Geez, 2016 already! Saturday the 16th found me in an Upper West Side church
for a Carnegie Neighborhood Concert—Michelle Bradley, soprano, and
Michael Gaertner, piano.
Ah! perfido, Op. 65 – Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Ständchen, Op. 17, No. 2; Freundliche Vision, Op. 48, No. 1; Ich trage meine Minne, Op. 32, No. 1; Cäcilie, Op. 27, No. 2 – Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
La vie antérieur – Henri Duparc (1848–1933)
Notre amour, Op. 23, No. 2 – Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
Les chemins de l’amour – Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
Chère nuit – Alfred Bachelet (1864–1944)
He’s got the whole world in His hands – Margaret Bonds (1913–1972)
My notes for the Beethoven started out with “Cantata? Scena?” Turns out I was on the right track, as it’s properly called a concert aria, consisting of a recitative and aria. Ms. Bradley produced a powerful sound that did not seem to be pushed, or forced. This was good and bad, in that the church produces a lot of reverberation. While she didn’t pull back and try to let the room do some of her work for her, even without pushing or forcing, variations of volume were a little bit difficult to control. The piece itself was mostly dramatic with a few touches of quiet sound.
The four Strauss songs featured tinkling, running accompaniment (provided by
Mr. Gaertner very nicely, here and throughout the entire recital), and a brisk setting of the text, with a nice contrast in the fourth verse of the first song. The second song was gentle in both accompaniment and text setting, and also included Strauss’ stretching of the boundaries of harmony, while the third had a slightly darker approach to lieder. The fourth was a vocal love letter, full of positive energy, both compositionally and in performance.
The four chansons were gentler in nature over all, though Ms. Bradley’s powerful voice didn’t really lend itself to these, in my opinion. The Fauré sounded familiar to me; the Poulenc had a lovely waltz feel and seemed quasi-operetta-ish, though with a distinctly serious solidity. The Bachelet, a composer new to me, seemed to be trying a bit too hard, as a composition. The artists left the stage after these four and then returned for “He’s got the whole world in His hands,” which arrangement also seemed familiar to me. It sounded to me as though Ms. Bradley had a little trouble with the uppermost notes toward the end. That said, it, and the entire recital, was quite pleasant and well received by the audience. However, coming onstage for the final piece and then leaving, made it a little awkward for returning for additional bows and an encore.
Of note, the concert was part of the Marilyn Horne legacy at Carnegie Hall, and Ms. Horne was in attendance. On top of that, it was her birthday, so I chimed in on an impromptu singing of “Happy Birthday to You!”
Tuesday the 20th found me at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York for (I’m not making this up, you know) The Wiener Tschuschenkappelle, a quintet of emigrants from various European countries, to Vienna, who presented a wide variety of folk music.
From the program:
Slavko Ninić, from Croatia, presentation, guitar, vocals
Hidan Mamudov, from Macedonia, clarinet, vocals
Maria Petrova, from Bulgaria, drums, darabouka
Mitke Sarlandžiev, from Macedonia, accordion
Jovan Torbica, from Serbia, double-bass
Also from the program notes, the “tschusch” in the title above is a kind of Austrian derogatory term for ethnic minority immigrants, and used as politically charged irony in the group’s name. And that’s about all that the program and notes were good for.
The group played nine or ten pieces, all variations of folk music that included Balkan, klezmer, gypsy, and Croation, all of which sounded pretty similar to me. When each player was featured in a solo, each shone. The clarinetist was astounding; a drum solo was tight; the double-bass (misleading, it was more like a large regular guitar, with a deeper, lower range) was quite interesting; the accordionist was also fairly virtuosic; and the presenter/guitarist more than held his own. When they played as a group, however, there was a sameness over and over that was not totally appealing to me. But the crowd loved it, including the obligatory, dreaded, “clap along” song. The vocals and vocal harmonies were bare bones and repetitive. The group was also called back to the stage for an encore. It sounded a lot like everything else that had been played before it. It was an interesting if slightly less than fulfilling musical experience for me. Hey, they’re not all home runs, and as I said, the crowd loved it.
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