A New Kind Of Recital

By Barry O'Neal ©2004

SONGS FOR A NEW TIME: The Music of David Eddleman, Allan Jaffe, Tom Cipullo and Melanie Mitrano. Leonard Nimoy Thalia (at Symphony Space). May 13, 2004

Vocal recitals devoted to new repertoire can be problematic, depending, as they do, on the expertise and probity of one singer and a pianist, and offering an audience music to which it has no prior connection. The concert by EJM Productions at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia took a refreshing approach by presenting music of four composers, mixing voice types, and varying the accompaniment between piano and guitar. On paper the concert looked intriguing, but the results were more variable.

Here, I must insert a disclaimer. As a longtime friend of David Eddleman, employed by one of his publishers, I may be presumed to have a bias in his favor. My comments on his music should be weighed against that "conflict of interest."

The concert began with a solo guitar rag (Matti's Rag) by Alan Jaffe, which though roughly played by the composer, was an agreeable gloss on the rag style, lacking only the melodic freshness of the best examples of the form. Next came Doves and Crocodiles, Mr. Jaffe's oddly colorless settings, for soprano and guitar, of excerpts from early reviews of Beethoven's music drawn

from Nicholas Slonimsky's celebrated The Lexicon of Musical Invective. Mr. Jaffe's music, though graceful for the singer, was too prosaic and lacked musical distinction. Soprano Melanie Mitrano, for whom the work was written, was the excellent singer, her fine diction making reference to the text insert in the program, nearly superfluous. Mr. Jaffe, oddly tentative in his playing, was her accompanist. The lovely guitar setting of the theme from Beethoven's last piano sonata with which Doves and Crocodiles ended, demonstrated a little too pointedly the memorable qualities that had been missing in this work.

The first of David Eddleman's song cycles, Kokkari Lyrics followed. Setting a group of poems by poet and pianist, Frank Daykin, the songs demonstrated Mr. Eddleman's ability to underline and embody the atmosphere of these lyrics, a souvenir of time spent in a small Greek village in 1990. The cycle was very enjoyable with several particularly heartfelt, atmospheric songs and a general mood of restless longing. However, the last song (The bird repeats its motif...) seemed too pop-styled for the poem and the rest of the cycle. Once again, we were treated to a singer with excellent diction. Tenor Michael Polscer, may not have an overwhelmingly beautiful voice but he places it well, and in this intimate environment he made every phrase tell a story. Richard Gordon, was the responsive pianist for this worthy cycle.

Three songs by Tom Cipullo, Touch Me, Going and The Pocketbook, with Ms. Mitrano back on stage accompanied by the composer, ended the first half of the evening. Mr. Cipullo's well-fashioned songs belong to that class of material that straddles the worlds of art song and theater song. Beautifully written for the voice, with pungent piano accompaniments, they were entertaining to hear. The Pocketbook, in Ms. Mitrano's blazing rendition, was the most memorable. A brilliant setting of a very funny poem by Marilyn Kallet about a woman's longing for a "Fluid Italian suede" pocketbook, it was a tour de force in Ms. Mitrano's performance, and ended the first half of the concert on a high note indeed.

Another cycle of songs by David Eddleman, Lost Shadows, again set to striking poems by Frank Daykin began the second half. Written for Michael Polscer, they explored, with considerable feeling a world of shadowy memories and painful losses. Alternately rambunctious, delicate and haunting they were beautifully delineated by Mr. Polscer, whose gifts as a singer of art songs seem unusually well developed and finely honed. Once again, Richard Gordon was the expert piano accompanist.

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