Last weekend I attended a Schwabacher Debut Recital program featuring 4 Adler Fellows. There was lovely singing throughout. Each performer presented a set of songs by a different composer. Short ensemble numbers for all 4 separated each set. Steven Blier was the accompanist & host, providing amusingly pithy commentary. He referred to the 1st set of Villa-Lobos songs as "art song in a string bikini." Soprano Maria Valdez sang them with a liquid, space-filling voice & displayed impressive dynamic control. Mezzo Zanda Švēde has a stunningly rich & substantial contralto-like sound, & she gave her set of Grieg songs in German an appropriately deep & dark texture.Tenor A.J. Glueckert sang a set of Frank Bridge songs that ranged from the cheerful & floaty to the psychologically spacey, & his voice was consistently clear, ringing & fluid. Baritone Hadleigh Adams did a terrific job selling the hipster melancholy, nostalgia & regret of songs by New York composer Gabriel Kahane, whom Mr. Blier described as "the love child of Schumann, Faure & Stevie Wonder." Mr. Hadleigh sang with a neat, even & natural sound that was easy to listen to. He also acted the song's emotions with discreet & unaffected gestures.
The interstitial ensemble numbers were lighter in mood & acted as palate-cleansers, though the Smokey Robinson selection felt out of place. The singers seemed careful about balancing their voices. In their encore from Candide, they all sang out more, revealing just how much they had been holding back during the recital.
Mr. Blier has a muscular condition that restricts the use of his upper arms, & occasional allowances must be made, but his musical intentions are always definitively clear. After the audience applauded during the 1st set of songs, he asked for "vociferous applause" only at the black lines in the printed program. The concert was absorbing, & the audience gave extended applause for each singer's set, though there seemed to be a policy that performers not take a 2nd solo bow.
§ 2014 Schwabacher Debut Recitals
Presented by San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program
New York Festival of Song
In the Memory Palace
Steven Blier, piano
Maria Valdes, soprano
Zanda Švēde, mezzo-soprano
A.J. Glueckert, tenor
Hadleigh Adams, baritone
HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS (1887 - 1959)
Cançao da folha morta
The Ensemble
From Floresta do Amazonas
Canção de amor
Cair da tarde
Melodia sentimental
Maria Valdes
WILHELM STENHAMMAR (1871 - 1927)
I seraillets have
The Ensemble
EDVARD GRIEG (1843 - 1907)
From 6 Songs, Opus 48
Lauf der Welt
Die verschwiegene Nachtigall
Zur Rosenzeit
Ein Traum
Zanda Švēde
WILLIAM STERNDALE BENNETT (1816 - 1875)
Come live with me
The Ensemble
FRANK BRIDGE (1879 - 1941)
Go Not, Happy Day
Goldenhair
When You Are Old and Grey
Dweller in my Deathless Dreams
A. J. Glueckert
STEPHEN SONDHEIM (b. 1930)
Two Fairy Tales
The Ensemble
GABRIEL KAHANE (b. 1981)
The Memory Palace
Underberg
7 Middagh
Merritt Parkway
North Adams
Rochester
Hadleigh Adams
SMOKEY ROBINSON (b. 1940)
You've Really Got a Hold On Me
The Ensemble
Encore: Quartet from Leonard Berstein's Candide
Sunday, March 30, 5:30 p.m.
Temple Emanu-El’s Martin Meyer Sanctuary
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