The Talisker Players with Krisztina Szabó, mezzo-soprano; Aaron Durand, baritone; Stewart Arnott, actor; at Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church and Centre for Justice. May 4, 2016.
Love is often described as an experience of highs and lows, which gives it an automatic similarity to music. But unlike music, which usually provides a feeling of resolution, love itself can be a far messier and dangerous business. The frequency with which love goes south may account with our ongoing interest in stories of doomed romance. This was the theme chosen for Talisker Players season-ending concert, which focused on the painful paths of several notorious couples: Romeo and Juliet and their Broadway counterparts, Maria and Tony, Catherine and Heathcliffe of Wuthering Heights, the Highwayman and the Innkeeper’s Daughter, and other cursed couples. In a manner of speaking it could be said that the Talisker Players chose to end their season on a low note rather than a high one, a daring choice, and characteristic of an ensemble that regularly investigates the complexity of the human condition.
Some of the high points of these low notes were Stewart Arnott’s readings from the final chapter of Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte and The Parting of Lancelot and Guinevere from Morte Darthur by Thomas Malory. Both these works have become famous stage and screen vehicles, so it is wonderful to be treated to the original powerful literary versions of these stirring tales. The image of Heathcliff lying on a rain-soaked bed with a look of yearning in hollow, dead eyes, is deeply evocative, and one not available in the William Wyler version. Arnott is well past the age of jeune premier, so these readings were preferable to Romeo’s rapture at the sight of Juliet. Antony beseeching Cleopatra would have been far better suited to him: “Egypt, thou knows’t too well/My heart was to thy rudder tied by strings/And thou should tow me after”.
The evening included several touches that were slightly different than previous concerts. For one thing, the addition of the conductor, William Rowson, signalled the ambitious nature of the program, and also, provided a rare opportunity to watch a conductor lead a small ensemble instead of a large orchestra. Rowson conducted the complex contemporary composition, The Highwayman, by Dean Burry, as well as the final, beautifully performed Songs of a Wayfarer. The instruments for this song cycle included another unusual touch, a Harmonium, which is over 100 years old and took a week to tune to the required pitch. It is a lovely looking instrument, which deserves more respect than it sometimes gets when described as a pump organ, and has a bell-like, piercing sound.
Baritone Aaron Durand sang with a gentle but rich voice and expressive range that conveyed the poignancy of the lyrics, which brought the concert to a close with the final words “Lieb und Lied! Und Welt und Traum!”…”Love and pain! My world, my dream”.
Krisztina Szabo demonstrated her virtuosity performing a piece full of challenges including difficult shifts in pitch, unusual rhythms, and projecting clear diction over an ensemble playing at fortissimo. After that, her two songs from West Side Story, “One Hand, One Heart” and “Somewhere,” were almost too undemanding for an artist of her ability.
Thwarted love inspires art and is relieved by beautiful music, but as the sole theme for an entire evening, it becomes a bit discouraging. So close to Mother’s Day, an expanded theme of other forms of love, including Motherly love and even fulfilled love, would have ended Talisker’s season on a note of triumph, which is well deserved by a group that describes themselves in terms of marriage — the marriage of music and words — in their program.
#LUDWIGVAN
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