Helmuth Rilling has an uncanny ability to select and develop young singers
who then go on for great things.  Attend Rilling's concerts in Germany and
at the Oregon Bach Festival and you will `discover' Maria Jette, Milagro
Vargas, Thomas Quasthoff, James Taylor, many others...  and Juliana Banse.
She was, among other appearances in Eugene, part of last year's world
premiere of the Penderecki `Credo.'

The German soprano, still in her twenties but with a career of a decade
behind her, made her debut in Herbst Theater tonight at a San Francisco
Performances concert with the Munich Chamber Orchestra.  (Herbst is in the
same block where the War Memorial Opera House stands and that, a little
bird told me, is where Banse will make her SFO debut as Sophie in a couple
of years.)

The astonishingly young-looking singer has a
glorious voice -- strong, clear, full of colors -- and a veteran's
technique.  That's a good thing because the selection for the major work
of her debut her demands that...  and more.

Britten's `Les Illuminations' may just be one of the most challenging
work for any singer -- soprano, tenor, what you may.  Banse handled
it well -- managed the sudden mood and tempo changes, provided a clear
diction, handled legato consistently -- but the effort *showed* and robbed
the performance of the impact Banse had scored as Pamina, Susanna, Zdenka
and Zerlina.  Of course, it's not that those roles are `easy,' but rather
the Britten is so difficult that it makes most singers (Banse included)
look like a great 10,000-meter runner in a marathon.

And still, with all that, we were clearly in the presence of a fabulous
talent, a singer whose voice came seamlessly from a distant world at the
opening of `Interlude' and `Depart,' whose `silver,' `copper' and `streams'
in `Marine' had the tangible quality of metal and water.  The opening and
the finale of the cycle were memorable.

With all the focus on and excitement about the Britten, Banse's good but
unexceptional performance of the Schubert `Salve Regina' was an inevitable
anticlimax.

The Munich musicians, under Christoph Poppen's oversized direction (how
much `presence' do you need for a 20-piece string orchestra?) provided
excellent accompaniment for the singer; they were not quite as impressive
in the rough-sounding concert-opening Dvorak `Serenade for Strings.'

In other Oregon Bach Festival-connected news, a reminder of the
Taylor-Quasthoff Britten `War Requiem' coming to Santa Rosa on April 14
and 15, under the direction of Jeffrey Kahane.

Janos Gereben/SF
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