. Meade soaring up to some impressive heights and tossing off lovely pianissimo notes. The song recital ended with the fascinating Three Songs on Schiller's William Tell. These powerful, dark songs from 1845 recall Liszt's affinity with Schubert and his mordant wit--the murderous water nixie of "Der Fischerknabe" seems to look ahead to Wagner's trio of Rhinemaidens.

The afternoon concluded with a fascinating back-and-forth between Mr. Walker and Mr. Rosen, who debated various issues within Liszt's works (the "kitsch factor" in the B Minor sonata, Liszt's debt to Chopin) in an engaging conversation. For piano aficionados, this was a meeting of the minds, and it only got better when Mr Rosen got up from his chair and went over to the concert Steinway to illustrate his points at the piano. Liszt, an educator as well as a showman, would have approved.

Concert Review: Renée Fleming Melts the Snow

Renée Fleming
Photo by Andrew Eccles © Decca Classics

Tuesday night's recital at Carnegie Hall by soprano Renée Fleming took place as a winter snowfall began on 57th Street. As the white flakes fell, Ms. Fleming took her rapt audience on a tour of Vienna, 100 years ago, with a selection of obscure art songs by Schoenberg, Zemlinsky, Korngold, and Richard Strauss.

There is much to be said for the "hothouse" atmosphere of Viennese music before Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School broke the barriers of tonality and ushered in the new sounds of the 20th century. Ms. Fleming clearly relished her choice of programme, although it may have befuddled some who expected Strauss aerobics or Rossini razzle-dazzle. She was also able to use her rarely heard lower register for these songs, providing excitement and new sounds from this famous, familiar singer.

The Schoenberg song that opened the program was a powerful evocation that recalled the troubled married life of English king Henry IV. It was followed by five torrid lieder from the pen of Alexander Zemlinsky--who was not only Schoenberg's teacher, but alsohis brother-in-law. These feverish songs reflect the power and passion of this unappreciated composer, whose works have seen a renaissance in recent decades after being suppressed by Nazi censors.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold is best remembered as the child prodigy who fled the Nazis to become a Hollywood legend as one of the fathers of film music. His lucid, post-Wagnerian style permeates these moving songs. "Sterblied" and "Das Heldegrab am Pruth" are grieving works that focus on the horrors of war and death. Ms. Fleming saved her most moving delivery for "Was du mir bist," a simple, passionate love song that bursts into a decadent, orgasmic flower of sound. It was a wonderful way to end the first half of the evening.


The second half of the program opened with four songs from composer Brad Mehldau. Entitled Songs from the Book of Hours, these are new sacred works that explored man's relationship with God. Ms. Fleming sang these works with agility and finesse, handling the complex melodies and rhythms with expert accompaniment from Mr. Höll. These powerful works of devotion were presented as four movements in quick succession: a decision that enhanced the texts and increased the cumulative impact of the songs.

The formal concert concluded with four early songs by Richard Strauss. "Winterweihe" and "Winterliebe" seemed to celebrate the snow falling out on Seventh Avenue. "Traum durch die Dämmerung" and "Gesang der Apollopriesterin" showed different sides of this great German composer. This last song was one of the first examples of Strauss' neo-classical interest that would lead to operas like Elektra and Ariadne auf Naxos. Ms. Fleming lifted her voice, soaring through Strauss' melodic lines and displaying the impressive soprano fireworks that the audience had clearly waited to hear.

She returned to the stage, and treated the audience to four encores. Leonard Bernstein's "I Feel Pretty" and Korngold's "Gluck, das mir verblieb" were bookended by more Strauss songs. The Korngold piece, an aria from the opera Die Tote Stadt was the loveliest moment of the evening. It is rare enough to hear this melodic, memorable aria performed--it is rarer still to hear a singer capable of stretching Korngold's languid, long notes to such stunning, moving effect.