More and More (9/18/14)

Actually, the entire title is “The More You Love Music, the More Music You Love” with William Lewis, Pianist/Singer. It was quite an ambitious program of 20 songs (many of which were combinations of more than one song). Some of them worked well, others not so much. First off, Pianist/Singer is the correct description; though he sang a lot, his singing is not the greatest, and he even said as much from the stage. And that was my main difficulty with the afternoon.

In the guise of a classical cabaret performer, he gave serious thought to the five different sets, ranging from Dreams, and Classical, to the Gay Nineties in the first half, and Irish, closing with Other Songs that Don’t Fit into Categories.

First You Dream (from Steel Pier), Libestraum, and On the Seashore of Endless Worlds (from Gitanjali) got the afternoon off on the right foot, especially his piano accompaniments and Liszt’s Libestraum. An Italian aria, Nel cor piu non mi sento (from Paisiello’s L’Amor contrasto), fared poorly in the vocals department but Beethoven’s Six Variations on ‘Nel cor piu non mi sento’ were right on the money. Some film score music followed, pairing a Francesco Durante setting of a prayer to the Virgin with the main theme from The Godfather, written by Nino Rota. This sort of worked, but not as well as the Paisiello/Beethoven. Two pieces from The Legend of 1900, scored by Ennio Morricone, were next—they didn’t make a strong impression on me. From the Gay Nineties we had She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured, nicely done; And the Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back, okay; In the Baggage Coach Ahead, a mournfully moving ballad; and K-K-K-Katy/You’d Be Surprised, a delightful mash-up of novelty numbers (the latter by Irving Berlin).

After intermission (and there were quite a few fewer people in attendance for the second act), the Irish set began with two traditional songs, though neither was familiar to me. Manx Lullaby was a sweet take on a traditional song while A Young Maid Stood in Her Father’s Garden was rather touching. They were followed by what seemed to me to be a modern take on traditional songs; they didn’t really resonate with me.

The Others set began with a Spanish song that was sad yet powerful and had a terrific piano interlude. Mr. Lewis’ playing was superb throughout the afternoon. A triple mash-up of It’s a Lazy Afternoon, Feeling Good, and Hotel (a French art song) was the least successful combination in that it seemed slightly forced. Where is the Tribe for me? (from Bajour) was a tour de force composition that was given a bang-up performance. Literally. Between playing the piano, singing, slapping tsetse flies, imitating animals, and dodging poison darts, Mr. Lewis managed to dislodge his eyeglasses (they went flying off behind him), making for a really humorous search for lyrics on the pretty-much-unseen-by-him page. But he gamely carried on and it was well worth it. If I Sing (from Closer than Ever) was a touching tribute to the performer’s mother, and a fitting way to end the concert.

So, pianistically, it was a great success; less so vocally. And some of the musical ideas worked really, really well, with others not quite cutting it. But it was programmed and planned quite well. I’m not sure I’d take in future concerts, though I might be intrigued enough to give another try.

ConcertMeister