On Wednesday afternoon I went to Alice Tully Hall to hear the last Wednesdays at One performance of the year. The roughly fifty-minute recital featured five Juilliard vocalists accompanied by pianists from the school's Collaborative Piano Departement singing works by a variety of composers. The full program was as follows:
- Jacques Ibert - "Chanson du départ," "Chanson à Dulcinée," "Chanson du Duc," and "Chanson de la mort," all from Chansons de Don Quichotte // William Socolof, bass-baritone, Adam Rothenberg, piano
- Ivor Gurney - "Sleep," No. 4, from Five Elizabethan Songs; Michael Head - "The Ships of Arcady," No. 1 from Over the Rim of the Moon; Frank Bridge - Love Went A-Riding," H. 114 // Katerina Burton, soprano, Cameron Richardson-Eames, piano
- Edvard Grieg - "Lauf der Welt," Op. 48, No. 3, "Zur Rosenzeit," Op. 48, No. 5, "Spielmannslied" // Äneas Humm, baritone, Chris Reynolds, piano
- Henri Duparc - "L'invitation au voyage," "Au pays où se fait la guerre" // Marie Engle, mezzo-soprano, Katelan Terrell, piano
- Richard Strauss - "Allerseelen," Op. 10, No. 8, "Befreit," Op. 39, No. 4, "Cäcilie," Op. 27, No. 2 // Rebecca Pedersen, soprano, Minjung Jung, piano
While all the works were well sung, those that I enjoyed best were the Strauss lieder. It was really in the composition of vocal music, both operas and lieder, that Strauss truly excelled and not the bombastic tone poems for which he is best known. In particular, I have great admiration for the 1938 opera Daphne that is rarely performed. I was lucky enough several years ago to have heard it sung in concert at Carnegie Hall with Renée Fleming in the title role.
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