San Francisco Classical Voice

VOCAL MUSIC REVIEW

A Luscious Songfest

November 19, 2005

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By Michael Zwiebach

Murphy's law is particularly apt to strike singers, because their instruments are inseparable from their bodies. So it was disappointing but not surprising that the program of Saturday night's "Basically British" concert at Old First Church in San Francisco had to be changed due to an illness in the tenor department. Happily, the other singers on the program — Adler fellows all — were able to fill in with sets of songs that fit the program's sense. And that's not surprising either. Well-trained contemporary singers tend to have explored the art song repertory far beyond the great 19th century Lieder. The evening ended up being enjoyable and profitable despite the missing heavyweight pieces, and included some fine singing.

John Parr, the evening's accompanist and head of music staff at the San Francisco Opera, has masterminded the "Basically British" series. He had a great programming idea for this concert, which was to have included works by Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett, the two great midcentury English composers who rejected the vein of English pastoralism that had been an important aesthetic for the previous generation of composers. They did this, in part, by turning to the music of Henry Purcell for inspiration; thus the program started with a set of Purcell songs arranged by Britten for piano (that is, for himself, to accompany Peter Pears).

Gerald Thompson, a countertenor, sang the three Purcell songs, beginning with Sound the Trumpet, a recital opener if ever there was one. Thompson's voice was up to the task of imitating the trumpet: he is evidently striving for David Daniels mode, as all operatic countertenors must at this point. So the sound was a little pushed. He sang the set with a full and rather forward vibrato: no doubt this will please opera lovers, who generally would like to see the "early music" style reserved for summer camp and opera houses in Antarctica. But the vibrato does interfere with the music, because it flattens out vocal ornaments, like turns, which become indistinguishable from the basic vocal sound. Not a flexible song interpreter, Thompson made the quicksilver second part of Sweeter than Roses trumpet-like and generalized. Still, he will be well-served in his career by his clear tone and unforced diction.

Rigorous display

After that, the evening swerved to Six Elizabethan Songs, by Dominick Argento, a contemporary American composer best known for his operas. Nikki Einfeld, a soprano who had previously sung this set on CBC radio, gave a sophisticated and polished account of these songs. She has a fine, full soprano, well-controlled, and she showcased a perfect messa di voce [a smooth crescendo, then diminuendo, on a single tone] throughout the recital. Her interpretation included such niceties as "whited out" tone for the first line of Come away, come away, death, (i.e., she dropped her vibrato and used a thinner, reedier tone.)

Argento's settings are flamboyant and challenging for the singer (in a delightful way), as you might expect from an opera composer. Among them is a delicate setting of Ben Jonson's hymn to Diana, Queen and huntress, chaste and fair, which Benjamin Britten famously set as part of his Serenade for Tenor Horn and Strings. And Argento's cycle ends with a pastoral lovesong, Diaphenia, in which skirling piano runs playfully imitate the capering of young lambs. Enfield cleared the technical hurdles gracefully.

Six songs by Gerald Finzi were the second of the substitute offerings. Finzi was an excellent song composer and an avid book collector, especially of the poetry of his contemporaries. Not surprisingly, these poets furnished the texts for three of the songs. Finzi was Britten's senior by twelve years, and his style is unapologetically rooted in Romanticism. But his later songs introduce a certain harmonic astringency and leanness. In June on Castle Hill, you hear just a whiff of a pastoral style, but it is used as a foil for the second stanza, "Earth sleeps in peace; / Yet without cease / The sky / Throbs angrily / As the laden bee sails by, / And with a secret sting, that sullen hum / Whispers of wars to come." Here the chord changes come faster, and the harmony becomes restless, pushing the song along with greater urgency. But the piano part is undertow; the vocal line is quietly lyrical, not somber. That's why the song is so perfect.

Sagacious restraint

Joshua Bloom has a lovely bass voice, and sings a firm legato line. Both are ideally suited to song recitals, and I suspect there are reserves of power there that were not needed in the Old First Church. He easily handled the registral leaps in Finzi's melodies and used them to an expressive purpose. I liked his calm, reflective manner, which allowed the songs to percolate inside you.

I suspect that Brahms' Zigeunerlieder were on the program simply because they're delightful, especially when sung by a group of talented, energetic young singers in the composer's choral arrangement. Brian Frutiger, filling in for the indisposed Thomas Glenn, displayed an attractive, strong tenor voice in several short solos.

John Parr was, obviously, a superb accompanist, elegant and demonstrative by turns, as required by the music.