A Celebration of Schumann
August 7, 2010
Hello all!
I just returned from the Celebrating Schumann concert at Dominion-Chalmers. I arrived at 6:30, which I thought was early, but people were lined up around the block! While the venue was not quite as packed as the Faust/Melnikov concert I attended Wednesday evening, people were still eager to get in early and grab a seat.
While I won’t go through all of the performances and performers, there were a few whom I thought were outstanding. The first of whom was Charles Hamann, prinicipal oboist of the NAC orchestra.
If you’re not familiar with him, you must check out his bio, the link is taken from the NAC’s website:
http://www.nac-cna.ca/en/naco/about/musicians/woodwinds.cfm#hamann
Hamann performed Schumann’s Three Romances for oboe and piano, Op. 94. I must admit, before this evening I had never experienced a solo oboe performance of any length. I think the most oboe I have heard would be a short solo in a large-scale orchestral work. Hamann made me a believer in the absolute breadth of musical possibility for the oboe. His tone is breathtaking; starkly clear and yet it possesses such warmth. This could be what surprised me the most, the lyrical and expressive abilities of such a narrow, sharp sounding instrument. His dynamic range this evening was broad, which gave the performance such polish and a high level of professionalism. The audience knew they were experiencing the work of a seasoned professional and happy to be taking it all in. I also enjoyed Hamann’s physical movements, which were subtle throughout, but at times dramatic. He would sometimes lift the bell of the instrument, which often indicated a quick change in tempo. Hamann was the highlight of my evening and I will be sure to make it a point (and soon!) to see him perform again.
Chris Trakas took the stage last this evening, performing Schumann’s famed Dichterliebe.
http://www.chamberfest.com/dotnetnuke/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=OzfY–rztf0%3d&tabid=58
The word dynamic comes to mind when describing Trakas’ performance. While his voice is beautiful (and I do not mean to downplay this!) it was his physical performance that caught my attention this evening. He was spirited and not afraid to bring physicality to his delivery by way of arm movements, hand gestures, and even small steps forward and backward from the crook of the piano. Trakas was exciting to watch; however, I did not feel that his gestures took anything away from the vocal delivery. While some may have found it distracting, I found that his physical movements merely augmented the passion of his singing and also made it a memorable performance. His performance wasn’t polite, in fact, at times I found he was unabashedly emotional and I loved it! He was not afraid to step outside of the box that we singers sometimes create for ourselves when performing art songs. We often hang onto this idea that we must be stately and statuesque. I believed Trakas, every word that he sang. I believed that he knew every word he was singing and that he was doing his very best to bring out the sheer emotion of the text. I thank him for this and I was appreciative of the enormous amount of energy he gave to the audience. Bravo!
Last, but not least, I come to pianist Erika Switzer. Now to begin, I must admit that I’m not 100% sure that this is her name, which is an absolute shame. She is not written in the little leaflet program I have and she does not have a bio online. However, her name is listed on the website as one of the performers for this evening. If I’m wrong about this, please correct me! Switzer was the glue that held everything together this evening. She accompanied everyone, meaning she put a solid hour and a half on the piano tonight with four different performers, including three different instruments. Switzer is an extremely expressive pianist with a face that emotes just as often and as effectively as the vocalists. I was sitting there this evening thinking that she is the epitome of the term “collaborative pianist”. She contributed to every performance in such a way that the evening would be dramatically altered had she not been there encouraging, supporting, and listening to each performer at every note. Switzer was an absolute star, albeit a humble star, on the stage this evening.
As a general comment, I wish there had been translations made available for the vocal performances. Given that everything was in German, I personally feel that there was a lot to be gained from knowing the subject matter of the music. It would’ve been interesting to do a poll this evening asking the questions about translations like: When given translations for a performance, do you read them? Do you find your experience is greatly enhanced by reading them? I for one, and perhaps it is because I am a singer, prefer to know what’s going on. Sure, I can still be moved by the music, but I find it harder to understand the rationale behind the singers actions. I like to judge the performance based upon the success of sharing a story and I find that mighty difficult when I do not understand the story being told. Any feedback on this?
Overall, it was a wonderful evening of discovery and absolute enjoyment. What more can you ask for?!
