Looking jetlagged to the max and fighting frogs in his throat, Simon
Keenlyside gave a thrilling recital in Herbst Theater tonight.  I have
heard him go the distance before, as Pelleas here and Andrei in the ENO
"War and Peace," but this time, it was the singer all by his lonesome,
facing an audience with a complex, difficult, rewarding program.

If musical intelligence, forthrightness and the ability to connect with
the audience were more important in ranking singers than agents, PR and
hype, Keenlyside would be on the top of the hit parade, rather than being
"just another baritone."

The good thing is that he may not mind; he seems to enjoy making music and
could very well rephrase Admiral Farragut to say "Damn the limousines, full
speed to a more intimate Faure."

And Faure it was, exquisite and with a diction even better than
Keenlyside's excellent German, Russian, mezzo-mezzo Italian.  As to his
superb English, don't dismiss that; think of all the native-born singers
needing subtitles.

"Mandoline," "En sourdine," "Notre Amour" and "Le secret" went by on
butterfly wings ("Le papillon et la fleur" being omitted, and he performed
"Serenade Toscane" in Italian, for the sake of variety.

When Keenlyside sings Schubert, again it's not your hit-parade set: "Lied
des Orpheus," "Die Einsiedelei" and others (except "Die Sterne") could very
well have been local premieres (although I fully expect to be proven wrong
there).

But all this, and brilliant Schubert and Faure encores came in the second
half.  The even more unusual and rewarding first half consisted of early
20th century English songs - John Ireland, John Hatton, Arthur Somervell,
Percy Grainger, Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine), Herbert Howells -
wonderful, "unknown" songs, flawlessly performed, with informal,
entertaining, BRIEF comments in-between.

For more weight (emotional and musical) after Warlock's "Piggsnie" and the
added Holst "Betelgeuse" ("pronounced goose because juice doesn't rhyme"),
there was an intense, heated performance of Britten's "Songs & Proverbs of
William Blake."

And, through it all, the piano magic of Malcolm Martineau, an accompanist
who seemingly disappears during the recital and yet makes attendance
worthwhile all by himself.  Keenlyside pushed Martineau to the front at the
end of the concert, forcing him to take a solo bow, in yet another gesture
characterizing what this baritone is all about.

There should have been another bow: this was the last vocal recital
of the San Francisco Performances season and founder-director Ruth Felt
should have been up there, to be acknowledged for bringing to Herbst (fast
becoming Wigmore West) the finest group of singers in the organization's
22-year-history.

Janos Gereben/SF
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