Recital by the Lake

SOPRANO MARCELLA SEMBRICH, born in Poland in 1858, made her debut in Athens at 19, singing in five demanding operas; the following year she made her Dresden debut in “Lucia di Lammermoor,” which led to a five-year contract at Covent Garden. She debuted in 1883 at the brand-new Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she created roles as the Queen of the Night in “The Magic Flute,” Gilda in “Rigoletto,” Rosina in “Barber of Seville,” and many others. In all, she sang over 450 performances during her eleven seasons at the Met. After she retired in 1917, she created the vocal programs at the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School, as well as building a vocal studio near her summer home in Bolton Landing. That studio is now the Marcella Sembrich Opera Museum, an elegant tribute to the singer-teacher’s legacy.

Rubén Rengel and Ahmed Alom

Part of its mission is to present music, and this season’s series opened with a recital by violinist Rubén Rengel and pianist Ahmed Alom, performing in what’s essentially a large salon, a perfect venue for this kind of program. As the museum’s artistic director, Richard Wargo, explained, Sembrich knew many contemporaneous composers, among them Liszt, Brahms, and Kreisler, each of whom was represented in the programming.

Beginning with Liszt’s “Paraphrase de concert sur ‘Rigoletto,’” composed in the late 1850s. Opera arias were the pop songs of their day, and this piece followed a popular tradition of incorporating those arias into virtuoso showcases for instrumentalists.

This piece was especially appropriate insofar as it celebrates both Liszt and “Rigoletto,” with which Sembrich was famously associated. The piece teases the themes we’re expecting to hear amidst cascades of arpeggios and subtle re-harmonizations to help build suspense – exactly the kind of playing we’d hear a century later from Art Tatum. When Alom’s left hand suddenly burst into stride passages while his right unleashed a torrent of tremolos, it was also a demonstration of superior pedal work. And then the theme of the opera’s famous quartet burst through like sunshine. A terrific crowd-pleaser, and this crowd was pleased.

Alom outro’d the piece, then welcomed Rengel to the stage to introduce a trio of short works by Fritz Kreisler. In the first, the very well-known “Liebesleid,” Rengel’s shifts were more subtle than what you’ll hear on a Kreisler recording, but that didn’t take away any of the charm that often depends upon that device. His tools were more subtle, such as a slightly slower repeat at the end of the piece that jacked up the sentiment a notch. “La gitana” opens with a big, declamatory intro, after which Rengel sounded the subsequent sections in a variety of shadings, as a singer would do, the differentiate the story being told in each. And “Tambourin chinois” allowed him to show off his superior bowing skills, reminding us that such pieces were as much written for the eye as for the ear.

At bottom: Joachim,
Sembrich, and Brahms

Sembrich performed on the New Year’s Day program in 1879 that introduced the Brahms Violin Concerto, which certainly underscores the association between the two. Rengel and Alom closed the first half of their program with Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 3, a late-in-life work for the composer that easily asserted his mastery of the form.

A mastery that was carried into this performance. Defying the classical-concert tradition of verbal silence from the performers, Rengel said a few words before performing the work. Such intros work especially well in a room this size when addressing an intelligent audience.

It’s a work that blossoms from the few seeds planted in the first four measures, with nobility and mystery intertwined through the opening movement. If the performers seemed to force some of its expressiveness, they made up for it with effective tempos without any self-conscious pauses within a melody line. And I was especially impressed with the effectiveness of the movement’s bariolage passages, again showcasing Rengel’s bowing skill.

Which is not to short-change the pianist. They were full partners here, their trip through the Adagio a simple but effective journey. A sense of whimsy carried through the third movement, with Alom taking the lead, but the final movement brought us back to nobility of the opening, this time with more urgency attached. The episodes flowed nicely from one to the next, and the artists clearly shared a thoughtful vision of the piece.

More solo piano opened the second half, again with an opera-inspired work – this time Busoni’s “Fantasia da camera super ‘Carmen.’” It’s another work that begs to be seen, especially with impressive hand-crossings in its opening. The opera’s “Habanera” gets put through a variety of paces, including stride and a march figuration.

The Sembrich Museum

Two works by Manuel de Falla reminded us of that composer’s gift for melody captured in virtuoso writing. “Canción” maintains a rhythm reminiscent of Satie’s first “Gymnopedie,” while “Andaluza” challenged Alom to keep its inner voices distinct above its own restless rhythm.

Rengel returned to finish the program with two lesser-known works, beginning with the Violin Sonata by Francis Poulenc. Finished in 1943, it was dedicated to the memory of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, whose untimely assassination provoked an agitato character in the sonata’s opening. Or so runs my interpretation.

Rengel and Alom, meanwhile, offered an interpretation that thought nothing of the technical challenges, allowing them to inhabit the fierce changes of mood that characterize so many of this composer’s works. Strains of sweetness peeked through the otherwise fierce opening, and even the more lyrical middle movement made similar travels, burnished by clangorous pluckings from the violin. The final movement, marked Presto tragico, starts with a perpetual-motion figure, accelerating through arpeggios before climaxing with some wicked pizzicato-arco alternations. Then a fast succession of contrasting moods brought the piece to a devastating finish.

And then a change of pace. Stravinsky’s “Suite italienne” was drawn from his “Pulcinella” ballet, itself built on themes suggested by Diaghilev from Baroque-era sources. Violinist Samuel Dushkin prepared this arrangement with the composer, presenting seven contrasting sections. And what a showcase for the violin! The Serenata offers double trills, while the double-stops in the Tarantella appear in the context of a lively back-and-forth with the piano. Nice use of tremolo in the Scherzino, and more double-stops in the Minuetto give way to fast, impressive Finale.

It was a triumph for the performers; it was as concert-friendly a setting as you could imagine; it was a very happy audience that paused for some refreshment and a last look at lovely Lake George before heading into the night.

There are more concerts and other events to come, so stay up-to-date at the Sembrich website.