MONTEREY HERALD, Monterey, California
Aug 6, 2002
Nathalie Plotkin
One of the distinguished and distinguishing components of the Carmel Bach Festival is the Virginia Best Adams Vocal Master Class program. Saturday morning a large, appreciative audience attended the "graduation" recital of this year's especially well chosen participants.
David Gordon, self styled "Ring Master" of this fine educational endeavor, is unusually well qualified to be in charge of these highly valuable sessions. He has a world class performing reputation and equally world class understanding of the field of Baroque music. He was very ably assisted by Sanford Sylvan who added further insights and wisdom to the proceedings.
During the six open-to-the-public coaching sessions with the four young singers chosen by taped auditions from among 126 applicants from the U.S., Canada, Germany, South Africa, Taiwan, Israel and Britain, an auditor could hear and appreciate the benefits offered by this unusual program.
All four singers, though already vocally well trained and embarked on professional careers, were encouraged to refine their interpretive and performance skills by preparing and performing a variety of Baroque era compositions and then providing them with fresh perspectives to become more stylistically aware and artistic.
Soprano Jenni Samuelson who has extensive operatic experience, was an assured, confident performer from the very beginning, but tended to overproject her voice. She needed to inculcate a settled calmness and a less self oriented approach.
In the last class session, by relaxing her intensity and producing a fine legato tone, her voice positively sparkled in a high flying Italianate aria from Handel's opera "Alcina" Her recital aria "Lebens Sonne" from the "Cantata BWV 180" by Bach was sung calmly with warm tone, demonstrating how well she responded to suggestions for achieving an artistically conceived vocalism.
Mezzo-soprano Elspeth Franks at first hid her fine warm voice behind overactive physical movement, swaying in time to her music. By concentrating on this aspect and on pulling back from emphasis on dramatics, she showed how far she had come with the exquisitely delivered "Lascia, ch'io pianga" from the opera "Rinaldo" by Handel. Singing with rich tone, eloquent emotion and a lovely legato line, she elicited cheers from the audience.
A Bach duet for the two soprano voices from the "Cantata BWV 78" was another outstanding performance by Samuelson and Franks. Their voice were a perfect blend and the delightfully smiling sweetness of their voices made this another special audience experience.
Tenor Ryan Turner initially brought a hard edged tone to many of his class offerings, but he too assimilated the coaching he received, showing this very clearly in his concert selections. The recitative and aria from the Bach "Cantata BWV 85" began with a very well paced and expressively delivered recitative. Turner brought a refined tender tone to the aria, creating a fine-lined expression of feeling.
"Love Sounds the Alarm" from "Acis and Galatea" by Handel had been worked on in class and here too, Turner demonstrated his ability to learn and apply new ideas to his vocalism.
Finally, baritone Brian Ming Chu who needed to adjust his stage demeanor and facial expressions during his singing, responded very well to suggestions, particularly from Sanford Sylvan.
His voice is rich and resonant and when it is directed to the service of the music, he is an impressive performer. Again it was a Handel operatic aria "Nasce al bosco" from "Ezio" that displayed Chu's abilities. His wide range, agility and expressive story telling ability made for a fine summation of his musical development.
The outstanding instrumental support was provided by violinists Cynthia Roberts and Emlyn Ngai, violist Meg Eldridge, cellist Allen Whear and double bassist Derek Weller. Flutist Kim Reighley and Neal Tatman on various oboes added fine color to the proceedings.
Daniel Lockert who was the excellent and highly accomplished pianist for the class sessions, played harpsichord and organ to round out the orchestra.
Bravo for a well chosen, well performed and highly successful program.
copyrignt 2002 Monterey Herald
