On Saturday, April 9, 2022, San Francisco Performances presented renowned German baritone Matthias Goerne and notable prize-winning young Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho in an extraordinary concert.

The performance was like being at a mountain retreat on a distant planet, drinking distilled ambrosia while hearing rare melodies in an exotic language. Clapping nearly seemed irrelevant; how do we applaud such a spring of profound beauty, a new planetary view, and distinctive lifeblood, that we only suspected existed? And, how do we then walk out, aware that to sustain such dimension of meaning we need to enlarge our own capacity? The evening was like learning to breathe again.

Pfitzner’s Romanticism

Goerne began with six songs by German Romantic composer Hans Pfitzner, one of many composers who experienced minimal recognition because of Hitler’s musical authoritarianism. From “Sehnsucht (Longing),” to “Nachts (Nights)” Goerne sang with the marvelous resonance for which he is celebrated. Each crescendo filled the hall, and each articulation of tone was rich and amply textured. Cho, who showed himself a consummate accompanist from the get-go, followed with a progression of powerful chords that supported the sound, adding what seemed like the foundation of a remarkable house. The palette of tones remained lyric, yet full of meaning, with one line after another intensifying the power of the themes of love, beauty and the loss that followed it. Goerne sang with perfect conviction throughout, his whole body arcing as he reached into the depths and exemplified them.

The highlight of the six Pfitzner pieces, “An die Mark (To the mark),” aptly embodies the Romantic cri de coeur, “That everything is just a dream and painful…This country is my homeland and I am its child (All is dream and full of pain, and I must die… This land is my home and I am its child).” The musical line was firm with conviction, and I never lost track of what he sang.

“Wasserfahrt (Waterfall),” followed, the bass arpeggios establishing their dramatic ground before thinning out to delicate pianissimi. With Heine’s poem, “The sinking sun shines so beautifully,” Pfitzner heightened the conflict: “Soon flows between my heart and your eyes the wide sea (Soon flows between my heart and your eyes the wide sea). Cho and Goerne presented a perfect union of words and music that were so completely in tune with each other they seemed to be two and, at the same time, one.

The final lieder, “Nachts (Nights),” followed suit, and I continued to feel as if I were overhearing an intimate conversation shared openly, a stance characteristic of much Romantic music and poetry. Cho played its luxurious opening as if inside the piano keys themselves, delivering the chromatic chords with exquisite finesse, while Goerne sang from deep within his body, his arms lifting and falling and his body bending as well. The forte chords rose and fell with complete mastery, with the legato as meticulous as the lyric upper register. Vocalist and pianist completed their lines in their own time, yet completely in unison.

Wagner’s “Wesendonck”

Wagner’s “Wesendonck Lieder” followed, offering the perfumed beauty of the music and text that distilled Pfitzner’s dense textures. Goerne and Cho detailed Wesendonck and Wagner’s masterpiece with both weight and a translucent film. It was as if the sublime moments were occurring then and there and for the first time. “Der Engel (Angel)” lifted the curtain to the angel in the room, while a later selection, “Träume,” showered us with the beauty of the dream. Both showed how much finesse could come from power and sublimity from depth.

The highlight of the cycle was “In the Hothouse.” The redolent jungle atmosphere was dense and thick. Goerne’s tones were luxuriant while he proffered the down-to-earth aspect of the question the speaker asks, “Tell me why you are complaining? (Tell me, why do you lament?)” Goerne evinced more vocal sensuousness as he proceeded; the elision of spaces between the words contributing to the power of vowels gliding into each other, creating a flowing stream, while maintaining distinctness. The powerful and heightened forte on “Glanze (Shine),” climaxed that process, pulling even more beauty and richness out of the somnolent state of being. The finale returned the audience to the opening melodic line, increasing the poignancy of the whole scene, and was velvety and languorous.

The artists’ parallel process reminded me of how human beings can transcend their own limits if they pay attention. This idea reappeared in “Schmerzen (Agonies),” with its fortissimo phrases and powerful octaves. The song’s conclusion, with its quiet decrescendo, created a moving suspension throughout the hall.

The Finale: Strauss

The final third of the performance featured music by Richard Strauss, with the luxuriousness of his song emphasized and easily accessible. “Traum durch diedämmerung,” lyrical in its chromatic ascent and descent but with an almost folk-like melody, set the stage. The song’s text was at once human yet divine; “I do not walk quickly, I do not hurry, a soft, velvet ribbon draws me…” Once again, the lyrical caress of Goerne’s every word and Cho’s gentle touch on the keyboard created a seamless dream.

“Rest, my soul! (Rest my soul!),” a classic Strauss song, was a gorgeous poem that announced the connection of nature to the human soul, with the storms and the rages now connected to the possibility of peace and calm. “Your storms went wild, raging and trembling like the surf when it swells! (Your storms were wild, you raged, and you quivered, like the breakers, when they surge!)” But as the poet urged rest “… and forget what threatens you! (… and forget what threatens you),” the musicians performed at a perfectly harmonized lento pace. The text remained a quiet and restrained admonition that moved from the purely lyrical into an acknowledgment of how one might consciously live.

Strauss’s “Im Abentrot (At Sunset)” concluded with that same view. The texture of the piano, lush trills, declarative chords, dispensation of truths, and Goerne’s plaintive “How tired we are of traveling—is this perchance death?),” if a bit too slow at moments, wrapped a spell around the audience, one which was not easily forgotten.

After a friend asked me to ensure the memorial for his eventual death featured this beautiful song of Strauss’, I realized that what I had savored of the song until then gave me a deeper appreciation of the piece. Strauss’ captivating song resonated as I left the hall. Somber, haunting, and eloquent, standing as a tribute to life, its rapture, and its pain. Surrounded by serious beauty, the rapture of the evening transcended even its more sober aspects. Indeed, exquisite musical art helps deepen all we value.

The post San Francisco Performances 2022 Evaluate: Matthias Goerne & Seong-Jin Cho in Recital appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The anxieties of these dreadful weeks receded for a while Sunday afternoon as soprano Angel Blue filled UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall with passionate song. In her debut recital for Cal Performances, the California-born singer shared her love of music and her generous heart with a very appreciative audience.

Late Romantic art song was at the core of the program, in ample sets by Gabriel Fauré and Richard Strauss. These short songs are highly dramatic, and blue visibly and vocally inhabited their rich and varied textures.

Blue made her Metropolitan Opera debut five years ago as Mimi in Puccini’s La bohème, eliciting praise for her ability to capture both the sparkle and the sadness of the role (you can catch her charming rendition of “Sì, mi chiamano Mimì” on YouTube). A similar range of emotions was evident in the Fauré songs in this recital, from the hazy moonbeams of “Clair de lune” to the tragedy of rejected love in “Fleur jetée” (Discarded flower).

Angel Blue and Bryan Wagorn at Hertz Hall | Courtesy of Cal Performances

Canadian pianist Bryan Wagorn was a perfect partner for Blue in these operatic miniatures. His experience of musical drama at the Metropolitan Opera (he is assistant conductor there) showed in his spirited accompaniment as well as in his two solos, Debussy’s “Clair de lune” and Chopin’s “Raindrop” prelude. Both are very familiar — almost, one might say, chestnuts — but there was nothing mundane about Wagorn’s theatrical performances.

Four Strauss songs, along with Robert Schumann’s dark “Silent tears” (“Silent tears”), gave ample play to Blue’s ability to spin a continuous — and continuously varying — thread of sound. Big moments are called for in these songs — especially in Strauss’s wonderful “Cäcilie,” which closed the first half. She delivered the grand vocal gestures strongly and securely.

At the same time, Blue was sensitive to Strauss’s expressive color notes and moments of introspection. In “Befreit” (Released), his heart-rending song of domestic tragedy, Blue herself was visibly moved to tears, a response that I’m sure was shared by many in the audience. Throughout the recital, Blue warmly shared her thoughts and feelings — something I wish more artists would do.

In a change of pace, the second half opened with Kurt Weill’s sardonic “Youkali,” a dramatic monologue about disillusionment that Blue delivered with breathy tone and cabaret rakishness, hands in pockets like Mack the Knife — even in her silver gossamer gown.

Angel Blue and Bryan Wagorn at Hertz Hall | Courtesy of Cal Performances

Blue also performed three art songs by the mid-century composer Lee Hoiby — a protégé of Gian Carlo Menotti — of which the most engaging was his fine setting of Emily Dickinson’s “There Came a Wind like a Bugle,” with its powerful depiction of a storm

Four spirituals ended the program with verve and heart — from the excited patter of “You Can Tell the World” to the jazzy vitality of “Ride On, King Jesus.” For me, the emotional center was “Deep River,” sung with affecting sincerity.

Blue captured the hall not only with stellar technique but also with generosity of spirit. That came out particularly in the first encore, when Blue started the aria — Giacomo Puccini’s well-known “O mio babbino caro” (Oh my dear papa) — and then stopped suddenly, inviting a young woman in the audience to sing with her, whom she had recently been coaching by Zoom — and apparently had never met in person. I learned later that she was Mikayla Sager, a current Adler Fellow and a soprano who is going places, judging from her splendid impromptu performance with Blue.

A second encore brought the program to a close with a deliciously comic rendition of a patter song from the 19th-century Spanish composer Ruperto Chapí.

Angel Blue and Bryan Wagorn at Hertz Hall | Courtesy of Cal Performances

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