CINCINNATI - A music festival makes a good first impression when brass
fanfares from "Lohengrin" and "Tannhauser" call thousands of well-dressed
listeners into the auditorium from the richly ornamented but unpretentious
lobby with the feel of Dresden's Semperoper.
The May Festival is called the Western Hemisphere's oldest choral festival.
In its bizarre/spectacular Music Hall home, it has pulled together this
city some 80 times in the past 128 years (made into an annual event by
Max Rudolf in 1967, a season highlighted by George Szell introducing the
19-year-old Peter Serkin), and it's doing that again, spectacularly well.
James Conlon, in his 23rd year of leading the May Festival, is programming
with a broad range, bold variety, imagination and a reach that only
occasionally exceeds his grasp.
Provided by the first two days of the festival this weekend, here are just
some highlights of a healing event offered in a neighborhood devastated
only a year ago by a week of riots on the streets:
* A stunning recital by Cynthia Haymon, one of the most promising young
sopranos around. A "natural singer," who manages to make all her training
and effort transparent, delivering music in unassuming, "conversational"
manner, Haymon performed Richard Danielpour's "Portraits," to Maya
Angelou's text. She was sensitively supported by a quartet consisting of
Rebecca and Daniel Culnan (violin and cello), Michael Chertock (piano) and
Richard Hawley (clarinet).
* Robert Porco's superb May Festival Chorus, the heart of the enterprise,
sang a sublime performance of Beethoven's C Major Mass. Chorus and
orchestra excelled throughout the work, which culminated in a glowing
conclusion. The very end, the heartfelt prayer for peace, created a rare,
unforgettable moment as "Dona nobis pacem" dissipated into the deep silence
of the hall, sung simply, beautifully, with all the meaning and relevance
that resides in the music. This curious work employs four soloists, but
gives them very little to do, not even a single aria. Of the four, I wish
Kristine Jepson (also excellent in the Beethoven Ninth Symphony) and
festival veteran John Aler had more to do.
* A full house of 3,400 (older and whiter than the performers) clapped,
shouted and rocked to the Central State University Chorus' "His Eye Is On
the Sparrow" and "Jesus Is a Rock in a Weary Land," Conlon turning into a
fine jazz-band leader while a reduced and completely unnecessary Symphony
orchestra provided a Mantovani background sound for the young singers and
band members. "Unclear on the concept" comes to mind about all those
strings, but the performance was still a great success, deserving the
genuine standing ovation and reprise.
* The African-American CSU Chorus joined the mostly white May Festival
Chorus in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Conlon rushing the tempi while an
annoyingly mistuned timpani brought down the level of the performance,
until the delightful surprise of a Papageno-happy "Ode to Joy," instead
of the standard Sarastro-magisterial pomposity.
* A "Fidelio" finale, graced by Conlon's driving rhythm and luminous
musical line, the Cincinnati Symphony and the chorus at their best - and
seriously handicapped by the soloists: Gary Lakes, the great heldentenor
promise of a decade ago, a Conlon regular, as a weak Florestan; Bridget
Hooks as the uninvolved, almost bored Leonora; Richard Paul Fink as the
uncomprehending governor, without a trace of warmth in his voice; a shaky
Maureen O'Flynn substituting for the indisposed Desiree Rancatore as
Marzelline; and - thank goodness! - Aler, singing a fine Jacquino.
* A great audience favorite was Adolphus Hailstork's 1985 "Done Made
My Vow." Written for a school anniversary, and very fitting for that it
must have been, this 40-minute cantata keeps hitting musical and narrative
highlights, meant to rouse the audience with its Biblical and Martin Luther
King quotes, fortissimi freely applied, all leading to the big standing O.
A well-meaning project to introduce African-American themes and artists to
the audience and increase black participation on stage and in the hall,
"Done Made My Vow" appears unwittingly influenced by associations with
"It's a Small World," "Up With People" and the sound of propaganda music
from Europe, the sort that has audience manipulation as its main substance.
And finally, a kind of anti-highlight: The festival-opening "Olympic
Hymn," attributed to Bernstein, has more background and history than
musical value. In 1981, one Gunther Kunert rewrote (with a German text!)
the song "To Make Us Proud" from the star-crossed Alan Jay Lerner-Leonard
Bernstein bicentennial musical "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."
Two decades later, US Poet Laureate Richard Wilbur, who should know
better (and did, in "Candide"), "customized" the 10-minute piece in English.
("For in these games, when all is told, It is mankind who takes the gold.
That wins the laurel of victory, And shows the world what it might be."
Commented a festival official, strictly on a Deep-Throat basis: "It's
rather embarrassing.")
But here is the strange part: the Festival Chorus, "reinforced" by a
university choir for the purpose of presenting the following work, by
Hailstork, sang this premiere presentation of the English text in such a
way that not one single word could be understood. Considering the text,
that was not much of a pity, but very strange because the festival chorus'
diction in the Beethoven works was outright crystalline.
The festival theme is "Beethoven, Bernstein and Brotherhood." So far,
Conlon - a great audience favorite here - is getting full marks for the
19th century, a good chunk of the brotherhood effort, and not much out
of Bernstein (a former music director here), even when including the very
brevis "Missa Brevis," all 10 minutes of it. Fortunately, there is still
Week No. 2 for that, including excerpts from the Mass (first performed at
the May Festival immediately after its Kennedy Center premiere 30 years
ago), and the Symphony No. 3 ("Kaddish"), its text rewritten and narrated
by Jamie Bernstein Thomas.
Janos Gereben/SF [In Cincinnati, to 5/21]
www.sfcv.org
[log in to unmask]
|