Olmos Ensemble, Andrew Garland
A baritone voice of startling beauty
November 21, 2012The Olmos Ensemble’s third concert of the season, Nov. 19 in First Unitarian Universalist Church, was oddly programmed with a grab-bag of genres -- two song cycles, a bit of solo piano and some chamber music. What confusion! It was like a Christmas stocking stuffed with a Ferrari, a Patek-Philippe and a suite at the Carlyle.
The Ferrari came cunningly disguised as a young strawberry-curled baritone, Andrew Garland, whose name is apt because his startlingly beautiful, virile instrument and magnetic presence seem destined for garlands. His San Antonio appearance was the fourth in a national tour with pianist Warren Jones, an Olmos regular and one of the top collaborative pianists in the world. Their program here, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Songs of Travel” and Maurice Ravel’s “Don Quichotte à Dulcinée,” repeated a portion of their Carnegie Hall Presents neighborhood concert early this month at New York’s Advent Lutheran Church.
Mr. Garland projected a well-proportioned lyric baritone, bright but with a caramel core, equipped with sure aim, unshakeable control, effortless agility, an ideal legato and admirable diction in both French and English. A steely edge showed dramatic possibilities. Though the intimate space of the First U-U sanctuary wasn’t a test of vocal power, he did not seem wanting on that score.
His intelligence in drawing from a wide range of vocal colors revealed the full emotional gamut in the nine songs of the Vaughan Williams cycle. He was positively inspiring in the penultimate song, “Bright is the Ring of Words.” In “Chanson a boire,” the last of the three Ravel songs, Mr. Garland brought his operatic experience to bear in a delicious portrayal of Don Quixote in his cups.
If you missed this concert, despair not: Mr. Garland has been booked for a Tuesday Musical Club appearance, with another pianist, on November 12, 2013.
The concert opened and closed with chamber music crafted to a fine watchmaker’s standards of fit and finish. Mr Jones was joined by oboist Mark Ackerman in just the slow movement from Malcolm Arnold’s Sonatine -- the oboist was suffering from a swollen wrist that made the quicker movements inadvisable, but his tone was deeper and richer than ever. The closer was Carl Maria von Weber’s delightful Trio for flute, bassoon and piano, played with total unity and vivacious spirit by flutist Martha Long, bassoonist Sharon Kuster and Mr. Jones.
The pianist was on his own in Johannes Brahms’s Piano Pieces, Op. 118, comprising two dreamy intermezzi and a dramatic ballade. His performances were open hearted, immediate, unguarded and altogether engaging. Like a suite a the Carlyle? Sure. The one Elaine Stritch lives in.
Mike Greenberg
