music

Festival del Sole Ends with Glitter

Aleksandra Kurzak-photo by Andrzej Swietlik

Scottish media sensation Susan Boyle aside, most well known performers were pretty sharp even when they were pretty young. That was made abundantly clear Sunday afternoon at the closing concert of Napa Valley’s Festival del Sole, where four rising stars showed their brilliance.

Closing out this year’s music festival in memorable fashion, the Russian National Orchestra was guest conducted by a talented young Israeli, Omer Meir Wellber. Leading a long program without score, Wellber’s communication with the musicians was direct and clearly answered, and they gave their guest a dynamic range and crispness of sound that would be the envy of many regular conductors. Both a conductor and composer, Wellber seems to be proof that a deep study of composition theory can truly be communicated to his musicians and thence to the audience. An accomplished accordion player to boot, this triple threat even treated us to a surprise program addition, strapping on his squeezebox for three encores.

Along with the 30-year-old conductor was 25-year-old pianist Joyce Yang, a silver medalist at the 2005 Van Cliburn International Competition—she was a freshman at Juilliard at the time! They collaborated on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, a powerful—though idiosyncratic—interpretation that earned Yang a standing ovation.

After that deeply-felt concerto, the second half of the concert was pure bling, with arias sung by Sardinian tenor Francesco Demuro and Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, more rising stars of the world stage. Adding dramatic touches to gorgeous voices, these two singers put on an enchanting show. And the best part of our delight was their obvious delight in it.

But first Wellber conducted the overture from Verdi’s La forza del destino. This was the stuff of big horns and smooth strings, stirring drama with sudden fragile passages of clarinet. It was completely over the top, and set that tone.

Then Demuro warmed up with a soft passage in “Parigi, o cara,” keeping his voice restrained and barely supported, before building to a power that easily filled Yountville’s Lincoln Theater. His sharp diction and agile scales were evidence of painstaking technique, and his sound was youthful and warmly bright. Kurzak joined in, her voice balancing vibrant body with the clarity of a bell. And while her high notes were eye-popping, her coquettish glances and occasional raised eyebrow stole our hearts. They ended that aria with a gorgeous duet, pairing clean voices in tight harmony.

Demuro returned for “Una furtive lagrima” (A secret tear), one of the most famous of all tenor arias. The first stanza is orchestral, with careful harp notes and a sultry bassoon, and then the tenor walked onstage singing. His bright “m’ama” lit up the room, and the long held “vedo” that followed softly sizzled. And the final cadenza that launched Pavarotti’s career? Demuro nailed it.

Omer WellberAfter that, Kurzak upped the ante with “Una voce poco fa” from The Barber of Seville. Negotiating Rossini’s decorative runs with ease and hitting isolated high notes dead on, all while mugging for the audience, it became clear why she is a darling of the world’s top stages, including the New York Metropolitan Opera, London’s Royal Opera House-Covent Garden, and, recently, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala.

She confirmed that in “Glitter and Be Gay” from Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, with an extraordinary clarity in high laughing cadenzas.

And warming even further as the set continued, Kurzak half-pulled a violinist to his feet in “I could have danced all night” from My Fair Lady. But when he realized she was looking for a dance partner the hapless Russian quickly slid to his seat. Rather than protect his too-sober strings, Wellber encouraged her on the accordion!

Though her Italian was sumptuous, Kurzak’s English betrayed Polish roots, crooning  “Ah cooed haf dahnzed awl naahht” to my gratification.

So why did I barely mention the Rachmaninoff? It is a little difficult. Yang is powerful, but her vision of the concerto is simply not compelling. The intensity of the opening—striking chords alternating with a single deep note, a slow crescendo of chords and pounding bass note—were rendered less effective by her introduction of extra notes into the long decays. Those grace notes clouded the gripping undertow of the moment, a look inside Rachmaninoff’s internal debate, with all the insanity and sorrow that underlay his Romantic fervor.

But Yang’s cadenzas were skilful and sometimes magical. And there were great moments of fire and sauce, and sadly lyrical moments, and hypnotic piano arpeggios and clarinets giving voice to a pureness beyond reason.

If they had a chance to do it again, I’m sure it would have cooked.

 

—Adam Broner

Photo top of soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, photo by Andrzej Swietlik; photo bottom of conductor Omer Meir Wellber.