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Beczala Shines at Carnegie Hall New York
Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
12/09/2024 -
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Six Romances, Op. 38: 2. “It was in the early spring” & 3. “Amid the din of the ball” – Six Romances, Op. 6: 5. “Why?” – Six Romances, Op. 16: 5. “So what, then?” – I should like in a single word – Six Romances, Op. 73: 5. “Amid sombre days” & 4. “The sun has set” – Twelve Romances, Op. 60: 12. “The mild stars shone for us” – Seven Romances, Op. 47: 6. “Does the day reign”
Edvard Grieg: Sechs Lieder, Op. 48: 1. “Gruss”, 2. “Dereinst, Gedanke meine”, 5. “Zur Rosenzeit” & 6. “Ein Traum” – Melodies of the Heart, Op. 5: 3. “Ich liebe dich”
Mieczyslaw Karlowicz: Ten Songs, Op. 3: 3. “It goes over fields”, 8. “In the calm of the evening” & 10. “The enchanted princess” – Six Songs, Op. 1: 5. “I remember quiet, clear golden days”
Robert Schumann: Kerner-Lieder, Op. 35: 3. “Wanderlied” – Myrthen, Op. 25: 3. “Der Nussbaum”, 7. “Die Lotosblume”, 24. “Du bist wie eine Blume” & 1. “Widmung” – Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 27: 4. “Jasminenstrauch”
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Six Romances, Op. 4
Piotr Beczala (tenor), Helmut Deutsch (piano)
P. Beczala (© Julia Wesely)
Star tenors are a rare commodity these days, but the Polish singer Piotr Beczala, now fifty‑seven but easily passing for forty or perhaps even younger, definitely falls into that category. What a treat it was to catch him in a solo recital at Carnegie Hall, a rare event that offered a tour de force of art songs sampled from across northern European Romantic traditions. The program of thirty songs included selections – some familiar and others rarities – from Germany, Russia, and Norway, in addition to Beczala’s native Poland. Handsomely accompanied by the pianist Helmut Deutsch, with whom the tenor released an album of Russian romances in 2023, Beczala delivered an affecting interpretation of familiar but complex emotions. Sometimes the singer’s instinctive talent for opera – he is starring in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Verdi’s Aida this season – made the delivery less subtle than it could have been, but excellent diction, a fine sense of balance, and superb synergy with Deutsch’s accompaniment all combined to deliver an enjoyable evening.
The program was bracketed by romances – the Russian answer to the art song or German Lieder – by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, songs that overlap with Beczala’s 2023 recording with Deutsch. Both composers wrote dozens of romances over the course of their careers. Some have withstood the test of time to become standard recital fare, whether from great soloists like the one entertaining us at Carnegie Hall or from music students featuring their artistry in graduation programs. The Tchaikovsky selections are the more artful, often with lush piano roulades and dance rhythms employed to evoke nostalgia – as in “It was in the early spring” – or for love lost or long ago realized – as in “Does the day reign?”. Rachmaninoff’s romances, featured here in the composite song cycle Six Romances (Op. 4, 1890‑1893), often carry a touch of fashionable Orientalism – as in “Sing not to me, beautiful maiden,” which makes reference to Georgia and evokes the music of the then‑Russian ruled Caucasus. Others, such as “Oh, stay, my love, forsake me not!” convey a dimension of urgency that betrays the narrator’s fears and apprehensions. Beczala modulated his voice beautifully, if not without some detachment, to deliver these varying emotions. He was rather more successful in the Rachmaninoff selections, which answer more to the vim and vigor of passion immediately experienced rather than passion merely recalled, as in the œuvre of Tchaikovsky, whose romantic life was not happy.
The first half’s Tchaikovsky selections were followed by five songs by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Grieg wrote mostly in Norwegian – the soprano Lise Davidsen performed some in that language, which she shares, in a rare solo recital at the Metropolitan Opera in September 2023 – but he also set a few songs to German texts adapted from the composer’s time studying in Leipzig. Four of them are part of a six‑song cycle that formed the composer’s Op. 48. The fifth, the declarative “Ich liebe dich,” is the most of famous of the 140 or so songs Grieg composed. Most of the five songs presented here are upbeat. Grieg’s wife, a lyric soprano, introduced most of his songs to European stages. He credited her as their “only true interpreter” and credited being in love with her with his success in the genre. The affecting “Zur Rosenzeit” stands out as an exception, with sobs written into the imagery of the flowers to express the narrator’s anguish. Here, too, Beczala gave a virtuoso reading and a splendid interpretation.
The second half of the recital began with the recital’s true artistic crown, songs by the little known Polish composer Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, who lived from 1876 to 1909, right on the cusp of the high Romantic before expiring in an avalanche while skiing in the Tatra mountains at the age of thirty‑two. Aligned with the “Young Poland” nationalist movement but, perhaps paradoxically, deeply influenced by the German musical tradition, he composed twenty‑two songs largely celebrating the natural beauty of his home region. Beczala luxuriated in them, especially in the nostalgic “I Remember Quiet, Golden Days” and the introductory pastoral “It Goes Over the Fields.” The odd piece out was “The Enchanted Princess,” in which the title character’s dream of knightly rescue is dashed by cruel reality. But here, too, the soloist seemed beyond content to be performing in his national idiom.
The second part continued with perhaps the recital’s most recognizable pieces, selections from the prolific Robert Schumann, who composed about 250 songs in his 46 years on earth, more than half of them in a burst of manic creativity that struck him in the year 1840. The year was a watershed occasion in his life, for it was when he could finally marry his beloved Clara Wieck after five years of objections from her father. Schumann may have been in a mood to celebrate, or he may simply have wanted to prove that he was a solid prospect who could support his new wife with his musical work. “Wanderlied” and “Widmung” are the most famous of the six songs presented, the first a robust and full‑bodied embrace of adventure, the latter a more delicate expression of love that would suit a newly married couple. Beczala was again in his element, though he did not lack in the much less frequently performed “Die Lotosblume,” the tale of a flower that waits until nightfall to reveal its beauty.
Beczala won an enthusiastic reception from the audience and returned to the stage for four encores. Rachmaninoff’s “A Dream” and “Spring Waters” are chestnuts of this repertoire. Stanislaw Moniuszko’s “The Spinner” recalled Beczala’s great success in that composer’s tenor aria from the opera Straszny Dwór, which he performed faultlessly last February at the Palm Beach Opera’s annual gala. The opera should merit the attention of certain companies trying to diversify their repertoire without compromising in artistic excellence. “Still wie die Nacht” by Carl Bohm, however, added to some seasonal signposts indicating that the holiday season is upon us. For a voice of this caliber, one could remark that he is just warming up in what could long remain a promising career.
Paul du Quenoy
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