| The Shakespeare Concerts 2004 Performance at Rabb Hall, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts, January 25, 2004, at 2 p.m. Maria Ferrante, soprano Alan Schneider, tenor Diane Thornton, contralto Paul Vincent, baritone Julie-Dawn Lloyd, soprano Loretta Pennington, soprano Zhanna Alkhazova, soprano Miroslav Sekera, piano Anna Reinersman, harp Carolyn Cantrell, French horn Kimberly Hamill, French horn John McGinn, music director and piano PROGRAM Roger Quilter O Mistress Mine Loretta Pennington and John McGinn Joseph Summer Sonnet CXXX Alan Schneider and Anna Reinersman With Mirth in Funeral Maria Ferrante, Paul Vincent, and Miroslav Sekers There is a willow grows aslant a brook Diane Thornton, John McGinn, and Anna Reinersman Johannes Brahms Five Ophelia Songs Diane Thornton and John McGinn Joseph Summer Sonnet CXXXIII Maria Ferrante, Alan Schneider, Carolyn Cantrell, Kimberly Hamill, and Anna Reinersman INTERMISSION Johannes Brahms Four Songs for Women's Chorus, Two Horns, and Harp Julie-Dawn Lloyd, Loretta Pennington, Zhanna Alkhazova, Diane Thornton, Carolyn Cantrell, Kimberly Hamill, and Anna Reinersman Joseph Summer The Dumbshow Miroslav Sekera, solo piano If By Your Art Maria Ferrante and Anna Reinersman Franz Schubert Was ist Sylvia (Who is Sylvia) Paul Vincent and Miroslav Sekera Martin Shaw I Know a Bank Julie-Dawn Lloyd, Zhanna Alkhazova, and John McGinn Joseph Summer Sonnet VIII Maria Ferrante, Diane Thornton, and John McGinn To be or not to be Alan Schneider and Miroslav Sekera This afternoon I was fortunate to attend a very interesting program, the Shakespeare Concerts 2004 Boston performance at Rabb Hall in the Boston Public Library. With the exception of one piece for piano solo, the program consisted of settings of texts of Shakespeare to music, by composer Joseph Summer, who was in attendance, and by Johannes Brahms, Roger Quilter, Franz Schubert, and Martin Shaw. All of the musicians were excellent. In a performance of Shakespeare texts, I was especially glad that all the singers communicated the words so effectively. The program got off to a very good start with Loretta Pennington singing “O mistress mine,” a delightfully elegant song by the late British composer Roger Quilter. Ms. Pennington, a soprano born in New Zealand, studied in Australia and currently resides in London. There followed four selections by Joseph Summer. I was most moved by “He took me by the wrist,” a setting of text from Hamlet, Act II, scene 2, in which Ophelia tells her father of Hamlet’s visit to her as she was sewing in her closet. The music, well suited to the drama of the scene, gave Maria Ferrante, a slim good-looking woman, who looked like Ophelia, and, more importantly, was a very convincing actress with clear enunciation, an opportunity to convey Ophelia’s emotions in a stunning manner. One could well imagine that this distraught character would later commit suicide. Diane Thornton, a contralto who performs extensively throughout the southeastern United States, sang the Five Ophelia Songs of Brahms. The songs passed all too quickly. I would enjoy hearing Ms. Thornton in a solo recital. The second half of the program met the same high standard as the first. Among the selections, “The Dumbshow,” music by Joseph Summer played by Miroslav Sekera, solo piano, showed that Mr. Summer can write interesting music without a text as stimulus. “If by your art” gave Maria Ferrante another chance to create an interesting character, Miranda in The Tempest, accompanied by harpist Anna Reinersman. Paul Vincent, baritone, sang Schubert’s famous “Was ist Sylvia (Who is Sylvia)” quite well, to the audience’s pleasure. Julie-Dawn Lloyd and Zhanna Alkhazova, sopranos, sang a delightful duet, “I know a bank” to music of Martin Shaw. The program ended with Hamlet’s soliloquy “To be or not to be” ably sung by tenor Alan Schneider to music of Joseph Summer. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire program, and don’t mean to slight in any way the pieces and performers that I have not commend on individually. |
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| Maria Ferrante Image credit: Steve J Sherman |