By Michael Reckord, ContributorFREQUENT APPLAUSE punctuated Sunday evening's 'Classical Song Recital' at the University Chapel, Mona.
The applause was especially enthusiastic for the final item, a Jamaican patriotic song. This audience response was well-deserved as the performances by Robert Winslade Anderson (bass-baritone) and accompanist, Juliet Allen, were of a high quality. About other aspects of the evening, too, the casual observer/listener would have had little to complain.
The handsome, 28-page programme gave much information about the performers and the composers represented; it was well stocked with advertisements - indicating a healthy support of art music - and, auspiciously, the audience itself contained numerous young people, a group more usually seen at a very different type of musical event.
And adding much to the evening was the compere, Dr Simon Clarke. Claiming that his responsibility was to keep the audience "interested" while, intermittently, the singer rested his voice, Dr Clarke regaled his listeners with information and anecdotes about the singer, his parents (both musicians), the pianist, the chapel and its organ.
But, the critic must remember, perfection is seldom achieved; Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will") seems always to be in operation and, in any case, each man to his taste.
To this reviewer's ear, the pianist was perfect.
YOUNG CONCERT PIANISTS
Allen is "one of the most experienced young concert pianists in Britain today. She made her recital debut aged nine and performed her first concerto, Beethoven 1, at 11...," the biosketch read in the printed programme, all showing Ms Allen to be a very fine performer indeed. While her accompaniment appeared flawless to this reviewer, a more experienced ear in the audience noted that her playing was a bit too quick at the beginning of R. Vaughan Williams' 'The Vagabond', one of the two English Songs of Travel presented.
Anderson's voice is excellent. It is strong, sonorous, and flexible and if it continues to develop at the same rate, Anderson can't fail to become a world-rated singer, probably in opera.
He has a natural dramatic flair, and communicates not only with voice, but with body, face, eyes and the good actor's sense of timing. His use of body language was suitably restrained in the 'Oratorio' segment of the recital - in which the audience heard pieces by Handel (Judas Maccabeus), Haydn (Creation) and Mendelssohn (Elijah); and he really began moving about - some felt too much - in the 'Opera' segment. Here the audience heard Mozart (La Nozze di Figario), Britten (Mid-Summer Night's Dream) Verdi (Attila).
Part two, the lighter section of the evening, was devoted to songs - lieder and French songs by Brahms and Massenet, respectively; English songs by Vaughan Williams and Somervell, American songs by Copland, and Spirituals, and finally three songs misnamed "Jamaican Patriotic Songs." In fact, there was only one, the best-received item of the evening, "Jamaica, Land of Beauty." Happily, the composer of its music, Mr Lloyd Hall, was on hand to receive some of the applause.
DANCEHALL-STYLE
In one of the songs, Anderson did a dancehall-style, high-knee-lift, on-the-spot run. Some laughed, but not everyone. The teens in the audience who are accustomed to Buju Banton might have seen nothing wrong with the action; the adults who have been to the Met might have.
The handsome programme did not only mislead with the "Jamaican Patriotic Songs" title but its layout suggested that Handel and Haydn were both creators of the first item and the layout could suggest to the uninformed that Aaron Copland wrote the Spirituals "Deep River" and "Ev'ry Time I Feel de Spirit."
Lastly, many felt that Dr Clarke got carried away and in doling out information, forgot he was a compere. But these criticisms are of relatively minor weaknesses in an otherwise excellent concert.
