Songbook—The Songs of Jenny Stafford

Okay, this will be a little bit weird. Jennifer Stafford (official name—she goes by Jenny) is a lyricist. So her songs include the work of composer(s) as well. On Monday night, we heard the music of Willem Oosthusyen, Anna K. Jacobs, Niko Tsakalakos, Brandon Aronson, and Will Aronson.

I would list all of the vocalists and the band but we’d be here all night. Suffice it to say that all sang and played very well. I was impressed that one of the vocalists shied away from the standing microphones—and she was heard very clearly in the house. I like that un-enhanced sound. The band was great, too.

Songbook is a look into budding theater songwriters/lyricists. Ms. Stafford’s examples included stand-alone songs as well as portions of the shows Prodigy, and The Artist and the Scientist.

Prodigy has characters including our protagonist (a female prodigy wannabe), her cello, her mom, and Mozart. I’m not making this up, you know! It all works. I liked “I Do” best, a song sung by the character of the cello. There is a love lost/lost love relationship there, including the lyric (referring to the flesh-and-blood boyfriend (not the cello himself)), “Can he hear the broken heart like I do?” Powerful stuff.

Of the stand-alone songs, “My Award” was interesting (if a bit introverted and ‘woe is me’) and I particularly liked “Mrs. Bixby’s Letter.” This is a fictionalized response to a letter sent by President Lincoln to a woman who had five sons killed in the Civil (hah!) War. Her response was scathing. We are dealing with a lyricist here, and I managed to scribble down, “black and blue and gray.” Pretty fitting, I think.

The songs from The Artist and the Scientist also had rather unconventional characters, including the Artist, Creativity, the Scientist, etc. Interesting concepts. Do they translate into a musical?

Ms. Stafford writes good lyrics; she seems to have teamed up with some good composers. Do we have the next big team on our plate? Only time will tell. Keep an eye out for her name, though.

ConcertMeister

Bargemusic, 3/16/13

Olga Vinokur, piano and Mark Peskanov, violin

As I think I’ve mentioned before, Bargemusic is interesting in that the program is announced from the stage. Indeed, I missed the opening announcement (I was there early, of course, but chose the wrong moment to go to the head—yes, that’s what it’s called on the water!).

So after the concert, I felt OK about asking the pianist who the first composer was. Turns out, it was Domenico Scarlatti. It had the effect of a Bach piece/variation but it was more detailed. It was also very enjoyable. After that, we went to “Pearls of Russian Romanticism,” a title I just stole from a CD that I listen to with some regularity.

Ms. Vinokur next went with Etches Tableaux (all titles from memory or what I thought I heard from the stage), by Sergei Rachmaninoff. I don’t know from specific movements but I heard a variety of mystical/dreaming qualities, louder sections (though still with a gentle quality within), rapid finger work with a very strong presence, followed by a song-like feeling, ending with joyful and playful. Hey, it’s what I experienced.

As an aside, Saturday was a snowy day and the Manhattan skyline kept blurring in and out of view.

The next piece was an Alexander Scriabin Etude (d# minor), with some block chords writing plus some chromatic blending of the chords. A brief but interesting work.

Sergei Prokofiev followed. (True story—in college, I sang for a women’s music club; excerpts from Porgy and Bess. Hello! I’m as white bread as it gets. Still, they enjoyed it. After I sang, the president of the group touted the next month’s presentation—the music of Sehrje Proko-fife—I’m NOT making this up, you know.) Ms. Vinokur played Prokofiev’s Sarcasms, four(?) movements with a great variety of rhythmic sections, mimicing or even pre-Stravinsky?, a vast range of lower and upper keys/strings of the piano, plus an interesting note from me that Ms. Vinokur’s playing was very strong. Artistically, yes. But also finger, wrist and forearm strength.

What followed next was a Rachmaninoff transcription of a Fritz Kreisler violin/piano piece, “Liebesfreude.” Ms. Vinokur hinted that maybe our host of the day, Mr. Peskanov, should join her. Instead, she played the transcription, which was the equivalent of a written down version of an incredible improvisation. You might recognize the tune.

http://tinyurl.com/c5gh53d Sorry there's no video but the audio is worth it.

It’s often played as an encore but the piano version was a real treat.

The concert finished with a nicely turned Mozart violin/piano sonata. Movement one was sunny and bright followed by a second movement that was slower and song-like—cantabile. The third movement finished with a brisk, bright tempo.

There was a brief Q&A session that was a little more lively than some I’ve experienced at Bargemusic—especially as there were only ~20 audience members (see Organ Concert blogpost). Still, hit or miss, I enjoyed Bargemusic on a Saturday afternoon. Check it out, NYC peeps!

ConcertMeister

A Very Good Idea

The result, not so much.

The Muse’s Voice; A Celebration of International Women Composers

Gail Archer, organist, presented a very interesting program. Okay, here’s problem number one. Organ usually equals church. This one did. I'm thinking that with a church not being a usual suspect as a concert venue, maybe that contributed to the small size of the audience. The Reger organ, at Holy Trinity on East 88th Street, works very well in the room. The pieces on the program, some of which were composed as commissions by the American Guild of Organists for their annual conventions, were nice pieces, just not ones I’m sure I would want to revisit.

That pretty much sums up the entire experience. I’m glad I went. Of the six female composers on the program, I only recognized the name Joan Tower. I heard some very nice organ playing (for a very small audience).

Problem number two; see very small audience, above. There are two more performances in the series but I don’t feel compelled to hear them.

If I had been blown away, I’d be singing praises. That is not the case here.

ConcertMeister

Happy Birthday, Harold Lloyd

You’d know him if you saw him, he of the round glasses and the quiet-yet-effective slapstick comedy. This silent film series is a celebration of his 120th birth anniversary (as they like to say on public radio). Saturday was a double bill of “Why Pick on Me?” (1918) and “The Kid Brother” (1927).

The house opens about a half hour before the short begins. We’re greeted with views of early-era glass film slides—a precursor to “coming attractions”—accompanied by theater-organ music. In the pre-show announcements, we learned that the organ music we heard was played by Lee Erwin, for many years the house organist at the Carnegie Hall Cinema. One of my favorite glass slides, converted to film, was for “Some Wild Oats” (apparently there were reels only to be shown to male audiences and reels only to be shown to female audiences). The other title that piqued my interest was “Oh, Is She Dumb!” (It’s so hard to type while holding my tongue.)

“Why Pick on Me?” was early in Lloyd’s career and introduced us to the kid with the round-framed glasses. The character was just developing and was heavily into the physical comedy (heavy-handed slaps, kicks, pratfalls, etc.) but still pretty darn funny. Harold is on the beach with some bathing beauties. They leave him for some lifeguard types. Harold spots “the girl,” but she’s on the arm of a fat cat type. Harold steals the girl and mayhem ensues with the fat cat, several cops, and a seaside spinning floor attraction. A one-reel comedy with sight gags strung together, but funny.

“The Kid Brother” has Harold (still with the round-framed glasses but a lot smoother, both as a character and as a comedian) as the baby brother in a family of rough-housing he-men out west. Dad and the older brothers are involved with local commerce and local politics. When Kid Brother tries to be included, no dice. Dad’s a sheriff, Kid Brother impersonates sheriff, mayhem ensues. When Kid Brother allows a Wild West Show to set up shop in town, dad (the real sheriff) is not happy. Dad is entrusted with money to build a dam (see politics, above), the money is stolen, and dad and he-men brothers stand accused. Kid Brother saves the day (and gets the girl, natch) and “The End.”

But there’s lots of fun involved along the way, including Kid Brother subduing the real thief (by using life preservers) and bringing justice to the wild, wild west.

Of note, in the pre-show announcements, we learned that this particular feature is readily available on DVD (apparently Mr. Lloyd kept a tight rein on his body of work) and our host, Bruce Lawton, was impressed that a large crowd would come to see the film in a real live the-ay-ter! Steve Massa’s program notes were tremendously informative—but kudos go, once again, to Ben Model for his lively, impeccably informed live piano accompaniment to the silent films. The films might be silent but the experience is not. There’s piano accompaniment—and there’s laugh-out-loud laughter.

An absolutely wonderful afternoon.

ConcertMeister

The Art of the Art Song

Sort of. This program had three sopranos, two tenors, and one pianist. The level of singing, and the choice of art songs, reminded me a bit of a student recital—people studying voice, learning to memorize, learning to deal with foreign languages/diction, etc. But based on their bios, these were not students. They had opera and musical theater roles listed, as well as appearances with orchestras. I was not overly impressed. In fact, I didn’t need to hear any more, so I left at the intermission. To her credit, the assistant/accompanist played beautifully throughout.

So what is an Art Song? It is a little gem of a song, sometimes strophic (several verses), sometimes grouped together (Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss), and sometimes compiled into a song cycle (Frauenliebe und -leben by Robert Schumann). The two groupings listed above are sung in German; often these types of songs are called lieder, or lied. French art songs also abound—chansons. On the first half of the program I heard, German and French were the only languages presented (and presented fairly well). The second half included some Italian, and there are also English art songs (both from the land of Eng and the good ole USofA).

While it was nice to hear some old chestnuts, i.e., songs fondly remembered from my student days and from lied CDs I sometimes listen to—four songs from Frauenliebe und
-leben, Widmung (also Schumann), Zueignung (Richard Strauss—see PREformance post), and some others, I wish I’d heard better performances. Heck, I wish it had been enjoyable enough for me to stay for the second half. Ah, well, that’s the “crap shoot” aspect of free and low-cost entertainment. You pays yer money (or not) and takes yer chances.

ConcertMeister