UMS Choral Union - Jerry Blackstone

Thursday April 23 - Saint Francis of Asssisi Church Ann Arbor
This is the spring concert of the University Musical Society Choral Union. For full disclosure this is a group and performance that I am in so this review is simply a summary posted before the concert. It has been great fun preparing for this concert and I will cover each piece and my impression of them. Feel free to comment with your opinion of the concert.

Three Sacred Pieces - Mendelssohn

This set of three pieces will be conducted by Jason Harris, our assistant conductor. Each piece is a short hymn-like work. The first and last for the whole choir in 8 parts, and the second pice for women only in 4 parts.

Heilig

Veni Domine

Frohlocket, ir Volker auf Erden

Selections from All Night Vigil - Rachmaninoff

This is when the heart of the concert starts. These selections will run about 40 minutes and they will make up the bulk of the first half. The choir sings a cappella in church Slovonic. Think of this as the Russian version of litergical Latin. These works are thick with wonderful chords.

1 - Priidite, poklonimsia

2 - Blagoslovi, dushe moya, Ghospoda

Karla Manson, alto

3 - Blazhen muzh

5 - Nine otpushchayeshi

Adrian Leskiw, tenor

6 - Bogoroditse Devo

13 - Torpar “Dnes spaseniye”

14 - Tropar “Voskres iz groba”

15 - Vzbrannoy voyevode

The soloist come from within the group. Look forward to number 6 "Bogoroditse Devo" it's my favorite. Listen for the Alto part about 2/3 of the way through. This is some of the best choral music ever written, in my humble opinion.

Intermission

The Passing of the Year - Johnathan Dove (b. 1959)

The soloists again come from within the group. This is a really great work with piano and percussion with choir. It is a modern work that originally was hard to understand, but it is certainly moving and interesting once spending some time with it.

Listen for the interplay of rhythmic pattern, in the first work "Invocation" you should listen for triplet quarters, eighths, and triplet eights all at the same time. This creates a thick set of rhythms not unlike a marching band drum line.

In "Ah, Sun-flower!" is made of some beautiful melodies passed around the sections in a fugue. These passages are really great and listen to the words, this section is great at evoking an emotion.

Lastly "Ring out, live bells" reminds me of the holidays. Again great rhythmic intensity, this time we hear double choirs singing one after the other. The ending calls for a thousand years of peace and it is quite special.

1. Invocation

2. The narrow bud opens her beauties to the sun

Linda Hagopian, alto

Kelly Ritter, soprano

Michael Peterson, baritone

3. Answer July

4. Hot sun, cool fire

5. Ah, Sun-flower!

6. Adieu! Farewell earth’s bliss!

7. Ring out, wild bells

O fortuna, from Carmina Burana - Carl Orff (1895-1982)

This is a greatest hits of classical, and it will be done with piano and percussion. A loud a raucous end to what should be a great show.

New York Philharmonic - Lorin Maazel

Saturday March 7 - Hill Auditorium 

The New York Philharmonic is an extremely talented set of musicians, and it was certainly a joy to hear such a large group of people who can act in such a cohesive way to deliver emotion.  This concert series was part of the final 10 city tour featuring Lorin Maazel as director.  He will be retiring from this post later this year.  Other cities include Atlanta, West Palm Beach, Naples, Sarasota, Miami, San Juan, Chapel Hill, Danville, and Chicago.  Saturday's concert was a set of especially approachable numbers and "Pictures" is one of my favorite works.

Mendelssohn - Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream

This is a great piece opens with a passage depicting Puck and his faeries.  It is entirely performed by the violins  and Maestro Maazel's tempo was brisk and that musical moment is both demanding and complex.  That said, this opening volley was the first and only disappointment of the night.  The upper strings were not all in-line with their sixteenth notes on their first pass.  Noted improvement came in the second and third capitulation.  

Toward the middle of this work there is a wonderful "hee-haw" theme depicting the actor turned to Donkey in the play.  The orchestra had certainly settled into the hall and into the work.  I was especially amazed with the sound of the double basses.  Pizzacato moments sounded as one large instrument.  There are also so many many reasons that strings can buzz but to hear a section full of 8 skilled players without a single buzz is truly a rare thing, and a superb joy.  

Shumann - Symphony No. 4 in d minor, Op. 120

This was performed with the four movements attacca (without pause between).  The work is a great one and this really shows the artistry of the performers.

Intermission

Mussorgsky Arr. Ravel - Pictures at an Exhibition

Mussorgsky wrote a piece for solo piano that depicts a viewer in an art gallery traveling from work to work.   Each movement is a new work of art, and the interstitial movements describe the lumbering viewer going between the art.  The work was not well known when written in 1874, as a piano solo work by Mussorgsky.  Later the piano piece was found by Ravel who decides to orchestrate it first performed in 1922.  This is the most famous re-working of music that I know of.  Ravel's vision of the music fully realized into full orchestra in my mind transcends the original work.

I was amazed by the speed at which some of the most difficult wind passages were taken by Maazel.  His oboes, and flutes were able to keep up and the outcome was better then any recording of the work I had heard.  I was able to keep the track of the longer rythmic sections instead of hearing the individual notes within a given flourish.  Brilliant indeed.  I had have heard the work many times and this approach was new and wonderful.

The Old Castle (2nd movement) features the alto saxaphone, which never really catches on as an orchestral instrument.  In this concert the tone produced was impressive, clear and consistent.  Certainly nothing forward or biting yet still a true sax sound.  

The brass certainly get their moment in the sun in the Catacombs (12th movement) and were the New York Philharmonic brass prepared.  A great testament to the excellence of the horns, and I am a personal fan of the trombone and tuba parts within this movement.  

During the Great Gate of Kiev (the last movement) the entire orchestra was clearly on one page with Maazel.  His emotion came through the triplet violin moments, the lower brass foundation and all were prepared for glory.  By this part of the piece it is clear that Mussorgsky is Russian and this is a royal Russian procession.  I can't help but to see fur hats, and marching Russians.  What a wonderful evening of music.

For more information on this work see this excellent summary.

Encore #1 - Unknown

I wish I knew what was played, but it was fast and grand.

Dvorak - New World Symphony Movement 4 (Encore #2)

It sure was fun to hear this group play this well known movement.  Excellently executed, and leaving us all wishing for more.

 

Lawrence Brownlee & Martin Katz

Saturday February 7 - Hill Auditorium

Lawrence Brownlee is an up and coming Bel Canto tenor. It is arguable that he is soon to be big, or possibly he is already big.

His concert had featured, him singing tenor accompanied by local professor and accompanist of world renown Martin Katz. The program was separated into 2 halves each further divided into 3 sections. The Ann Arbor audience was also asked to NOT clap mid-section and to turn the pages of the insert with English words quietly. I will say on the whole the audience was well prepared for the show, and pleasant so on to the heart of the matter.

I also must add that with the stage mostly empty, UMS again presented a "vase of flowers" that was approximately 6 feet wide and 8 feet tall stage left. Although it looked appropriate, I would like to add that flowers of that size might very well look out of place in almost every other setting. Well done UMS, but at some point I think concerts are destined to become less formal events. Our two performers were dressed in white ties and tails, the audience was largely over 60 dressed in their Sunday suits.

I - Mozart - Misero, o sogno o son desto?, K. 431
This was Lawrence's warm-up which allowed him to show a little of what was to come. As he said in the master class singing Mozart is hard. It was clear that he was good and comfortable with this piece. His voice sang Italian masterfully and it is clear that he is fluent (or nearly so) in this language. The cadenza was most spectacular.

II - Duparc, Henri - Chason triste
This was the best part (and longest) of the first half. These songs (chasons) are a true gem. I had never heard of them or Duparc before this concert but they were great. Although Mr. Brownlee was not as adept as singing in French as he is in Italian, the beauty of the line of these straightforward pieces was clear. He has an ability to connect to his audience.

III - Rossini - L'Italiana in Algeri
It was clear that this was programmed to impress. Well done Mr. Brownlee, this clearly achieved that goal. This was by far some of the single greatest singing I had heard.

Intermission

IV - Liszt - 3 Sonnetti di PetrarcaThis song set by Liszt performed in Italian, had some wonderful moments of clarity and elegance. His approach to this music was refreshing, as it appears that during the entire concert he was able to sing most of this as if it were written for him. He had a true sense of ownership, of the task at hand.

V - Donizetti - Ah, mes amis, quel jour de fete!
This was a military march that ended with a bit of barn-burner antics best left to the opera stage. Although expertly sung, this was a case when the translation of Opera to recital loses impact. I would have loved to hear this piece with full orchestra and with Mr. Brownlee in costume. Well maybe next time.

VI - Carter, John - Cantata
This was a new piece to me and a very interesting one. Some part African spiritual, some part modern classical. The intervals within the common melodies were unexpected. I was a particular fan of "Sometime I Feel Like a Motherless Child" which was stunning, and moving while being completely new and unexpected all at the same time. Not sure how he found these, but I would love to hear this interpreted by say Meassa Brueggergosman too. I think Brownlee and Katz got it right here, but there would be several approaches possible.

I should say that Katz's tempos and emphasis were crisp and refreshing. I am always humbled by a pianist that can bring out individual lines with as seemingly little effort as he did.

Lawrence Brownlee Master Class

Friday February 6 - UM School of Music

So I knew I was in town for the weekend, so I decided to take the day off of work.  I went to this master class.  A master class is a working lesson that is observed by an audience.  There were 4 UM vocal students who sang in front of us all and then Lawrence would tell them how to improve their piece.  It was all very interesting.

The line-up was tenor, soprano, counter-tenor, and soprano.

I will speak only to the counter-tenor Vince Yi since my mother always told me that if you can't say something nice don't say anything....  Vince's voice was one of the few that truly gives me chills.  He was accompanied by his boyfriend Matthew Thompson (what a cute couple they make too.) 

 

His voice was stunning.  Floating to what seemed startospheric heights without a care in the world.  Best of luck to Vince and make sure to seem him in a few weeks for his Concerto concert when he sings Handel's "Svegliatevi nei core" from Giulio Cesare.  I'm guessing here that that would be  an aria from a opera based on Julius Caesar.

As to the rest of the master class and Mr. Brownlee.  There was no reason for him to continually be apologetic about correcting the students singing.  After all that is why we were here.  

And one last note, there was an accompanist, and one of the two women singers that was a good foot taller then Mr. Brownlee.  He looked at them with a shocking, "You grow them big here don't you" chuckle on his face.  Next time it might be better to schedule him with some of Michigan's more average sized women.