{"id":52238,"date":"2018-04-13T14:24:19","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T18:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=52238"},"modified":"2018-04-13T14:24:19","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T18:24:19","slug":"scrutiny-sylvia-schwartz-offers-exquisite-vocalism-in-toronto-debut-recital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2018\/04\/13\/scrutiny-sylvia-schwartz-offers-exquisite-vocalism-in-toronto-debut-recital\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Sylvia Schwartz Offers Exquisite Vocalism In Toronto Debut Recital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sylvia
Sylvia Schwartz, soprano; Olivier Godin, piano (Photo courtesy of the WMCT)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Toronto voice fans, a not-to-be-missed annual highlight is the song recital presented by the Women\u2019s Musical Club of Toronto, featuring rising young singers and established artists. Just in the last dozen years, we\u2019ve had the pleasure of hearing wonderful singers the likes of Adrianne Pieczonka, Karina Gauvin, Russell Braun, Gerald Finley, and more recently Christianne Stotijn and Issachach Savage. This time it is Spanish soprano Sylvia Schwartz, who gave an auspicious Toronto debut this afternoon at Walter Hall.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had the pleasure of hearing Schwartz a few times in Europe, as Sophie in Werther<\/em> and in recital. She possesses a lovely, pure, focused light lyric soprano, used with discerning taste, not to mention a surfeit of musicality and communicative power. All these qualities were on full display this afternoon, in a program of Alban Berg, Hugo Wolf, Jesus Guridi, Eduard Toldra, and Joaquin Turina. Walter Hall was full, despite the threat of freezing rain, underscoring the fierce loyalty of the WMCT audience. In attendance were many high school students, as well as 23 New Canadians \u2014 they were there thanks to generous donor programs.<\/p>\n

There was a change in the program \u2014 twelve songs from Hugo Wolf\u2019s Italienisches Liederbuch<\/em> replaced the originally announced Frauenliebe und Leben<\/em> of Schumann. For the Berlin-based soprano who has made her career in both Spain and Germany\/Austria, the German-Spanish program ideally combines her two strengths. While I can\u2019t comment on her Spanish, her German diction was perfect. Incidentally, she spoke to the audience later in the recital, in perfect British-accented English!<\/p>\n

She opened with Berg\u2019s Sieben fr<\/em>\u00fche Lieder,<\/em> a favourite cycle of mine. It\u2019s early Alban Berg, with expanded tonalities to be sure but still grounded in the Late Romantic tradition. Given her modest-sized instrument, Walter Hall was ideal.\u00a0 My seat was in the fifth row a bit left of centre, but I heard every nuance and saw every expression. Interpretively she was terrific, with great attention to textual nuance, the changes of moods handled beautifully. Also impressive was the technical control of her instrument, with the most exquisite pianissimos one is likely to hear today.<\/p>\n

If I were to nitpick, I do find the overall tempi of Berg cycle to be too slow, especially in \u201cNacht,\u201d \u201cSchilflied,\u201d \u201cTraumgekr\u00f6nt,\u201d and \u201cLiebesode.\u201d While the pianist and soprano captured the dream-like quality of these songs well, it had a rather tentative feel, not helped by the almost metronomic pacing. The faster songs, such as the gorgeous \u201cDie Nachtigall,\u201d went better, although it too could use more propulsiveness.<\/p>\n

\"Sylvia
Sylvia Schwartz and Olivier Godin (Photo: Joseph So)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the Hugo Wolf songs, however, both soprano and the excellent pianist Olivier Godin hit their stride, and the tentativeness disappeared. Schwartz is known for her superlative dramatic acuity, and it showed in the Wolf. She acted out a few of the funny songs, full of good humour but never overdone, with vivid facial expressions and subtle gestures, starting with \u201cMein Liebster ist so klein\u201d and continuing onto \u201cNein, junger Herr.\u201d Through it all, Godin was rock solid in support, and he took full advantage of the little bit of virtuosic display allowed by Wolf in the last song \u201cIch hab in Penna einen Liebsten.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second half was made up of all Spanish songs. It began with six Castilian folksongs by Jes\u00f9s Guridi, followed by a group of Catalan songs by Eduard Toldra, and ended with three by the Seville composer Joaquin Turina. These are such lovely, lyrical and utterly beguiling creations, so full of charm that one can almost feel the warm Mediterranean sun in its many melodic twists and turns. As expected, Schwartz was at her most comfortable and idiomatic in these songs. While her German Lieder were impressive, it was here that she shone the brightest, at her most natural and spontaneous.<\/p>\n

By then, the audience was totally charmed. Her command of the text was extremely impressive \u2014 and we\u2019re talking about a ton of words here! There was no a moment of hesitation. The full house, including a large group of high school students and 23 New Canadians, gave her very warm ovations at the end.\u00a0 But as is typical sometimes with Canadian audiences, the applause, while vociferous, stopped too soon, and as a result, there was no encore. (When I go to Liederabend in Germany, the applause can easily go on for fifteen minutes or longer.) But what Schwartz did sing was very satisfying. Let\u2019s hope she will be back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soprano Sylvia Schwartz and the excellent pianist Olivier Godin hit their stride at the Women\u2019s Musical Club of Toronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":52244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14761,76,19,52,63,70],"tags":[4068,18488,3609],"yst_prominent_words":[18480,13291,18485,11015,18327,18486,18482,13288,18483,18487,18325,18481,8295,18484,18328,10620,6640,18326,9299,13519],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/04\/Sylvia-Schwartz-soprano-Olivier-Godin-piano.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-dAy","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52238"}],"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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52238"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52250,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52238\/revisions\/52250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52238"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=52238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}