AFTER TWO YEARS, CATHARSIS
In the elite world of art song, mezzo Sasha Cooke comes closest today to wearing the mantle of the late East Bay singer Lorraine Hunt, who had left us indelible musical memories. Cooke’s evening recital Sunday achieved multiple goals with reflections on two years of nationwide pandemic disruptions. She mastered (and memorized) an unprecedented array of 17 world-premiere songs written for the occasion by as many composers, using texts and poems suited to the theme.
And for those listening on Jan. 30, the catharsis to the pandemic was greatly needed and appreciated. The harmonies were agreeable, the piano parts (played deftly by Kirill Kuzmin) challenging. If you were seeking atonality, this was not your repertoire.
The works veered in many directions. There were comic songs, where Cooke was also actress. Novelty songs. Chromatic marvels by Missy Mazzoli recalling Hugo Wolff’s fine-chiseled Mörike Songs. Many recalling the anxiety over Covid19, the problems of working at home, and “attending” virtual meetings, as in Rene Orth’s “Dear Colleagues” and Andrew Marshall’s “(A Bad Case of) Kids.” And Matt Bohler and John Glover both brought out the pandemic inquietude.
Recalling our quarantine but from another tack, Huang Ruo’s “The Work of Angels” reflected on the plight of Asian immigrants held on long detention, and sometimes dying there, at nearby Angel Island, a result of our Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, enforced for over half a century.
The closing work had me blasting off my mask in shouting bravos: Jimmy Lopez Bellido’s “Where Once We Sang,” which brought on an air of optimism with chromaticism while recalling the great lieder traditions from Richard Strauss’ times. It was set to poems of the noted librettist Mark Campbell, whose texts were taken up by no less than three of the composers in all.
Then, circling back to the amazing Ms. Cooke herself: a lovely seamless voice moving with facility over her range. Able visibly to play out parts in works to alleviate the overall pain. And annotating her recital too. One attendee complained that the music of the vocal lines all sounded much the same. True—none of it sounded like Alban Berg, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Hovhaness, Scriabin or Monteverdi. But similar comments could be made at most lieder recitals. Furthermore, the composers knew precisely how to play to the varied strengths of the remarkable interpreter, Ms. Cooke.
And what about her amazing pianist, Kirill Kuzmin? He showed his virtuosic side in codas and keyboard commentaries from Gabriel Kahane, Timo Andres, Huang Ruo, Frances Pollock and Mazzoli. I was struck too by the enigmas of Lembit Beecher, John Glover and Kamala Sankaram with messages to ponder (in texts by Liza Balkan, Kelley Rourke and Campbell.)
The management helpfully provided not only all the texts in print, but also projected them like opera supertitles, even though all were in English.
With all world premieres, a complete listing of creative artists is in order. Other composers were Caroline Shaw, Joel Thompson, Hilary Purrington, Timo Andres, Nico Muhly, and Christopher Cerrone. Other librettists: Colleen Murphy, Gene Scheer, Thomas Traherne, Lola Ridge, D.H. Hwang, Todd Boss, John K. Samson, Emily Roller, and Royce Vavrek. A true contemporary cornucopia!
The recital was held at Davies Hall, under auspices of the S.F. Symphony.
