Audience succumbs to Dawn Upshaw's lyrical lovely tone

Finney Chapel was packed Tuesday to hear Dawn Upshaw open the 1999-2000 Artist Recital Series. Upshaw and her pianist Gilbert Kalish played for a generous two hours and fifteen minutes. With Kalish's nimble assistance, Upshaw held the audience in the palm of her hand. The repertoire was mixed, with Upshaw singing a range of pieces to suit nearly every taste in the audience. Instead of flashy, coloratura-style singing, Upshaw opted for pieces that had a deeper, personal significance. The recital benefited from Upshaw's personal touch.

Dressed in a green silk suit with a flowing flower pattern, Upshaw began the program with six pieces of lieder by Robert Schumann. These opening songs were audience favorites. From the very first piece, Mit Myrten und Rosen" ("With Myrtles and Roses"), Upshaw evidenced her crisp, expressive style. This was certainly the case with "Mignon," a love song that spoke of "the land where the lemons blossom," and where "a gentle wind blows from the blue sky." Upshaw's singing and gesticulation expressed the emotion and longing also called for in Schumann's music. Included in this opening Schumann set was "Des Sennen Abschied" ("The Cowherd's Farewell"); a piece speaking of the end of summer, "Die Lotosblume" ("The Lotus Flower"), "Singt nicht in Trauertonen" ("Sing not in Mournful Tones"); a witty piece about lovers in the evening, and "Widmung" ("Dedication").

With the Schumann concluded, Upshaw and Kalish next turned to three songs from a series of five by little known American composer Ruth Crawford Seeger, the step-mother of folk singer Pete Seeger. Possessing an avid appreciation of American music, Ruth Seeger edited and compiled a collection of folksongs during her life. She did not write a large body of work, but was instead "strongly encouraged to tend to the house," Upshaw told the audience.

The Seeger set opened with "Home Thoughts," a song of cutting urgency, filled with sharp, splintered tones that were countered by the soft lyricism in Upshaw's voice. "The sea rocks have a green moss. / The pine rocks have red berries. / I have memories of you," read the opening lines. It was poignant to hear Upshaw, with her lark-like soprano, sing the line, "I know hours empty as a beggar's tin cup on a rainy day, empty as a soldier's sleeve with an arm lost." The song was reminiscent of Britten's "War Requiem," another piece filled with juxtaposition between the lyricism inherent in the singer's voice and the bleakness of the text.

Upshaw followed this stirring song with "White Moon" and "Joy." With its speckled sound, "White Moon" had Upshaw singing long stretches unaccompanied, with the piano slipping in ever-so-occasionally to accent her singing. "Joy," a lusty, vivacious number exploded throughout Finney with Upshaw hurtling through the first lines of Carl Sandburg's text: "Let a joy keep you. / Reach out your hands / And take it when it runs by, / As the Apache dancer clutched his woman." Upshaw was so moved by Sandburg's poems that she shared them with the audience before adding the musical element. Maybe not an audience highlight, the Seeger songs did serve as an example of Upshaw's commitment to contemporary American music.

To balance the discord of the Seeger pieces, Upshaw and Kalish continued the program with Maurice Ravel's Histories naturelles. With text by Jules Renard, each song was a sketch of a different animal. Upshaw described the piece as "a musical caricature of five animals." Upshaw went on to briefly describe each animal to the audience before she commenced singing: "The peacock is a proud personality who thinks quite a bit of himself. He waits for his fianc� and stands around, feeling very attractive." Upshaw's presence mirrored the melody and the text. She gesticulated broadly, and one really didn't need to know French to know what she was singing about. "Some people believe these songs are not really about animals, but about various personalities," Upshaw commented with a wink to the audience.

Upshaw and Kalish continued the evening with the most adventurous part of the program: six songs written by young composers. Upshaw commenced with Osvaldo Golijov's "Lua Descolorida," a lullaby to the moon. Slow and steady in its smooth sonic build, the piece was reminiscent of Upshaw's biggest recording success, Gorecki's haunting Symphony #3.

The six songs within this contemporary grouping all had significance for Upshaw. "Lua Descolorida" and James Primosh's "Cinder" were both written for Upshaw. Michael Torke's "Drink Water," a piece that seemed a cross between Copland's "Laurie's Aria" and John Adams' inspired repetition, was arranged for her by the composer. Upshaw concluded the set with John Mustos' "Litany", a simple, evocative, distanced piece.

Concluding the evening, Upshaw sang two songs off her newest recording,Dawn Upshaw sings Vernon Duke. Upshaw commented, "His [Duke's] shows didn't make it to production, but there are dozens of wonderful songs that survived." She sang two that were both scintillating and witty, in the tradition of Cole Porter: "The Love I Long For," and "I Like the Likes of You," with lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, lyricist for The Wizard of Oz. Both were beautiful non-pareils to a night of lovely music.

With the two encores she deservedly received, Upshaw took the opportunity to sing one more piece of Schumann lieder, "Err Ist" (About Spring), which showed off her top register, and William Bolcolm's "Waitin'," clearly an audience favorite from the enthusiastic applause.