Knight Concert Hall, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts – Miami, USA

2014 Cleveland Orchestra in Miami

31 January & 1 February 2014

Simon Keenlyside, baritone

Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

Programme

Sound bites

Zachary Lewis, The Plain Dealer, 3.2.2014

” … Success was far from assured. Baritone Simon Keenlyside was surely a bankable hit, but the real virtues of the program only took shape in the moment, in the contrasts between works by Strauss, Debussy and Stravinsky. …

Similarly difficult to envision is a voice stronger than Keenlyside’s. Last heard in Cleveland singing the title role in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” the baritone here applied his talents to Strauss, bringing to six orchestral songs not only his trademark power but also abundant feeling and nuance.

At no point, in fact, did Keenlyside seem bound by range or style. Whether the music was high or low, booming or intimate, the baritone fit the bill exactly, offering with each song a complete, wholly satisfying experience. Cleveland doesn’t even know what it missed.  …”

Octavio Roca, Arte Burst Miami, 4.2.2014

” The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Franz Welser- Mőst continued its Miami season January 31 at the Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall by bringing along a major guest. Simon Keenlyside — since the passing of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau — the finest baritone before the public today, sang a generous program of orchestral songs by Richard Strauss. … Keenlyside, though, was the main event.

Strauss adored the human voice and wrote more than 200 songs in addition to his vast operatic output. While most were originally intended for singer and piano alone, a few were composed with an orchestra in mind and several also were orchestrated by the composer himself or by friends under his supervision. The Cleveland selection was varied, with familiar gems alongside rarities. Two of them, especially touching, were the composer’s wedding gift to his wife in 1894, Ruhe, meine Seele! (Rest, My Soul), and the sublime Morgen (Tomorrow).  Others ranged from the visionary 1897 Hymnus, a harbinger of operas to come, to Des Dichters Abendgang (Of the Poet’s Evening Walk), Traum durch die Dämmerung (Dreaming at Twilight), and Pilgers Morgenlied (Pilgrim’s Morning Song). Keenlyside’s artistry in all of them was itself a thrilling spectacle, uncanny musicality married to impetuosity, intelligent attention to the words buoyed by ideal breath support, legato and canny portamento, dynamic control at the service of drama and perhaps above all a glorious voice whose lyricism belies its considerable power.

Space allows for only one example, so let it be Morgen, Op. 27, No. 4, orchestrated by the composer and a favorite of great singers since its premiere by Strauss’ wife Paulina de Anha in 1897. It begins as if in the middle of a conversation, the orchestra already leading up seemingly somewhere else when the voice enters and surprises with the quiet realization that “and tomorrow the sun will shine again / … and we lucky ones shall again be united/and silently we shall gaze at one another/and happiness shall surround us in silence.”  There was real love in Keenlyside’s delivery, dramatic truth in this lover’s serene realization that this indeed is true love. …”

Lawrence Budmen,southfloridaclassicalreview.com,1.2.2014

” … Acclaimed British baritone Simon Keenlyside added some vocal Strauss to a program that spanned the final decade of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth. …  While the music of Richard Strauss has long been a specialty of the house for the Cleveland Orchestra, rarely heard Debussy and a stunning performance of a landmark Stravinsky score took top honors at the second program of the Clevelanders’ annual Miami residency Friday night at the Arsht Center.  Acclaimed British baritone Simon Keenlyside added some vocal Strauss to a program that spanned the final decade of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth.

Strauss’ Don Juan, which opened the concert, has been a Cleveland showpiece since the legendary music directorship of George Szell.  While the orchestra’s lustrous strings and fine winds were strongly displayed, Franz Welser-Möst’s rapid tempos tended to make the score sound more like an overture than a tone poem. The famous horn theme, especially, was far too fast, the music lacking breadth and space. A very obvious horn fluff during a full ensemble passage also undercut this lightweight reading of Strauss’s showpiece.

Keenlyside is an intelligent artist with a voluminous, powerful baritone voice. Although there was no announcement made regarding Keenlyside being indisposed, he was clearly not at his best.

At times he almost resorted to crooning and, at one crucial point, his voice cracked on a high note. In Hymnus, the first of six Strauss songs, Keenlyside’s eyes were glued to the score and he sang at one unrelenting dynamic level.  He seemed to have difficulty with his lower register during Das Dichters Abendgang (Of the Poet’s Evening Walk). Traum durch die Dammerung (Dreaming at Twilight) and Morgen (Tomorrow) brought Keenlyside’s best singing of the night, his natural vocal warmth and straightforward, unaffected delivery suited to Strauss at his most lyrical. Welser-Möst led glowing accompaniments, the honeyed tone of Peter Otto’s violin solo rich in romantic hues. …”

Daniel Fernández, El Nuevo Herald, 4.2.2014

” El debut del barítono británico Simon Keenlyside en esta ciudad fue quizá lo que produjo una ostensible alza en la asistencia al Knight Concert Hall, lleno la noche del viernes como en muy contadas ocasiones. Y es que el prestigio ganado por este extraordinario cantante no es sólo comprobable por la copiosas críticas favorables, sino por su abundante discografía y videografía. Cualquiera que lo haya visto en el  Hamlet de Thomas o en  La Tempestad, de Adés, no podía perderse la oportunidad de escucharlo en vivo, y nada menos que acompañado por la Cleveland Orchestra y su director Franz Welser-Möst en seis difíciles canciones orquestales de Strauss.

Caracterizadas por frases melódicas de largo aliento que precisan de un impecable control del  fiato e inspiradas en temas más bien tristes, estas hermosas piezas son un desafío para cualquier cantante. Sin embargo, el barítono pasó la prueba con alta calificación; a tal punto, que el público aplaudió cada una, dejando la magna ovación para el final.

Hubo momentos muy emotivos, como en  Ruhe, meine Seele, y sobre todo, en  Morgen, al final de la cual el barítono tuvo que “limpiar sus espejuelos”. Una actuación maravillosa sin duda, aunque el público se quedó con “sabor a poco”.   … ”