Monday’s concert in the RBA was made up of two song cycles for four voices with one piano played by four hands.  The first piece was the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes Op.52 which sets eighteen short folk songs and love poems from Georg Friedrich Daumer’s collection Polydora.  The second was John Greer’s 2001 piece Liebeslied-Lieder Op.20 which sets various playful texts exploring the foibles of love and romance by Dorothy Parker and others.

Performing were members of the Ensemble Studio; Karoline Podolak, Alex Hetherington, Wesley Harrison and Korin Thomas-Smith with Brian Cho and Mattia Senesi at the piano.  The Brahms piece is quite conventional in mood with plenty of nightingales, other little birds and unrequited lovers.  The settings however are quite varies with some for all four voices in harmony, some where the ladies do a kind of call and response with the men, some duets and even a solo each for tenor and alto.  It was very well done too with some really nice singing and playing.  It’s also just about the first time I’ve had a decent chance to hear Wesley Harrison and I’m impressed.  The fine qualities of the other three I’ve written about before and the pianists were splendid.

Most things are more fun than Brahms and John Greer’s piece is no exception.  This was given some basic stage business too which was nice.  Lots of Dorothy Parker which is always a plus though I’d question whether anyone would take Korin for Marie of Rumania.  The settings are appropriately playful with some jazzy elements and nods to Broadway.  They provide plenty of opportunities for the singers to have a bit of fun and they did.  I hope the composer enjoyed it as much as I did!

Photo credits: Karen E. Reeves