Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts (4/21/18)

Sarah Nelson Craft, mezzo-soprano; Alden Gatt, piano; Karlos Rodriguez, cello

Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 – Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
Loisaida, I Love You – Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981)
Mirabai Songs – John Harbison (b. 1938)
Siete canciones populares españolas – Manuel de Falla (1876–1946)

In a departure from the usual, there were no lyrics or translations provided although there were supertitles (in translation for the Schumann and de Falla). The Schumann is an eight-song cycle that was performed quite nicely here. It is a cycle that I am familiar with, having a wonderful performance on CD by Dame Janet Baker. It was a treat to hear a live performance—sort of like revisiting an old friend. Ms. Craft was suitably involved and expressive in rendering the music and texts, ably supported by Mr. Gatt.

More contemporary in styling, the Montgomery, for solo voice and cello, is a love song to a neighborhood–the lower East Side. It was a paean that was both gentle and dramatic and switched back and forth from English to Spanish, rather like the lower East Side itself. With its basically free form musical language, it was not quite as effective as I thought it would be.

Mirabai was a 16th century poet who was known as a free-spirited woman of her age. Harbison set six of her poems here, and they varied in style from serious to dramatic, to playful and interesting. They had a slightly exotic flavor which made sense since Mirabai was an Indian (not Native American) princess who devoted her life to praising Krishna, who she referred to as the Dark One. It’s not a work that I would necessarily seek out again. Of note, without texts in front of us, it was a little hard to follow from song to song. (In fact, Ms. Craft skipped one entirely but made up for it by singing it as an encore.)

In keeping with the song cycle theme, de Falla took seven Spanish folk songs and crafted them into this cycle. The first had a definite Latin flair while in the second, it was a little difficult to hear the vocalist, as the piano slightly overshadowed her. This was mostly due to the acoustics of the room (an upper West Side church). The third was slower and gentler but with a rapid accompaniment, simulating a guitar. The fourth had an extended piano opening and short, for the most part, vocal phrases. The fifth, Nana, was a lullaby. The sixth was vibrant, without going too far. The final movement was a vocalise at the start, with another pseudo-guitar accompaniment.

As noted above, the missed Harbison song was the first encore and a ‘Welcome to Spring’ song (Debussy?) was the official (though I'm not totally sure a second encore was warranted) encore.

ConcertMeister