Concert Review: The Swan and the Pigeon

Tenor Mark Padmore gives a Schubertiade.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Tenor Mark Padmore. Photo by Richard Termine.

No composer had it harder than Franz Peter Schubert. His greatest symphonies were locked in drawers until long after his death. His songs brought him some fame but his operas and choral works remain neglected outside his native Austria. And to top it all off, he died at 31, younger even than Mozart and Mendelssohn who each lived four years longer.

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: 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: The Moon in Your Pocket

A Tribute to Glen Roven at Spectrum.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The conjuror: composer Glen Roven's songs
were celebrated at Spectrum on Thursday night.

The evolution of the modern classical art song did not start in the concert or recital hall. No, the preferred performance venue was at the liederabend ("song evening"), a small-scale, informal salon performance with a singer, a pianist and the music of Schubert, Schumann or later, Brahms and Hugo Wolf. On Thursday night, the New York New Music Collective celebrated a modern song-master, Glen Roven with a program featuring world premieres of two song cycles by the Brooklyn-born composer.

Concert Review: His Northern Soul

Dmitri Hvorostovsky in recital at Carnegie Hall.
by Ellen Fishbein

Dmitri Hvorostovsky in New York.
Photo by Pasha Antonov © Hvorostovsky.com

The baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky is known for his theatrical spirit, as seen in Verdi roles on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. But for Wednesday night's Carnegie Hall recital with accompanist Ivari Ilja he allowed a certain sweetness to emerge in this all-Russian program.

Sergei Rachmaninoff's songs glide from grandiosity to the tenderest edges of the musical palette. Drawing inspiration from his chosen composer (and perhaps acknowledging the critiques of his own bombastic style), Mr. Hvorostovsky opened this recital with the composer's “My child, you are beautiful as a flower,” (Op. 8 No. 2), sung with a loving sweetness. The words floated from his lips as if he could sing them in no other way.

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.

Concert Review: High and Tight

Nicholas Phan Sings Britten at Le Poisson Rouge. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Nicholas Phan's new release Still Falls the Rain.
Image © 2012 AVIE Records.

The Connecticut-born singer Nicholas Phan has come forth as one of the most promising young tenors singing today. On a rain-soaked Monday evening, the singer performed at Le Poisson Rouge, offering songs by Benjamin Britten in a concert that was also streamed live on the website Concert Window.

Appropriately enough, this concert was in conjunction with the launch of his second disc, Still Falls the Rain, a haunting collecton of art songs and folk songs by the 20th century British composer. This is Mr. Phan's second set of songs by the composer. (The first, Winter Words, focused on Britten's relationship with his muse and life partner, tenor Peter Pears.)

Britten wrote (or in the case of the folk-tunes, arranged) these songs for Pears' remarkable instrument. Mr. Phan brings a different sound quality to the works, a youthful, clear tenor and a pliant, powerful tone that can hit difficult high notes and swoop down into the lower range without a break between registers. That flexibility was on full display as Mr. Phan tackled this challenging material, accompanied by harp, horn and piano.

Concert Review: Canciones Con Gusto

The New York Festival of Song at Merkin Concert Hall

Wallis Giunta. Photo by Barbara Stoneham, 
from Wallis.Giunta.Ca

The New York Festival of Song kicked off its final concert series of the season on Tuesday night, with Spanish Gold, a thorough exploration of the music of the Iberian peninsula, curated and led from the piano by Festival director Steven Blier.

Aided by fellow pianist Michael Barrett, Mr. Blier led what he termed a "whirlwind tour" through the many genres, languages and traditions that, taken together, comprise the vast world of Spanish song. Well-known composers like Enrique Granados and Xavier Montsalvatge were represented, next to Basque folk melodies and Sephardic songs. The singers sang in Basque, Catalan, Ladino (the language of Spanish Jews) and of course, Castilian Spanish. 

The evening featured four young soloists on their way up. Corinne Winters has an impressive instrument, and she and mezzo Wallis Giunta sounded at their best when they were allowed to sing in duet. Ms. Giunta is a young Canadian mezzo-soprano on the rise. She was by turns fiery and moving, delivering her finest singin in "Maig", a Catalan song by Eduardo Toldrá.



Baritone Carlton Ford sang the "Canto negro" by Xavier Montsalvatge with rapid-fire delivery and gusto. He has a dark-colored baritone, agile enough for patter songs, and he is good at acting with his eyes. Tenor Andrew Owens had several opportunities to display his fine lyric instrument, most notably in Fernando Sor's "Mis descuidados ojos" and Turina's "Al val de Fuente Ovejuna."

The formal program ended with a set of excerpts from the Zarzuela, the far-reaching genre of Spanish light opera that enjoyed a vogue in that country from 1800 up until the mid-20th century. These excerpts allowed the fine cast to both sing and act. Most notable was Mr. Ford in "Despiarte negro", a dramatic aria about a black man trapped on a slavers' ship, and the erotically charged duet "Caballero del alto plumero" sung by Mr. Owens and Ms. Winters.

The concert concluded with "El arreglito" (The Little Arrangement) by composer Sebastian Yradier. This duet is best known as the inspiration for "L'amour c'est un oiseaux rebelle", the Habañera from Bizet's Carmen.. As Mr. Blier explained, a desperate Georges Bizet, confronted by a difficult demanding lady before the Carmen premiere, appropriated "El arreglito" with new lyrics, thinking it an old folk tune. It wasn't--and a lawsuit settled the matter. This was a charming, passionate ensemble for the four singers, and the Cuban-flavored encore that followed served as salsa on the paella.

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.

Concert Review: Black Gondolas and Highland Flings at Carnegie Hall

Susan Graham
Photo by Dario Acosta

Thursday night's program at Carnegie Hall featured the Orchestra of St. Luke's taking on unconventional works by Franz Liszt and Alban Berg, paired with a solid, straight-laced performance of Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Symphony. Edo de Waart conducted, joined for Berg's Seven Early Songs by mezzo-soprano Susan Graham.

The concert opened with The Black Gondola, John Adams' 1990 orchestration of La lúgubre gondola, a Liszt tone poem for piano. This is not one of Liszt's Italian postcards from the

Années de pèlerinage. It is a much later, darker work that meditates on death. Edo de Waart led a finely balanced performance.

It was interesting to hear Liszt transcribed for orchestra. For much of his career, the virtuoso pianist and composer specialized in the reverse: reducing orchestral works, opera excerpts, and even whole Beethoven symphonies into fiendishly difficult piano show-pieces. Mr. Adams' orchestration retains all of the original's profundity and power, building somber, chromatic figures into a rich, surging climax. The Black Gondola is Liszt at his most experimental, stretching and pushing the fabric of tonality.


Those who first encountered music of Alban Berg through the opera Wozzeck are often surprised upon hearing the Seven Early Songs. These works are redolent of late Romanticism, evoking a hot-house atmosphere with soaring vocal lines and lush orchestral accompaniment. These are love songs, and they were well suited to Susan Graham's rich instrument. She sang with warmth, power, and unfailing sweetness, making the most of each outpouring in a passionate flood of sound.

Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Symphony (his Third) was inspired by an 1829 visit to Edinburgh and the Highlands, but did not receive its premiere until 1842. This is the most famous of Mendelssohn's five symphonies, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's made the most of their longstanding familiarity with this material. The brass and winds stepped to the fore in the opening Allegro. The strings sobbed throigh the swelling slow movement, and the finale marched to a majestic finish under the skilled direction of Mr. de Waart.