|
RECITAL REVIEW
May 18, 2004
|
By Barbara Baker
It would be difficult to recall a recital as enjoyable as Karen Slack's Schwabacher Debut Sunday at Temple Emanu-el. Remember that name — you can expect to hear it again.
What are we all looking for? A lyric/spinto soprano with beautiful tone and great high notes she can spin back into a gorgeous piano, the kind of voice that can sing anything beautifully, engaging the heart brilliantly. We have found it in Karen Slack. And on top of all that, she has the authentic Strauss legato.
The recital was titled “A musical journey: from Mozart to spirituals.” One wonders whether these titles are necessary. For some reason recitals all seem to start with fairly early music and end with something modern. No one is traveling anywhere. This were better called “a couple of warm-up pieces followed by genius.”
There was little sensitivity to Mozart in her rendition of the concert aria Bella mia fiamma. I felt like whispering in her ear, “It's alright to glissando once in a while even in Mozart.” The voice was obviously gorgeous, but the performance was uninspired and the tone occasionally went out of control.
Then in the second group, Suleika I and II by Schubert, out came a music stand. She didn't engage with these pieces well enough even to remember them. “Ach, die wahre Herzenskunde” was not the true message of her heart. Schubert is properly more almost-spoken than sung. All is forgiven: within just a few notes of “Wiegenlied” by Richard Strauss we knew that she was in her element. No live performance of Strauss songs in my memory was so completely glorious. She knew exactly how to place each note in the phrase, how to keep her voice under complete control, when to hold back and when to soar. “Befreit” was fabulous. We stood up; we shouted. She topped this with a wonderfully sophisticated performance of a group by Claude Debussy on poems by Paul Verlaine. There was even a lovely glissando at the end of “L'ombre des arbres.”
Slack is still in her 20's but already shows enormous musical maturity, especially in the romantic repertoire that would be her expected métier. Her voice is very well produced, with the wonderful lightness that can become heavy, such as I most associate with Eileen Farrell. Despite her talent, in an era when an established star like Deborah Voigt can be thrown out of a production because she doesn't fit the costumes, Slack may be handicapped by her full figure. John Parr accompanied with a very light touch that was especially effective in the Debussy. She closed with a modern arrangement of spirituals by John Carter. True music happens only when it lives in the soul and not just in the ear and body. Karen Slack has a lot of music in her soul and leaves you wanting to hear more.
(Barbara Baker holds the Doctor of Music from Indiana University plus degrees from Sacramento State, and was herself formerly a singer.)
|
Karen Slack