{"id":106015,"date":"2024-07-17T14:03:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T18:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=106015"},"modified":"2024-07-23T12:32:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T16:32:50","slug":"scrutiny-cabaret-sorrow-sarah-connolly-shines-tour-de-force-canadian-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/07\/17\/scrutiny-cabaret-sorrow-sarah-connolly-shines-tour-de-force-canadian-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Between Cabaret And Sorrow: Sarah Connolly Shines In A Tour De Force Canadian Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pianist
Pianist Joseph Middleton and mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly perform at Walter Hall, July 16, 2024 (Photo: Lucky Tang)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto Summer Music | Barber: Three Songs, Op. 10; Errollyn Wallen: Night Thoughts (Canadian Premi\u00e8re); Richard Rodney Bennett: A History of the Th\u00e9 Dansant; Mahler: R\u00fcckert-Lieder; Schoenberg: Select Songs from Vier Lieder, Op. 2; Berg: \u201cSchlafen, schlafen\u201d (Vier Lieder, Op. 2, No. 1); Weill: \u201cMy Ship\u201d, \u201cSpeak Low\u201d, \u201cTrouble Man\u201d, \u201cJe ne t\u2019aime pas\u201d. Dame Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano; Joseph Middleton, piano; Walter Hall, July 16, 2024.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

One of the brilliant features of Toronto Summer Music is its two-fold mission of sharing and fostering great music-making, whereby each year world-renowned musicians offer masterclasses to pre-selected fellows. It wasn\u2019t surprising, then, to hear enthusiastic cheers from these emerging artists as they welcomed two of their mentors, Dame Sarah Connolly and Joseph Middleton, to the Walter Hall Stage.<\/p>\n

This space, at least compared to Koerner Hall, leaves something to be desired acoustically. But it offers a suitably intimate setting for an art-song recital, especially in a program such as Connolly and Middleton\u2019s, where theatricality and the sense of the words are as important as their musical setting.<\/p>\n

The American\/English first half and German second half each hovered between the worlds of jazz\/cabaret and late-romanticism. Samuel Barber\u2019s 1936 three songs, settings of James Joyce, are perfect representatives of the composer\u2019s personal brand of romantic pathos, commuting between post-impressionist harmonies and Rachmaninovian textures. Connolly was sensitive to every nuance, and she found an equal partner in Middleton\u2019s almost onomatopoeic pianism, from the falling rain figurations of the first song, to the angular \u2018voice of winter\u2019 in the haunting lullaby of the second, to the thunderous anguish of the last song.<\/p>\n

The second set of songs, commissioned by Leeds Lieder festival and composed for Connolly and Middleton by Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen, continued the theme of night and sleep. This 2023 cycle shifts mercurially between jazz, post-Debussyist impressionism and poetic nostalgia. The disquieting opening song, which incorporates excerpts from Shakespeare\u2019s Macbeth, is highly chromatic and sits at the higher register of Connolly\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n

\"Pianist
Pianist James Middleton and mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly perform at Walter Hall, July 16, 2024 (Photo: Lucky Tang)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tension is then relieved for Wallen\u2019s own poem, set in a bluesy number, depicting a young Ella Fitzgerald facing the dazzling stage lights. Contrast comes in the shape of a darkly poetic third song to Emily Dickinson\u2019s \u2018There is a certain slant of light\u2019, before Wallen returns to jazzy quasi-improvisation inspired by Howard Hodgkin\u2019s painting \u2018Night thoughts\u2019, which is also her chosen overall title.<\/p>\n

Connolly revelled in the swift mood changes throughout the programme, as she assumed different roles and characters. In the 1994-composed A History of the th\u00e9 dansant by Richard Rodney Bennett, another composer of wide-ranging stylistic interests, we are taken to the world of the 1920s. The texts are provided by Bennett\u2019s sister, M. R. Peacocke, inspired by photos of their parents\u2019 holidays in the French Riviera. Connolly and Middleton infused these colourfully entertaining, funky songs with flair and joie de vivre.<\/p>\n

Originally conceived orchestrally, Mahler\u2019s R\u00fcckert Lieder struggle to deliver their full quota of heart-wrenching passion when heard with piano accompaniment. But Middleton, who has recorded these songs with Connolly on a highly acclaimed disc, made as convincing a case as possible, emulating orchestral colours through a combination of imaginative pedalling and subtle touch. Connolly was in equal measure moving, defiant and tragic. The last song, \u201cIch bin der Welt abhanden gekommen\u201d, surely one of the most beautiful ever composed, was a masterclass of singer-pianist rapport.<\/p>\n

A selection from Schoenberg\u2019s and Berg\u2019s early song cycles continued the journey from late- to post-romanticism, shading into expressionism. Connolly opted for a lighter tone in Schoenberg\u2019s \u201cErwartung\u201d, highlighting the contrast with the religious monumentality of \u201cSchenk mir deinen goldenen Kamm\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and pianist James Middleton perform at Walter Hall, July 16, 2024 (Photo: Lucky Tang)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, we were treated to four of Kurt Weil\u2019s deliciously sensuous cabaret songs, culminating in the pain-ridden \u201cJe ne t\u2019aime pas\u201d. But the highlight of the concert, at least for me, came with the encore, \u201cKing David\u201d by Herbert Howells, about a melancholic king who can only be consoled by the song of a nightingale, touchingly evoked in the piano. \u2018And the king in the cool of the moon, Hearkened to the nightingale’s sorrowfulness, Till all his own was gone\u2019.<\/p>\n

Few eyes were left dry.<\/p>\n

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Dame Sarah Connolly was sensitive to every nuance in the music, and she found an equal partner in pianist James Middleton for her recital at Walter Hall last night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":106017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40967,76,19,32,38,43,47,52,63],"tags":[41333,3793,3356],"yst_prominent_words":[21079],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/07\/Copy-of-REVIEW-50.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-rzV","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106015"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106188,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106015\/revisions\/106188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106015"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=106015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}