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I’ve wanted to write about this wonderful recording for some time now, but one thing or another got in the way. Recordings, for better or worse, are not as fugitive as a concert performance. Now, however, the time is more than ripe, since the outstanding young baritone featured in this recording is about to appear at Tanglewood in Harbison’s Fifth Symphony, replacing Nathan Gunn, who sang at the Boston premiere only a few months ago. Thomas Meglioranza’s approach should be quite different, so anyone who heard the premiere will want to come back for another point of view on Harbison’s rich and dramatic setting of Milosz’ bizarre retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Need I also say that this largely cheerly and generously human recital of Schubert songs is the perfect antidote to the lugubrious piano recital of last week?
Thomas Meglioranza was one of the brightest of the many bright lights at last year’s Bard Festival (Elgar), where he gave vivid and witty renditions of Victorian parlor songs and music hall numbers, including the culturally seminal “Cherry Ripe,” without undue condescension, bringing a lost world of music to life.
In this recording, he joins pianist Reiko Uchida in an imaginative program consisting mostly of less familiar songs by Franz Schubert. All of them are great, so this recital will be an especially rewarding voyage of discovery for anyone who has not memorized either the Peters or the Hyperion Edition of the complete Schubert songs. I could also say how brilliant the selection and organization of the program is more like the thematic recitals more current for Elizabethan and Jacobean songs than the Romantics. It begins with eight songs about water and fishing. After that they venture into the air with a song about a butterfly, then further into the open countryside with Das Lied im Grünen—one of the famous songs in the selection. There follows a whimsical setting of Schiller’s Dithyramb, a light-hearted tribute to the gods of ancient Greece, not without its own references to rivers and springs, a relatively upbeat address of a wanderer to the moon, Sehnsucht (Longing), Hoffnung (Hope), two grave-digger songs, an early, humorous Gothic fantasy, “The Ghost Dance,” and a remarkably cheerful song about solitude, Der Einsame, which follows the course of a solitary person’s day from dawn to sleep. The Three songs which conclude the recording are night-songs: Alinde (about a lover’s assignation), and address to the stars (Die Sterne), and another song about the stars, Im Freien (In the Open) which concludes in a fond reflection on the house of a dear friend and the happy hours spent there. No hints of Winterreise here, not even of the darker moments of Die Schöne Müllerin, but a deep sense of humanity is with us most intimately in these songs.
Perhaps it is better if I leave it up to Tom himself to explain the selection: “Reiko and I picked a bunch of our favorite Schubert songs from among the many dozens we’ve been performing over the years and arranged them in an order that roughly suggests the arc of a day, starting with some early-morning songs about fishing and water, followed by a few songs celebrating the outdoors in the midday, and finally a set of nocturnal songs that begins tragically but gradually gives way to a mood of celestial bliss.”
This is surely one of the finest recordings of Schubert Lieder you will find. Meglioranza’s handsome light baritone is perfect for the repertoire. He uses head tones often and most attractively. Only occasionally does he remind us of Fischer-Dieskau in this register. Only occasionally does he remind us of Fischer-Dieskau in this register; his technique and style are entirely his own. His German is perfect, showing almost the ease and clarity of a native singer. The scholarship of the past generation has shown that Schubert’s compositional method in his songs was based on a thorough immersion in the poetic texts he intended to set and that he had some partiality for the declamatory style of his friend Johan Michael Vogl. Mr. Meglioranza’s approach takes this into account, but he also, for all the poignant interpretive nuances he brings to his interpretation of the texts, is able to maintain a beautiful bel canto line throughout. Ms. Uchida, playing an unusual restored Pleyel, which has just the right combination of harp-like clarity and richness for Schubert’s music and Meglioranza’s voice, combines lucid articulation, expressive color, and a balance of discretion and assertiveness. His lyrical, but richly colored and thoughtfully expressive performance of Das Lied im Grünen will stand with the greats. The recording is superb, providing just the right presence and balance of voice and piano with a lively sense of the warm acoustic ambiance of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, a favorite venue for chamber recordings. You will also notice that Mr. Meglioranza is a very active singer, as his voice floats discreetly around in the clearly defined acoustic space.
This recording is an absolute must for Schubertians and pretty much anyone.
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