CONCERT REVIEW: Baritone in fine debut with CSO
By Mary Ellyn Hutton
Cincinnati Post
The Cincinnati Symphony got its 22,000-mile checkup Friday night at Music Hall.
That's how far they've traveled since performing the symphonic classics, having just returned from a tour of China as the Cincinnati Pops and a heavy diet of movie music.
The program, led by music director Paavo Jarvi, comprised Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 and selections from Mahler's "eder aus des Knaben Wunderhorn (Songs from the Youth's Magic Horn).
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, even more so for the CSO debut of German baritone Matthias Goerne.
Goerne is a splendid artist, with a smooth, dark voice, and he got a warm reception from the small audience - small, though, only by Music Hall standards (3,500 seats), kind of like not filling up the Great Hall of the People (10,000) in Beijing.
Goerne himself had a formidable task to engage his listeners, who were scattered throughout the hall. His facial expressions and body language were mostly lost and there were occasional balance problems, especially in "Der Schildwache Nachtlied" ("The Sentinel's Night Song"), which opened full bore with the voice pitted against the orchestra.
There were 11 songs in all and the order of performance was perfect. The first four (excluding the whimsical "Rhine Legend" about a ring tossed into the river) were edged with sorrow, from the doomed, forlorn sentinel and a soldier taking final leave of his lover to the terror of "Das irdische Leben" ("Life on Earth") about a starving child. There was virtually no break between the latter and the beginning of "Urlicht" ("Primordial Light"), a soft, still statement of faith in life after death. It was a transforming moment and the centerpiece of the set.
Goerne and the CSO had fun with the witty "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt" ("St Anthony Preaches to the Fishes") and "Lob des hohen Verstands" ("In Praise of High Intellect") in which Mahler skewers critics as analogous to an empty-headed donkey. Halloween returned in "Revelge" ("Reveille"), a grotesque march with skeletal sounds in the strings. And Goerne drew every ounce of pathos from the closing "Der Tamboursg'sell" ("The Drummer Boy"), a quintessential Mahlerian funeral march capped by Goerne's painful "Gute Nacht's" ("Good Night").
Jarvi's Beethoven was exhilarating, though the swift, waltz-like tempo of the Andante took some of the edge off the Minuetto, which sounded almost slow by comparison. The introduction to the finale was a study in suspense, followed by a spirited Allegro where string ensemble was sometimes less than perfect.
Repeat is 8 p.m. tonight in Music Hall.
Publication date: 11-05-2005
Cincinnati Post
The Cincinnati Symphony got its 22,000-mile checkup Friday night at Music Hall.
That's how far they've traveled since performing the symphonic classics, having just returned from a tour of China as the Cincinnati Pops and a heavy diet of movie music.
The program, led by music director Paavo Jarvi, comprised Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 and selections from Mahler's "eder aus des Knaben Wunderhorn (Songs from the Youth's Magic Horn).
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, even more so for the CSO debut of German baritone Matthias Goerne.
Goerne is a splendid artist, with a smooth, dark voice, and he got a warm reception from the small audience - small, though, only by Music Hall standards (3,500 seats), kind of like not filling up the Great Hall of the People (10,000) in Beijing.
Goerne himself had a formidable task to engage his listeners, who were scattered throughout the hall. His facial expressions and body language were mostly lost and there were occasional balance problems, especially in "Der Schildwache Nachtlied" ("The Sentinel's Night Song"), which opened full bore with the voice pitted against the orchestra.
There were 11 songs in all and the order of performance was perfect. The first four (excluding the whimsical "Rhine Legend" about a ring tossed into the river) were edged with sorrow, from the doomed, forlorn sentinel and a soldier taking final leave of his lover to the terror of "Das irdische Leben" ("Life on Earth") about a starving child. There was virtually no break between the latter and the beginning of "Urlicht" ("Primordial Light"), a soft, still statement of faith in life after death. It was a transforming moment and the centerpiece of the set.
Goerne and the CSO had fun with the witty "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt" ("St Anthony Preaches to the Fishes") and "Lob des hohen Verstands" ("In Praise of High Intellect") in which Mahler skewers critics as analogous to an empty-headed donkey. Halloween returned in "Revelge" ("Reveille"), a grotesque march with skeletal sounds in the strings. And Goerne drew every ounce of pathos from the closing "Der Tamboursg'sell" ("The Drummer Boy"), a quintessential Mahlerian funeral march capped by Goerne's painful "Gute Nacht's" ("Good Night").
Jarvi's Beethoven was exhilarating, though the swift, waltz-like tempo of the Andante took some of the edge off the Minuetto, which sounded almost slow by comparison. The introduction to the finale was a study in suspense, followed by a spirited Allegro where string ensemble was sometimes less than perfect.
Repeat is 8 p.m. tonight in Music Hall.
Publication date: 11-05-2005
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