William Ferguson, tenor
Martin Katz, piano
Oct. 5, Perkinson Recital Hall, University of Richmond
William Ferguson may be Richmond’s favorite classical singer. Having been born to a prominent family, and being an alumnus of St. Christopher’s School, no doubt gives him a local leg up; but what really attracts listeners, here or elsewhere, is his versatility.
Opera singers, especially in the US, like to mix European art-song with American folk songs, show tunes, cabaret and vintage popular songs in their recitals; but few can maneuver persuasively through all those styles. Ferguson is one of the few – an operatic tenor who can reincarnate Noël Coward or Donald O’Connor when that’s called for.
In a recital presented by the Belvedere Series, Ferguson is joined by Martin Katz, piano accompanist to generations of great singers, most notably mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, who also taught and mentored Ferguson. Katz, in turn, was a teacher of and formative influence on pianist Ingrid Keller, the Belvedere’s artistic director. Multiple legacies behind this show.
Ferguson and Katz titled their program “My Beloved,” after “My Beloved Is Mine,” the canticle by Benjamin Britten with which they launched the recital. The piece is an urgently passionate declaration of love for Britten’s musical and life partner, tenor Peter Pears, its urgency italicized by a propulsive, rather gnarly piano part. A bang-out-of-the-gate opener, which in the first of two weekend dates sounded borderline-strident in the bright acoustic of the University of Richmond’s Perkinson Recital Hall.
The main course of the program is Robert Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” (“Poet’s Love”), a cycle of 16 mostly brief settings of poems by Heinrich Heine. Many of them are closer to soliloquy or dramatized narrative than to conventional song, giving the singer and pianist more to work with expressively. When Schumann turns to more familiar song form, the tone is generally declarative and the tunes often reflect German folk and vernacular traditions.
Ferguson’s theatrical background paid high dividends in Schumann’s mini-dramas, and Katz’s playing in these numbers was a master class in scene- and mood-painting. In the “straight” songs, their performances were straightforward – convincingly love-struck, lusty or nostalgic, but without excess. (Except at highest volume, when stridency threatened again.)
The second half of the program is devoted to lighter fare – lighter in spirit than lightweight in content – ranging from Aaron Copland’s setting of the old American hymn tune “Shall We Gather at the River,” Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” and Roger Quilter’s “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes” to Porter’s “You Don’t Know Paree” and other novelties from the popular songbook. The singer and pianist sounded consistently in character in these varied song styles.
Their treatments of comic numbers – Foster’s “If You’ve Only Got a Mustache,” a mating asset for the mid-19th century American man (so that’s why they all grew ’em); Leonard Bernstein’s “Rabbit at Top Speed,” a rabbit stew recipe-in-song (in English and French); Donald Swann’s “The Gnu,” a catalog of the gmany species that critter is gnot; John Duke’s “Penguin Geometry,” a jocular reminder that at the bottom of the Earth all directions are north – were packed with personality, and lyrics were remarkably comprehensible considering their quantity of speedy patter.
The duo’s first-night encore was “Blackberry Winter” by Alec Wilder and Loonis McGlohon, a miniature masterpiece of music and poetry that likens memories of lost love to the brief cold spell in May during which blackberries ripen.
The program repeats at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 6 in Perkinson Recital Hall, North Court, University of Richmond. Tickets: $45. Details: (804) 833-1481; http://belvedereseries.org
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