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December 30, 2001 At the KWCMS Music room, Gerry King, tenor, Carol Missio-King, piano,in Schubert's song cycle, Die-Winterreise. The night was snowy and cold, but not blizzardly, and satisfyingly large audience was on hand to hear the fruits of this couple's labours on this great cycle. Opening with a handful account of some of the special features of the set, they proceeded with even more |
dedication than we recall from their performance a year ago in another venue, considerably aided, no doubt., by the intimacy of the acoustic and the excellence, of the piano. The 24 songs are almost uniformly despairing, but they're also very beautiful, and their beauties were in good hands with the Kings. His light, expressive voice is well suited to their repertoire and the piano support was always sensitive and appropriate. Without pretending to be Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten, the Kings sustained interest and impressed all with the quality of these songs. -
Review- The couple of dozen of us who did brave the elements were, in general, pretty well rewarded. Mr. king is really into his music, sympathizes with it, understands it, and has a very nice voice with the range, if not quite the ultimate level of control, needed to convey this amazing music effectively. Despite that deceptive sense of simplicity that Schubert always projects, some of these songs are extremely difficult, and this singer negotiated these, for the most part, without serious problems. As require the extreme of sensitivity and nuance, and here King was in general impressive, as was Mrs. King at the Kawai small grand employed. she is an extremely capable artist, and we only wished that they had allowed the lid to be at least a bit elevated, though granting that for a tenor that much competition from a piano could be a problem. Subtle shifts of shading and dynamics are the name of the game for both pianist and singer, and for both pianist and singer, and for the pianist in particular, very supple and agile fingers. She was exemplary in all of this. There are two dozen songs in this cycle, and this isn't the occasion for detail. but we will add that the very last of these songs, a real crusher emotionally, was also the best performed, in a hushed unforgettable voice, suspended in the void, speaking to all humanity about the pitiable wretch of an organ-grinder plying his trade in the ice-streets. These performers can be amply proud of their achievement here.
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