Talk About the Passion

Original image of Anne-Marie McDermott monitoring a student’s performance at White Recital Hall by There Stands the Glass.

Music lovers within my demographic- white, male, middle-aged and Midwestern- recently commemorated the fortieth anniversary of the release of R.E.M.’s Murmur with rhapsodic social media posts.  I also loved Murmur.  Paying $1.02 to attend an R.E.M. concert at the Uptown Theater on May 30, 1983, still seems like the deal of a lifetime.

That said, it’s been more than 25 years since I’ve listened to Murmur.  Having fully absorbed the music in the 1980s, I’ve felt no need to revisit the album.  Expanding the horizons of my knowledge has always excited me far more than wallowing in the familiar.  Chamber music- a form that until recently was entirely foreign to me- has provided many of my kicks of late.  

Watching Anne-Marie McDermott alternately encourage and scold three young pianists at Grant Recital Hall yesterday blew my mind.  Almost everything the famed musician said in response to their performances of compositions by Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethover and Camille Saint-Saens acted as an enlightening "Catapult".

Concert Review: Anthony Roth Constanzo at the Folly Theater

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Anthony Roth Costanzo censured himself at the Folly Theater on Saturday, December 18, after explaining that he and pianist Bryan Wagorn “met when we were nobodies.”  After surveying the largely empty house, the countertenor exclaimed “we’re still nobodies!”

In truth, Constanzo is one of the world’s biggest opera stars.  His celebrated turn in the title role of Philip Glass’ Akhnaten is among his prominent achievements.  Yet he attracted what appeared to be less than 300 people in his Kansas City debut.  

I took advantage of Midwestern indifference by purchasing a discounted front row seat to the concert on Cyber Monday.  Positioned just 20 feet from the unamplified countertenor, I considered reaching for the earplugs I always carry with me.  

The diminutive Costanzo applied startling heft to his piercing instrument.  He and Wagorn repeatedly paused during a gorgeous reading of a Hector Berlioz song cycle to permit echoes of Costanzo’s powerful voice in the piano’s soundboard to reverberate.

A revealing interpretation of George Gershwin’s “The Man I Love” allowed me to hear the standard in an entirely new way.  A pair of compositions he recently commissioned in his position as the current Artist-In-Residence of The New York Philharmonic were no less engaging.

Costanzo admitted his feelings are hurt when he’s asked if he’d prefer to have a “real voice.”  He demonstrated his facility with voices of all types during a fascinating master class at Grant Recital Hall the next day.   Even in the unglamorous setting, Costanzo shone like a certifiable celebrity.