My first concert of the season of the Carnegie Neighborhood Concerts (all five boroughs, some tailored to all age groups). Saturday found me at a vocal recital by Ryan Thorn, baritone, assisted by Andrew Sun, piano. I'll start out by saying that these two were collaborators, in the truest sense of the word, throughout the recital.
Selections from Gedichte von Eduard Mörike – Auf einer Wanderung, In der Frühe, Abschied – Hugo Wolf (1860–1903)
The Dream, Op. 8, No. 5; She is as lovely as midday, Op. 14, No. 9; I was with Her [their capitalization, not mine], Op. 14, No. 4 – Sergei Rachmaninoff
(1873–1943)
Lieder eines fahrended Gesellen [German's capitalization, not mine!] – Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht; Ging heut' morgens über Feld; Ich hab' ein glühend Messer; Die zwei blauen Augen [at last! one I can decipher] – Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
Songs of Travel – Ralph Vaughan Williams – (1872–1958)
The first piece (Wolf) was an up tempo, bright song, with a contrasting second verse. The second was darker in tone. The third was pretty much a dramatic patter song that seemed to remind me of the darkness of Kurt Weill. Not a bad way to start a recital.
After a pause, the first Rachmaninoff song was very poignant. The second was calm, with a feeling of yearning, while the third, with a faster tempo, was a hymn to love. I'm not sure whether the four Mahler songs were were from the same work, performed in order, but thy certainly worked well together. The first projected a real feeling of loss. His love is lost – to another. The second was bright and patter-like, as in, all's right with the world. Until it's not. The third was dramatic and dark, even with the rushing tempo. The second verse was calmer, but just as dark; coming to terms with grief. The fourth projected, to me, that life is sometimes sad and unfair. It was straightforward though not maudlin. My take was that it was learning to come to terms with unhappiness.
These vocal recitals are a part of the Marilyn Horne legacy at Carnegie Hall, and in fact, Ms. Horne was there and briefly spoke after the intermission. It was sometimes hard to hear her, but you do not (as one woman behind me did), call out, "Louder!" to a well-established diva. Bad. Form. Anyhoo, the gist of
Ms. Horne's remarks were that recitals, as such, are falling out of favor. And that they should fall more in favor. I agree 100%.
The second half of the program was given over the Vaughan Williams' ten song cycle, and Mr. Thorn and Mr. Sun acquitted themselves quite well, as they had all afternoon/evening (5:00pm on a Saturday is an odd time for a concert/recital to my thinking).
I'm not sure I got a feel for the overarching tone of the song cycle (both performers are young, and will probably grow into various interpretations through the years), but the individual songs came off quite well. From the martial (but not quite military) opening to songs with harp-like accompaniment, from strophic with perpetual motion feelings to calmer, from splashy to then settling down, this was a nice rendition of a song cycle—and cycles aren't heard in their entirety very often (see Ms. Horne and recitals, above).
Both performers received very warm applause and some standing from the audience. In a first for me, the collaborators shook hands and then did a man-bro hug. Not a problem for me; I'd just never seen it before.
Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts. Check them out, my NYC peeps.
ConcertMeister
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