Hannigan does Weill

Barbara Hannigan sings Youkali of Kurt Weill with the pianist Alexandre Tharaud. Song recorded for Radio France.  I don't think I knew he wrote songs in French.  We don't want to go too long without some Weill.

Dawn Upshaw in Sacramento

Dawn Upshaw came to Sacramento for a recital at CSUS as part of the New Millennium concert series.  Her accompanist was Gilbert Kalish.  I last saw her in San Francisco in 2010.  After a rather spectacular career, this lyric soprano seems more like the single mom she is.  Die Zeit, sie ist ein sonderbar Ding.

The theme of the recital was love.

She performed two groups by female composers.  The first was "On Loving," three songs by Sheila Silver.  These songs can be found on YouTube.  I believe these songs were composed in memory of Gilbert Kalish's wife.

The second group by a female composer was four songs by Rebecca Clarke who mostly composed for her instrument, the viola.  From this group I most enjoyed "Infant Joy."  It also can be found on YouTube.

The rest of the program was wide ranging and began with familiar songs by Franz Schubert.  "Gretchen am Spinnrade" was my favorite.  I do also love "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt."

Mr Kalish played a movement from Charles Ives' Piano Sonata No.2, which was followed by three of Ives' songs.

My favorite group of the concert was five songs by Béla Bartók.  In school one is taught that Bartók was an ethnomusicologist.  This means he went around his native Hungary with a recorder taping every song he heard.  There are supposed to be hundreds of these, but this is the first time I have heard them on a concert.  They were fascinating.

The program ended with three songs by William Bolcom.  There are also YouTube films of these.

There was an encore:  Ives' "Two little flowers", a song I love madly which I must surely have sung at one time or another.

Curiously, Gilbert Kalish can be found accompanying many of these songs on YouTube.

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Highlights of the career of Dawn Upshaw as seen from this blog.

• DVD of L'Amour de Loin by Kaija Saariaho.  This is the one you want. 

• DVD of Handel's Theodora. This is the famous staging by Peter Sellars.

• DVD of John Adams El Niño. 

• CDs of works by Oswaldo Golijov including Ayre, 2005,  and Oceana.

• A live performance of Ayre in Berkeley.  This did not seem possible since so much of it is electronic.

• Her recording of Henryk Górecki's Symphony 3 "Sorrowful Songs", 1992, which has sold over a million copies.  

Das Lied von der Erde

Anyone would want to sing "Der Abschied."  I used to play it in piano reduction even with my pathetic keyboard skills just for the joy of making this music.  It's one of the great things.  So it isn't hard to understand why Jonas Kaufmann would want to.  Perhaps he reads the idiotic comments where people tell him he's a baritone.  He isn't.

So this is sort of a stunt recording of Mahler's Synphony Das Lied von der Erde (1909).  It is important to remember that the expected voicing is tenor and alto.  I like Janet Baker.

Don't get the wrong idea.  I love Jonas Kaufmann, but I think it is the operatic dramatic tenor Jonas Kaufmann that I most love.  Here we have Jonas in his two most prominent incarnations:  Verdi tenor and pop song crooner.  Alternating.  His renditions of the tenor movements are great.  His renditions of the alto movements aren't.  He isn't a baritone because he doesn't achieve any intensity in the baritone tessitura, and he can't really do the low notes.  Sorry.  It's pleasant but not thrilling.

Die liebe Erde allüberall blüht auf im Lenz und grünt Aufs neu!
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All Who Wander

Jamie Barton won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2013, including the Song Prize.  Then in 2015 she won the Richard Tucker Prize.  This cannot help but arouse ones curiosity.  So I bought her recording.

Mahler: [sung in German]

Rückert Lieder:
No. 1. Ich atmet' einen linden Duft
No. 2. Liebst du um Schönheit
No. 3. Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder
No. 4. Um Mitternacht
No. 5. Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit, Book 2: No. 2. Ich ging mit Lust
Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit, Book 1: No. 2. Erinnerung
Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit, Book 3: No. 3. Scheiden und Meiden

Dvořák:  [sung in Czech]

Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, B. 104:
No. 1. Má píseň zas mi láskou zní
No. 2. Aj! Kterak trojhranec můj přerozkošně zvoní
No. 3. A les je tichý kolem kol
No. 4. Když mne stará matka zpívat, zpívat učívala
No. 5. Struna naladěna
No. 6. Široké rukávy a široké gatě
No. 7. Dejte klec jestřábu ze zlata ryzého

Sibelius:  [sung in Finnish]

Svarta rosor (Black Roses)
Säv, säv, susa (Reed, Reed, Rustle)
Flickan kom ifran sin alsklings mote (The girl returned from meeting her lover)
Kyssens hopp (Kiss's Hope)
Marssnon (The March Snow)
Var det en dröm? (Was it a dream?)

I suppose I enjoyed the Mahler most because I speak German and her diction is excellent.  And the Rückert Lieder are the most famous pieces on the album.  Some of the Dvořák also sounded familiar, but the Sibelius did not.

Why would you want this?  Because Jamie has one of the most beautiful dark mezzo voices I have ever heard, because she sings every song with great intelligence.  Every note is just as you would want it to be.  If you are charmed by beauty, listen to this.

Could we have more Mahler, please?
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Michael Fabiano at Mondavi

I went out in the pouring rain to see Michael Fabiano at Mondavi in Davis. His accompanist was Laurent Philippe.  He said they'd been working together 12 years.  We were seated at small tables on the stage.  This is an enjoyable intimate arrangement.

I have seen Michael live at the San Francisco Opera in Lucrezia Borgia, Luisa Miller, and Don Carlo.  In 2014 I predicted he would win the Richard Tucker Prize, and he did.  That was fun.  Next season in SF he will sing in Manon opposite Nadine Sierra, and at the Met next season he will simulcast in La Boheme.

I got the impression that Michael very much loves his chosen repertoire for this recital.

Four songs by Puccini (Italian)

Four songs by Duparc (French)
    Duparc is not performed nearly enough.  These were virtually theatrical performances.

An aria: "Ne pouvant reprimer les elans" from Hérodiade by Massenet. (French)

Five songs by Toscanini (Italian)
    Who knew Toscanini composed?

"Kuda, Kuda, kuda" Lensky's aria from Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky (Russian)
     This is very timely since it is currently playing at the Met.

Three songs by Barber, including "I hear an army" for a rousing finish.  (English)

He is a serious artist and does not hesitate to use his operatic voice in song repertoire when suitable.  It was very much worth the trip.  There were two encores:

Duparc's "La vie anterieure" (French)
'Lamento di Federico' from Cilea's L'arlesiana (Italian)

 

La Voix humaine

Anna Caterina Antonacci and her accompanist Donald Sulzen presented a program of French vocal music at the Taube Atrium Theater in the Veterans Building.  The first half of the program was a selection of French songs done in the traditional recital way with the addition of projected translations:

BERLIOZ: La mort d’Ophélie, Op. 18, No. 2
    This is familiar to me from Cecilia Bartoli's recording.

DEBUSSY: Chansons de Bilitis (a group of 3 songs)

POULENC: La fraîcheur et le feu  (a group of seven songs)

These were all pleasing if not very exciting.  I think I liked best the Debussy.

After the intermission they performed the POULENC: La Voix humaine.   I would describe it as fully staged.  We can tell from the projection shown above that we are in Paris.

This opera is based on a play by Jean Cocteau.  The liner notes say that Ms Antonacci based her interpretation on a film starring Ingrid Bergman. This woman is complicated and desperate.  She begins with lies, pretends to have been away visiting a friend.  Then she admits that she has been to the hospital after attempting suicide.  The only thing hard to grasp is why he is calling her.

He is lying too, pretending to be at home when he is out at a club, probably with his new girl friend.  Anna Catarina is a wonderful singing actress.  Grazie mille. This was a marvelous tour de force.

Schubert from Wigmore

Mary Bevan soprano
Tara Erraught mezzo-soprano
Allan Clayton tenor
Henk Neven baritone
James Baillieu piano

I apologize for leaving out the pianist and string quartet.  You can go on to medici.tv and view them for yourself.  The Wigmore Hall series seems to be free.

I sang a bit of Schubert and don't think I was so sedate as these singers.  Let's just say I overdid everything.  Schubert is the most likely to make me miss the life of music.

I don't think I've heard "Die junge Nonne" since I sang it at 19.  Tara does a lovely job.  It helps if you understand the words.

Philippe Jaroussky in Berkeley

Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor, and Jérôme Ducros, piano, appeared May 12 for Cal Performances in Berkeley with a program of songs by Fauré, Debussy, Hahn, Poldowski, Bordes, Séverac, Chauson, Honegger, Saint-Saëns, and Chabrier, all in settings of poems by Paul-Marie Verlaine (1844 – 1896).  I don't recall anything like this.  This is a very high bar to set for oneself.

This type of song is called a mélodie, and is considered to have started with Les nuits d'été  by Hector Berlioz.  It's considered the French equivalent to the German Lied.  In a Lied the piano is sharp and angular, while in a mélodie we hear much more legato and almost impressionist playing.  Enough history.

The program was performed virtually without applause.  To elicit applause he would sing something more flamboyant and throw up his arms.  At the end it was a setting of "Chanson d'automne" by Charles Trenet, the composer closest to modern times whose song sound much like a modern pop song.  The rest of the time they immediately went on virtually without pause to the next song.  Short piano solos were interspersed while Jaroussky sneaked off to the wings.

The same poems appeared repeatedly with different composers:  "Green," "Clair de lune," "En sourdine," "Mandoline," etc.  It was deeply satisfying, a marvelous exploration of a style of music heard here almost only on recording.  It suited the sound of his voice.  Yes, we were surprised how much we liked it

The last encore was the most famous setting of one of these texts:  "L'heure exquise" by Reynaldo Hahn.

Lieder in Berlin

I went to hear a recital with Heidi Stober at the Deutsche Oper because she and Simon Pauly were performing Lieder by Mahler, Pfitzner, and Wolf, all composers that I enjoy very much.  They know when to clap here.

Someone named Monika Rinck spoke similar but not exactly the same texts between them.  This I have never seen before. They called it Lieder und Dichter.

I have seen Heidi many times in San Francisco and three times in Santa Fe.

I had a fine dinner before at the restaurant at the opera.  I was here at this opera once before in the 70s to see Janis Martin who is not completely forgotten.

Verbier

I just caught on medici.tv Joyce DiDonato with Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.  They performed the Berlioz Les Nuit d'ete.   There was a sense of personal originality in Joyce's interpretation that I liked very much.  Vous le vous allez au pay des amours?

Philippe Sly at Mondavi

Philippe Sly, bass-baritone, and John Charles Britton, guitar, treated us to an all-Schubert program on the side stage at Mondavi Center.  I have been in this space before when I saw Monteverdi in 2013, but since that time it has been arranged as a cabaret with small tables.  We were allowed to bring in food and drink (I highly recommend the macaroons).  I have already seen Philippe in The Secret Garden, Cosi fan Tutte, and Partenope at the San Francisco Opera, where I will soon see him as Figaro in Figaro.  He is currently an Adler Fellow and is being given some big assignments.  I selected him for sexiest in Partenope.

There were a few odd things about this performance:  there were no programs, so I will have to rely on memory, and they were miked.  They commented after the performance that the mikes were a surprise.  The miking was discrete, although it changes the timbre of the guitar more than the singer.  There were 2 screens:  English words were projected on one side and paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, a contemporary of Schubert, on the other.

The guitar arrangements were by the guitarist.  In one spot Philippe reached over and keyed one of the guitar strings because John couldn't reach it.  Cute.  The use of guitar accompaniment was a big influence on the selection of repertoire.  We agreed that melodramatic Schubert wouldn't really work with guitar.

Du bist die Ruh
Du liebst mich nicht
An die Musik
Auf dem Wasser zu singen
Der Lindenbaum
Der Leiermann

That's it.  I can't remember anything else.  There were 2 songs from Scheone Muellerin and 2 more from Winterreise.


The intimacy of the space and the gentleness of the guitar/bass-baritone combination created a sweetness that was very pleasing.

There was an encore by Ravel.  M. Sly is French Canadian.  I predict big things for Philippe.

Chat Noir

I recently attended a recital with Carrie Hennessey and John Cozza at the Crocker Art Museum celebrating a current exhibit about Toulouse-Lautrec.   The song selections were marvelous:  Satie, Poulenc, Schoenberg and Gustave Charpentier.  All had something to do with night club singing.  The Charpentier was the aria from Louise.

The Schoenberg group included a song "Arie aus dem Spiegel" on a text by Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist for the Magic Flute.  Carrie thought it sounded like something Papageno would sing.  It is necessary at this point to remember that Schikaneder was the original Papageno and not just the librettist of Magic Flute.

Brian Jagde at Mondavi

Brian Jagde claimed that last night at Mondavi Center was his first full recital as a tenor.  I have to say he started at the top.  What exactly does that mean?  Did he used to be a baritone?

It was announced that he was somewhat under the weather, something that seemed only a small problem in the slower, softer selections.  He wanted to sing anyway.  He called the selections "deep."  I thought that perhaps he had chosen repertoire that he truly loved.  I always advise this.  Love the music you are singing and sing it with all the love you have.

The first group was a set of German Lieder, one each by Schubert (the famous serenade), Schumann (Stille Traenen), Brahms (Mainacht), Wolf and Mahler (Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen).  I love all these songs, and he was not afraid to allow his voice to soar to almost operatic proportions.  Perhaps he's been listening to a certain German who does not hesitate to do this.

Next he performed the Holy Sonnets of John Donne by Benjamin Britten.  These are true sonnets on deeply religious subjects, rare in the world of great poetry and even rarer in the world of classical recitals.  Brian brought the required serious intensity to these wonderful songs which were completely unfamiliar to me.

Next he did 5 songs of Rachmaninov and ended with 4 songs by Richard Strauss, Traum durch die Daemmerung, Breit Ueber mein Haupt, Allerseelen (a personal favorite) and Zueignung (another favorite).  He sang big and was most successful when he did so.

His accompanist Craig Terry laid his music down on the piano instead of using the stand, creating the impression that he wasn't using music.  He seemed to be having a lot of fun and enjoying how much the audience was loving it.

The first encore was dedicated to Barbara Jackson who sat up high near the stage.  The hall is named after her.  He sang for her "Recondit armonia" from Tosca, and it was glorious.  This is what he really sings, of course.

The second encore was "Be my love."  Let's just say I think you need actually to be Mario Lanza.  It was a bit anticlimactic.

This was the most fun I've had at a recital in a long time.  Bravo.  Sing what you love.

Out and About in Sacramento

Things I have been to lately:

January 11, Figarden Trio at Congregation B'nai Israel

This trio consists of Nancy Wallace, flute, Larry Gardner, bassoon, and Laura Porter, harp, and they come from the lower end of the San Juaquin Valley.  The pieces they played were often arranged from pieces designed for other ensembles.  The most common rearrangement was for the harp to be reading from a piano score.

It's a pleasing grouping.  My favorite piece was called Stylistic Variations on a Familiar Tune by Arthur Frackenpohl, a still living composer.  This is unusual chiefly because it does not begin with a playing of the theme.  You are required to guess, and I am pleased to say I did.  I'm not sure if I should tell.

Efrain as Dandini is on the left

January 17, CSUS NATS recital by Efrain Solis, baritone, and John Churchwell, piano.

I had seen Efrain Solis, baritone, three times before in San Francisco.  In my first encounter he sang Rita's first husband in Donizetti's Rita.  Second was his appearance as a member of the ensemble who performed Glass's Hydrogen Jukebox for West Edge.  He is a 2014 and 2015 Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera where I saw him recently as a very comical, slapstick Dandini in Rossini's La Cenerentola.  He may be regarded as an excellent comic baritone.  Buffo?

His work at the San Francisco Opera has resulted in an excellent preparation for this recital where he sang Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte, Three songs by Samuel Barber, three songs by Faure, two songs by Rachmaninov and a Hispanic group at the end.

I thought he navigated this wide stylistic variety very well.  As is usually the case, he came more to life in the three Hispanic songs in the last group.  Singers generally shine brightest when they finally arrive home.  I enjoyed him very much.

February 6, Smithsonian Chamber Players, first in the CSUS New Millennium Concert Series.

There were a lot of new experiences for me in this concert.  The pianist, Kenneth Slowik, played on a fortepiano, something I may have seen before but have certainly not heard played live.  It's small and has no pedals.  It's also very, very soft.  This was not a problem when he played with the violinist, Ian Swensen, and cellist, Elisabeth Reed, who played softly in the manner of modern day original instruments groups.  They restring their instruments when playing in original instrument ensembles, I'm told. 

It was a problem when he accompanied Christine Brandes, soprano, in a performance of Haydn's Arianna a Naxos.  She appears also in major opera houses and sings loud like a normal opera singer.  She often drowned him out.  She is very expressive and speaks clearly.  No matter how much he banged he never got very loud.

Another new experience for me was the absence of a peg on the cello.  I was informed that pegs only appeared on cellos in the middle of the 19th century.  Instead she held the cello off the floor with her legs.  She didn't seem to mind.

Another new experience for me was the violinist, Ian Swensen, quizzing some members of the audience about whether or not they were keeping up with their practice schedules.  He used to teach here.

Three of the pieces performed were by Haydn and the fourth was by Schubert.  Very pleasing.


So there is quite a lot going on around town, but it can be hard to find out about.

Joyce at Carnegie Hall

This concert has a theme and it is Venice.  It is a theme that works well.

Antonio Vivaldi

   Ercole su'l Termodonte

• "Onde chiare che sussurrate"
• "Amato ben"

Gabriel Fauré 
   Cinq mélodies "de Venise", Op. 58

• 1. Mandoline 
• 2. En sourdine 
• 3. Green 
• 4. À Clymène 
• 5. C'est l'extase

Gioachino Rossini
    La regata veneziana

• 1. Anzoleta avanti la regata 
• 2. Anzoleta co passa la regata 
• 3. Anzoleta dopo la regata

Gioachino Rossini
   Otello ossia il Moro di Venezia

• III: "Assisa a piè d'un salice" - " Che dissi!" 

Michael Head
  Three Songs of Venice

• 1. The Gondolier 
• 2. St Mark's Square 
• 3. Rain storm

Reynaldo Hahn
  Venezia

• 1. Sopra l'acqua indormenzada 
• 2. La Barcheta 
• 3. L'avertimento 
• 5. Che peca! 
• 6. La Primavera 

Carnegie Hall chose Joyce DiDonato's recital with David Zobel as their first ever stream.  It's simply exquisite.  Believe it or not, almost all of this music is on my iPod, even the Vivaldi.

Joyce is moving to the very top of the heap.  Recently she sang for game 7 of the world series.  My favorite part of this event was when toward the end she extemporized a small ornament and the crowd roared.  It was an acknowledgment of who she really is.  It made me want to hear the ornamented version.

For me her gifts as an interpreter are at their peak.  This is a very well programmed and sung recital.  If you don't know La regata veneziana, it is sung by Momolo's girlfriend.  Momolo is a gondolier, and he wins the regata.

Writing this blog is for my soul, to teach me once again after years of abandonment that music is my first and always greatest love.  I love the big emotions of opera, but my deepest love is for songs.

Dear Carnegie Hall:  Good choice.

Dear Joyce:  Be always yourself.  You will have figured this out already.

2 encores
Canzonetta Spagnuola Rossini
No ti scordar di me De Curtis

Italy After Puccini

Or Post-Puccini:  Modern Italian Vocal Music.  I receive email announcements from UC Davis of musical performances, and this time it included an announcement for this recital with Stacey Mastrian, soprano, and Scott Crowne, piano.

From Deità silvane (Woodland Deities, texts by Antonio Rubino) (1925) Ottorino Respighi
   Musica in horto
   Egle
   Acqua
   Crepuscolo

From Quattro Favole Romanesche di Trilusso, Op. 38 (1923)  [in Roman dialect] Alfredo Casella
   Er gatto e er cane
   L'elezzione der presidente

From Sette favole e allegorie (1945)  Roberto Lupi
   L'ostrica il ratto e la gatta
   Allegrezza
   Castita
   La formica e il chicco di grano

Liriche su Verlaine (1946-47) [in French]   Bruno Maderna
   Aquarelies
   Serenade
   Sagesse

Sequenza III per voce femminile (1966)  Luciano Berio

Needless to say I have never heard any of these pieces before.  That's why I went.  The artists assured me that they could do another complete recital on this same subject with no duplication.

I especially liked the Maderna group which reminded me of Poulenc.

The Berio is in experimental style.  The only accompaniment was a tuning fork which she applied to her temple to find the correct pitch.  There was whispering, arpeggios, screams, laughter, things uttered through her hand, etc.  We all crowded up after to look at the score which looked very strange indeed.  I always ask to see the score, such as Tan Dun's Tea, but this is the first time I have succeeded.

I'm ready for just about anything.  The parking costs money but the recital was free.

Luca Pisaroni Recital

Luca Pisaroni sang last night in Nourse Theater in San Francisco.  This was my first time in this theater since it became a performance space and not a rehearsal venue for the San Francisco Opera.  I kept imagining the director's table in the middle.  The theater began its life as part of a high school which was later deemed too expensive to earthquake proof.  It's sort of pseudo Ali Baba or Scheherazade. 

I am a fan of Luca, loved him in Cosi in Salzburg, The Enchanted Island, Maometto II in Santa Fe and as Leporello in Don Giovanni. 

I love you, Luca, but you didn't seem happy at all.  You came to life a little after the intermission when you sang Liszt, but you didn't feel comfortable with what you were doing.

I'm going to let you in on a secret:  nowadays singers are performing what they love, as long as it's within the vast catalog that is classical music.  At long last.  So don't let someone else pick what you are going to sing.

My favorite part of the program was the encore: "O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst" which sounded familiar.  And it was.  It's Liszt's Liebestraum, better known as a piece for piano.  Love as long as you can.  I took this personally.  

After hearing him in Mozart, Cavalli and Rossini, I guess I was unprepared for a program by German composers (Beethoven, Brahms, Reichart) plus the Hungarian in his most German mode.  There wasn't exactly anything wrong with it, the pianist Wolfram Rieger was wonderful, but Luca didn't quite come to life.

Winterreise

👍🏻
For me opera came last. There was Bach first. And then came Lieder. "Die Blumen sind verstorben." I am perhaps too depressed for this. It is so intense. Afterward one should go out into the cold and cry. "Wo find ich gruenes Grass?"  We have finally had some days of rain so at least the grass is green here.  In California it's green in winter and brown in summer.

We have come to the one I know. "Am Brunnen vor dem Tore da steht ein Lindenbaum."  I see the gate and the tree.

The idea of an art song came from Schubert. The idea is that the piano and the singer are one, that the song exists exactly as it is, that you, pianist and singer, must make it yours without altering even the smallest thing. 

Before that there was tune and figured bass. Modern song making is much like that. Take this broad outline, these words and outline of chords and make of them your own song. It rises and falls with you and your imagination. But with Schubert you have only your heart to make it music.

And Winterreise is the peak.  We see the gray landscape he has painted and feel the emptiness of loss.

This is how German is supposed to sound.  Think how easy it is to understand. The Lieder music is perhaps the closest to my own soul, touches my musical heart in its deepest place.  It's as though to actually know Jonas Kaufmann would make it too personal.  It is already too personal.

He is the singing artist of today and is at his peak now.  We believe when he sings them the most bizarre things.  Puccini even.  But here he is at home in his own land, his own language, his own music. 

He is singing about a crow that is following him.  It's very creepy.  I haven't seen very much written about this, so I will have to make up my own mind.  I often reject Lieder recitals because it is not as I would have sung them.  I only wish I could have made anything this perfect.

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Leah Crocetto at Mondavi

Leah Crocetto with her accompanist Mark Markham appeared at Mondavi Center in Davis last night.  She sang:

"All the things you are" by Jerome Kern
"Rejoice greatly" from Handel's Messiah

Three songs by Samuel Barber
"Sleep now, oh sleep now," "Sure on this shining night," and "Nocturne"

Three songs by Richard Strauss
"Die Nacht," "Morgen" and "Cäcilie."  I apologize for having a coughing fit in the middle of this group.  I got out as fast as I could.  My cough drops didn't work.

Marietta's Lied from Korngold's Die tote Stadt.  This piece is becoming common for me.

Intermission.

Eternal Recurrence by Gregory Peebles.  This is a piece written for Leah.

Three songs by Fernando Obradors
"Con amores la mi madre," Del cabello mas sutil," and "Ciquitita la novia."

Encores
"Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" by Jerome Kern
"Have yourself a merry little Christmas" from Meet me in St. Louis.

Leah has a voice of operatic proportions, and she chose pieces which suited both her voice and her musical loves.  The music included classic American pop songs, including one done expertly in dialect.  I'm seeing a lot of Obradors lately.

The new cycle by Gregory Peebles would have been helped by printed text.  We couldn't tell when the songs ended.  I would describe the style of this group as post modern.

She sang what she loves, and we loved it too.

here/after

There is a new album of songs by Jake Heggie called here/after.  It's on Amazon and perhaps elsewhere, but not iTunes.  So if you import it into you iTunes from disk, it will be blank.

It includes the wonderful Camille Claudel song cycle with Joyce DiDonato and the Alexander Quartet I reported on here.  I still like it as much as before, but there are no pictures of her sculptures here.

Another outstanding cycle on the recording is Friendly Persuasion; Homage to Poulenc with Stephen Costello.

Heggie's music is very seductive.
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