Intermission...
The first half of Paul Groves' recital was amazing. The Britten cycle was exquisite! I am one happy Music Geek and Music Lover!
*And his pianist, Pedja Muzijevic, is a-mah-zing too!
I wish there were more recordings of Paul Groves out there. - well recordings of stuff that elderly "Austrian "pensioners would enjoy. He is the reason I like the televised Candide and even cope with Patti in order to hear him.
I wish he was better represented on record too. -Especially since he's always singing something, somewhere. But tonight...
WOW!
The opening Beethoven cycle was most definitely not just a "warm-up" for the Britten. And the Britten cycle, well, I don't think I've "felt" an audience more enraptured and captivated by a performer. Everyone seemed to be listening and truly paying attention. It was nice to see that most of the audience members around me just sat back and listened, instead of burying their heads in the program translations. His German diction was spot on, and his English was totally intelligible and communicative.
Then came the Fauré to start off the second half - the Francophile in me suddenly came to life again. I'm so used to very "prim and proper" interpretations of French
mélodies, but Mr. Groves rode that very fine line between a "recital" voice and an "opera house" voice, and managed the perfect balance. I've never heard "La Bonne Chanson" sung so emotively and expressively. And the closing Rachmaninov set, just when I thought things could not get better, well, they did. And even his encores - another Rachmaninov and Duparc's sublime "Soupir" - which was dedicated to the memory of his Juilliard vocal coach - were sung as deeply as the rest of his program, they were not "throw-offs".
And I really do have to give "props" to his pianist, Pedja Muzijevic. His playing in the Britten cycle was astonishing, and he managed to make some truly "thorny" music not at all prickly. And in the Fauré and Rachmaninov, his contributions were equally as important and moving as his vocal partner.