NATS Journal January/February 2014
Andrew Garland—American
Portraits. Andrew Garland, baritone;
Donna Loewy, piano. (GPR Records
B00ARWDS8M; 52:10)
Jake Heggie: The
Moon is a Mirror: “The
Strength of the Lonely,” “What the Miner
in the Desert Said,” “The Old Horse and
the City,” “What the Forester Said,” “What
the Snowman Said.” Stephen Paulus:
A Heartland Portrait: “Flying at Night,”
“At Midnight,” “An August Night,” “Porch
Swing in September,” “A Summer Night.”
Lori Laitman: Men
With Small Heads:
“Men With Small Heads,” “Refrigerator
1957,” “A Small Tin Parrot Pin,” “Snake
Lake.” Tom Cipullo: America 1968:
“Monet’s Water Lilies,” “Hey Nonny No,”
“The Point,” “The Whipping,” “Those
Winter Sundays,” “Frederick Douglass.”
If
one wants to encounter a first-rank
authentic
baritone, look no further
than
Andrew Garland. Here is a young
singer
who has it all: a distinctively
beautiful
voice, flawless technique,
exceptional
musicality, and superb
communicative
skills. He is also an
intelligent
and articulate young man
with
the chiseled good looks of a
bodybuilder
and athlete. Quite simply,
there
is no other up and coming clas-
sical
singer who is a more impressive
complete
package or more deserving
of
a major career. The sound itself is an
ideal
blend of rich warmth and ringing
brilliance,
and Garland’s technical
solidity
allows him to sing beautifully
even
when negotiating through the
most
difficult, turbulent melodic lines.
One
will not hear the slightest hint of
ungainly
singing. Nor does one detect
any
expressive or musical hesitancy,
which
likely stems from the extensive
coachings
that he did with all four
of
the composers represented on the
disk.
Garland sings with the kind of
artistic
ownership that can be elusive
in
this fast paced age.
Such
artistic ownership is literally
true
with America 1968, composed
specifically
for Garland and Loewy
by
Tom Cipullo, one of the busiest,
most
admired, and most decorated
art
song composers before the public
today.
This work is a stunning tour de
force for its composer and the artists
who
bring it so thrillingly to life. There
is
a wild swing of moods, colors, and
styles,
but a consistent voice ties it
all
together. Garland delivers these
texts
with perfect clarity, and rises to
climactic
high Fs and Gbs
with thrilling
ease.
The set culminates in an
immensely
inspiring song, “Frederick
Douglass,”
which Garland sings with
a
sincerity that can be neither taught
nor
faked. To experience such artistic
authenticity
is a privilege.
Steven
Paulus is one of our most
distinguished
composers, with works
that
have been performed not only
in
concert halls around the world,
but
even at the funerals of two of our
former
presidents. He is perhaps most
renowned
for his choral works, but
he
has crafted a host of works for solo
voice
that are nothing less than superb.
A Heartland Portrait is
suffused
with
a beautiful sense of heart and
warmth,
and these sensitively shaped
phrases
draw out gorgeous vocalism
from
Garland and exceptionally attentive
playing
from Loewy.
Jake
Heggie is a composer of similar
renown,
and The Moon is a Mirror is
yet
another example of his superlative
gifts
for setting out of the ordinary
texts
in arresting fashion. The moon
figures
in all of these songs one way or
another,
but don’t assume for a moment
that
this is going to be a journey
of
dreamy loveliness. The poems are
widely
varied, and Heggie delivers the
flavor
of each with bracing originality.
Perhaps
the most striking is the
second
song, “What the Miner in the
Desert
Said,” in which we experience
the
hallucinations of someone dying
of
thirst. It’s a small masterpiece, and
Garland’s
singing of it is masterful.
Listen
especially for the last moment,
when
this unfortunate man meets his
demise.
These songs are in some ways
the
most unmistakably American in
their
tone, and the baritone is to be
commended
for delivering these texts
with
comfortable ease that never strays
into
caricature. Listen especially for
the
the way in which he allows a feel
of
blues to enter his vocalism without
compromising
the flow of the line or
the
beauty of his essential sound.
Completing
the collection is Lori
Laitman’s
entertaining Men with Small
Heads, which springs upon the listener
one
delightful surprise after another.
The
earnest conversational tone of
the
first song and its sense of fun is
a
breath of fresh air, as is the mock
melodrama
and swirling contrasts of
“Refrigerator
1957.” The third song,
“A
Small Tin Parrot Pin,” is one of
those
songs that constantly shifts, albeit
it
in subtle fashion, and to deliver
it
with such precise ensemble and clarity
is
incredibly impressive. Anyone
who
fears snakes may be tempted to
avoid
the fourth and final song, but
to
do so would be to miss out on one
of
the most intriguing songs on the
disk.
Make sure you listen to the last
moment,
to experience the snake’s
frightening
strike. Laitman seems
incapable
of composing anything but
captivating
art songs, and her utterly
unique
voice is a vivid presence here.
Garland’s
diction is exemplary,
both
for its flawless clarity as well as
its
authenticity. Nevertheless, GRP
has
included full texts, which allows
the
listener to appreciate these widely
varied
texts even more deeply. There
are
also biographic notes about the
artists
and the four composers, plus
brief
background on each work. What
this
release is mostly about, however,
is
the staggering quality of this music
and
these performances. One can only
hope
that many more recordings of
this
calibre will be made by these two
exceptional
artists. - Gregory Berg
