The Musical Passion

review by Justin Chen

            It is almost impossible to perform music with a small group all of people. However, by performing a series of music from romantic era, the 13 performers were doing a fantastic job not only demonstrating their fantastic musical skills but also the beauty of the classical music.

            The first piece of music was the Spanische Liebeslider, which translate into English is the Spanish love song, composed by Robert Schumann in 1840. The music is a collection of the Spanish love poem. Schumann composed this for four soloists: Soprano, Contralto, Tenor and Baritone. During last night’s performance, four soloists did amazing job to interpret the music to the audience. The Soprano Lisa Saffer had such good voice control especially the high notes. The tenor soloists David Charles Tay and the Baritone soloists Michael Meraw sang with the emotion of this music, showing how desperate the writer and the composer need love. Last, I want to point out the Mezzo-Soprano MaryAnn McCormick. There was not a lot of solo sections for the mezzo-Soprano, however the solo aria Hoch, hoch sind dir Berge was absolutely fantastic. The aria is about a girl who wants her lover coming back to her. Ms. McCormick was a wonderful interpreter of this aria. She had wonderful Lagatto to control the tempo of the song. She sang this with the right characteristic and pronunciation. Her voice with the divine Jordan hall would be the perfect partner to perform this wonderful aria. When I hear the voice at the beginning of this aria, it was a thrill. My whole body is filled with the characteristic that the author and the composer want us to feel. I feel like I became that girl at that time.  

       Almost at the end of the night, Dvorák piano trio in f minor was a wonderful way to end this concert. Dvorak inspired by his friend Johannes Brahms. It’s a setting of three instruments; one violin, one cello and one piano. At the beginning of the music, the violin and cello came in first with a rather intense melody. As the piano came in, the tension enlarged. The tension maintained through almost the end of the music. The music became really happy and lively. As the violin and cello correspond with each other, it demonstrated a beautiful image of Slovak scene where is quiet and beautiful. The violinist Nicholas cellist Paul Katz and pianist Max Levinston shows their passion towards music. Without their passion, it would be a huge failure of the interpretation of this composition.

            Last night is definitely a memorable night for both the musician and the audience. I can believe that a small chamber and a piano can create such wonderful music.