MusicWeb Wednesday June 18 03
The Low Bass.
Great Art Songs from the Bass repertoire
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Der Tod und das Mädchen
Der Wanderer
Erlkönig
Hugo WOLF (1860-1903)
From the Michelangelo Poems:
Wohl denk’ ich oft
Alles Endet, was entsteht
Fühit meine Seele
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
Danse Macabre
Ange FLÉGIER (1846-1927)
Le Cor
Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Im Spätboot
Der Einsame
Das Thal
Sergei RACHMANINOV (1873-1943)
Morning
Modest MUSSORGSKY (1839-1881)
Leaves make Sound
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Verrat
Norman DELLO JOIO (b 1913)
The Assassination
Jack BEESON (b 1921)
To a Sinister Potato
Kevin
Maynor (bass)
Richard Woitach (piano)
Recorded Seltzer Sound, New York City, October and December 2001
GUILD
GMCD 7244 [57.52]
Kevin
Maynor has a nobly rounded bass. Its downward extension is fine, he possesses
declamatory power when needed and whilst his top is not always ideally strong or
resonant enough he’s seldom found badly wanting in his chosen repertoire. In
addition his diction is often sound and he has the confidence to construct a
programme wide ranging enough to take in German, French, Russian and English.
Then there is his – or the record company’s – confidence in starting off with
the three canonical Schubert settings. As a recitalist he seems to favour slow
moving gravity; it suits the voice, which is sometimes less than authentically
mobile, but it also presents problems. It brings with it potential fatigue, a
danger not entirely alleviated by his vocal production – which can be worryingly
one-dimensional as well as lacking range of colouration and flexibility. The
lack of optimum colour exposes an allied problem, which is a certain
generalization of approach, an inability to distinguish between the songs
through inflection and subtle illumination of the text.
There are
many enjoyable things here naturally but others that will provoke debate. The
contrastive material in Erlkönig seems rather overdone – the croon and the
hardening are just too explicit – and when we reach Wolf I find that Wohl denk’
ich oft isn’t quite climactic enough. Fühit meine Seele is the most
comprehensively well sung of this group of three in which Maynor seems to seek
textual depths with particular care. There is a little intermezzo via
Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre even though his French pronunciation is rather
occluded. Flégier’s Le Cor seems to me altogether more convincing – powerfully
resonant low notes and some really dextrous musicianship. He brings out the
concentrated gravity of Strauss’ Der Einsame but in a companion setting, Das
Thal, Maynor badly lacks subtlety of expressive nuance. As one might expect the
Russian settings are good vehicles for his plangent sympathy and the recital
ends with two slices of Americana – Dello Joio’s The Assassination, slow-moving
and pensive and Jack Beeson’s To a Sinister Potato, which sounds
iconoclastically promising but isn’t.
Sleeve
notes detailing the trials and tribulations of recording life with entertaining
honesty are by the excellent pianist, Richard Woitach.
Jonathan Woolf
International Record Review April 03
The Low
Bass
New
Great Art
Songs from the Bass Repertoire.
Beeson
To a Sinister Potato. Brahms
Verrat, Op. 105 No. 5. Dello Joio The Assassination. Flégier Le
Cor. Mussorgsky Sadly rustled the leaves. Rachrnaninov Morning,
Op. 4 No. 2. Saint-Saäns Danse macabre. Schubert Erlkönig, D328.
Der Tod und das Mädchen, D531. Der Wanderer, D4891493. R. Strauss Zwei
Gesänge, Op. 51 - No. 1, Das Thal; No. 2, Der Einsame. Im Spätboot, Op. 56 No.
3. Wolf Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo.
Kevin Maynor
(bass); Richard V Voitach
(piano).
Guild
GMCD7244 (full price, 58
minutes). Original texts (apart from Russian) and English translation included.
Website www.guildmusic.com. Producers/Engineers Carl Seltzer, Mark Sted.
Dates October 16th and December 18th, 2001.
Comparison - Schubert Der Wanderer:
Maltman, Johnson
(Hyperion) CDJ33032 (1999)
'Songs from the bass repertoire',
but many included by the black American bass Kevin Maynor (b. 1954) were not
meant to be restricted. More important is how Maynor and his accompanist perform
them. Sloppy presentation provides no opus numbers or their equivalent, and no
poets are named. Richard Woitach's note concerns the recording and says little
about the songs. Maynor's voice is a true bass but with an easy top. Some
impurities are noticeable: soft notes sometimes lose focus and firmness, as in
the second Michelangelo song. Once or twice, particularly in Danse rnacabre,
Maynor cannot utter the words quickly enough. Nevertheless, his is a voice
of quality, best heard in the slower songs, such as the three by Richard
Strauss, of which the Op. 51 duo are definitely bass territory. The enormous
range of 'Das Thal' is victoriously encompassed, from dark depth to brazen top.
The German songs allow him to display rock-solid, sepulchral bottom notes, while
still being interpreted thoughtfully, though Erikönig does not really
give a sense of eeriness. Maynor is not helped by Woitach's rather lumpen
playing.
To find which Der Wanderer
is here, and its Deutsch number, I checked Christopher Maltman's version of the
Lübeck setting and heard a very different approach from him and Graham Johnson.
The latter's opening is light, to suit Maltman, and reflective. Woitach's is
heavier and in a hurry. Maltman takes 6'03", Maynor 4'49". Another song reserved
for basses is Flégier's Le Cor, which receives from Maynor what might be
dubbed the open-air treatment. This shows him at his best: voice rich, resonant.
Rachmaninov's Merning is a shade rusty: heralding a grey day, but Maynor
gives a telling account of The Assassination.
My criticisms
did not prevent me from experiencing a fair bit of pleasure from this CD, which
is in good sound. What I should like from Maynor is an operatic recital,
including something of his Daland, Sarastro and Zaccaria (and a longer
playing-time). The only occasion on which I have heard him live was in opera: a
small role in Donizetti's Dem Sébastien in Carnegie Hall in
1984.
John T Hughes
Page revised 19.06.03
