Each year, round about now, the COC stages a lunchtime concert or two featuring departing members of the Ensemble Studio singing music that has special meaning for them. Yesterday we heard Clarence Frazer and Charlotte Burrage with Jennifer Szeto at the piano.
It’s hard to think of a more appropriate work for Toronto this February than A Winter Journey although one could make a good case for A Winter Stay at Home with a Hot Water Bottle and a Bottle of Whisky. Unfortunately Schubert didn’t set the latter so it was Winterreise we got from German baritone and pianist Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber at Koerner Hall last night. It was completely classical. Two men in tails walked out and performed the 24 songs of this most demanding cycle. There were no histrionics. There was no interpretive dance. There were no video projections. Indeed so unhistrionic was it that I don’t believe Herr Gerhaher’s right hand left the piano the entire time.
I don’t usually give colloborative pianists headline billing but last night’s packed Koerner Hall recital certainly had an element of “They came for Ms. von Otter but stayed for Ms. Hewitt”. Hewitt was phenomenal in a program that interspersed solo piano pieces with sets of songs. In the songs she was simultaneously an individual voice and supportive of her colleague while the solo piano pieces were breathtaking; elegant Scubert and Brahms before the interval, staggeringly virtuosic Chabrier after. She’s also fascinating to watch. Continue reading
The Toronto Summer Music Festival kicked off last night with a concert by the venerable and renowned Emerson Quartet. The theme for the festival is “The Modern Age”; explained to us by the festival director as meaning the many threads and styles that emerged in the opening years of the 20th century. It might seem a bit odd then that the Emersons chose a programme of Beethoven, Britten and Schubert but in fact the rest of the programming doesn’t seem much closer to the tree with Bach, Haydn and Brahms all featured in upcoming concerts.
There was no doubt that the Four Seasons Centre was the place to be at noon today. Few opera fans would willingly miss a free recital by Sir Thomas Allen and I doubt that anyone who attended was disappointed. Perhaps the voice doesn’t have the bloom it had twenty years ago but it’s still exceptionally fine and the craftsmanship and sheer stage presence was little short of amazing. Above all, perhaps, it’s the humanity of the man that shone through for the hour and a bit he entertained us.
Young American tenor Paul Appleby has been delighting audiences in the current COC production of Così fan tutte where he sings Ferrando. Today he got to show us what he could do as a lieder singer in a lunchtime concert in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. He started off with a stylish, if occasionally tentative, set of five Schubert songs. It was a promising start with some very stylish and controlled singing and unhistrionic acting with the voice. Hitting his stride, he gave us seven songs from Schumann’s Myrten cycle. These covered a wide range of moods from tender passion to drunken ecstasy. Again great skill and artistry and lovely accompaniment from Anne Larlee at the piano.
Up and coming Canadian bass-baritone Philippe Sly was joined last night by veteran collaborative pianist Julius Drake for a program of chansons and lieder at Walter Hall. The 490 seat hall was almost full which is rather nice to see for a song recital in Toronto. The first half was devoted to chansons by Duparc, Ropartz and Ravel. I was struck by the restraint of Sly’s singing. It was conversational and not operatic at all but very expressive. I think that takes a lot of guts in a young singer. He let the words and music do the talking and didn’t exaggerate. This was perhaps best shown in the drinking song from the Don Quichotte songs of Ravel. He was very funny but sounded like a drunk, not somebody overacting the idea of a drunk. Continue reading
Today’s lunchtime recital in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre was a recital of Schubert and Strauss songs on the theme “Love’s Dark Shore”. The performers were German bass Franz-Josef Selig, in town singing King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, and the COC’s own Rachel Andrist at the piano. There wasn’t much about “Love” in the pieces chosen but there was plenty of death, depression and despair. One might think it would be a complete downer but nobody could possibly be depressed witnessing the artistry of Selig.
Those who have heard Selig in Tristan know that he has a massive voice. It was fascinating to hear him turn it to lieder. He is a very German lieder singer in the best possible way. He enunciates with great clarity and gets full value out of the meaning of every phrase. He clearly loves the texts. He also manages his huge voice wonderfully. Mostly he sang quite quietly with beautiful legato and perfect control but when he wanted volume it was there in abundance and without strain. He also has a real range of tone colour and sheer beauty of tone. Often he sounded more like a baritone than a bass but he could get almost tectonically low when he needed to. It was very impressive. Rachel’s accompaniment was perfectly fine too though I think most of the audience was focussed on the voice.
I did hear a few grumbles about the unrelieved darkness of the material but I felt the works suited the singer and it was, as these things are, a fairly short programme so the lack of variety didn’t really bother me. All in all, a very worthwhile way to spend one’s lunch break.
The final “Les Adieux” recital, by departing members of the COC’s Ensemble Studio, of the season was a performance by baritone Adrian Kramer of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, in its entirety, with Topher Mokrzewski at the piano. It was an ambitious choice and made for a somewhat longer performance than usual.
I’ve heard Die Schöne Müllerin often enough on record but this was the first time I had heard it live, in full. It really makes one realise that not only is it a very fine piece it’s also a far from easy sing encompassing a wide range of moods. Adrian is a fine singing actor and brought out the various moods with good German diction, careful attention to the text and good range of tone colour. He sounded best in the more lyrical numbers with some very sweet singing but was maybe having to push a little in the more dramatic sections. Continue reading
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