Olmos Ensemble, Linda Poetschke, Anne Epperson
A grand night for singing,
from the larynx and the keyboard
March 11, 2009The Olmos Ensemble’s Franco-German concert of March 10 featured two extraordinary guest artists, one familiar and one who certainly should become so.
Soprano Linda Poetschke, a treasure of the UTSA music department for a quarter-century, sounded more ravishing than ever in songs by Robert Schumann, Reynaldo Hahn and Alfred Bachelet. Her superb collaborator, appearing for the first time in San Antonio, was pianist Anne Epperson, head of the new Collaborative Piano Department at UT-Austin. Epperson also joined Olmos regulars in instrumental chamber works by Clara and Robert Schumann and Jean Francaix.
The qualities that have always characterized Poetschke’s singing -- a gleaming, accurate, fully secure instrument welded to interpretive intelligence and ideal diction -- seemed even more fully realized, more concentrated, than before in this concert. Actually, one might say she had several instruments at her command, each with a distinct timbre and color range appropriate to the material she was singing -- childlike, bright and weightless in Robert Schumann’s Five Lieder, Op, 79, but with a slightly warmer, velvety sound in the last of them, the pensive “Snowdrops”; richer and a bit heavier, wiht wonderful pitch inflections, in Hahn’s “A Chloris”; bright again but with a luxurious, polished-silver finish in Bachelet’s “Chère nuit.” Whatever the weight or color, the voice was amazingly fresh and healthy. This is a lady who knows how to protect her assets.
In every aspect of technique, Poetschke was impeccable. The hallmark of the great Lieder singer -- the sense of the text and of the way the music conveys it -- was hers in spades. But one never got the impression that technique was in charge. This was very much a human voice, singing of human life.
Epperson was an ideal partner for Poetschke, in large measure because the pianist has a singer’s sense of line and a singer’s approach to phrasing. Everything she played was thoughtfully and masterfully shaped, always with care for the logic of the music.
Robert Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70, for horn and piano and Clara Schumann’s Three Romances, Op. 22, for oboe (originally violin) and piano found both hornist Jeff Garza and oboist Mark Ackerman somewhat at sea in the Romantic style, though Garza made a fine showing in the brilliant allegro. Epperson’s performances, especially in Clara Schumann's venturesome, handsomely made piece, were big and lavish.
Francaix’s Trio of 1994 for oboe, bassoon and piano is the musical equivalent of a screwball comedy. The performance by Ackerman, Epperson and bassoonist Sharon Kuster was stylish, spirited and impish, especially in the rollicking scherzo.
Mike
Greenberg
