NICK PERFORMS A RECITAL IN ASPEN CENTERED ON 'STRANGER'

Aspen Music Festival review: Tenor, violinist hit the right notes in midweek concerts

“Two, highly-satisfying recitals highlighted the midweek concerts at the Aspen Music Festival this week. Tuesday night tenor Nicholas Phan delivered thoughtful and eloquent songs that reflected universal aspects of immigration, from the thrill of anticipation to the vagaries of reality…

To create one of the more arresting recitals in this summer’s Aspen Music Festival lineup, Phan built his whole evening around composer Nico Muhly’s “Strangers,” a song cycle that focuses on difficulties of immigration…Muhly’s music, so touching and spare, created an apt halo of sound for Phan’s poignant singing of these letters. Regulars from the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble played with apt refinement.

This program trimmed down playlists from a three-day event that Phan put together in Chicago last fall titled “Strangers in a Strange Land.” Ten of the pieces from Chicago were included on Tuesday’s program in Harris Hall. Most of them were in collaboration with pianist Myra Huang, head coach of the opera program in Aspen and the new head of music for the Metropolitan Opera’s young artist program.

Huang has a 21-year history as Phan’s recital partner. She was an especially able and alert colleague, especially in classics from Franz Schubert and Kurt Weill, which also played to Phan’s vocal flexibility, tonal beauty and spot-on pronunciation in German and French. Her playing — expressive, yet understated — matched his almost conversational approach to the songs, exercising his full voice only for effect.

This connection made the first part of the recital special, pairing Schubert songs with more recently composed and different takes on aspects of immigration.

It’s not difficult to find Schubert songs on the topic, as his output brims with wanderers, travelers and shelter seekers. Particularly strong were “Der Wanderer,” hopefully celebrating the moon’s inspiration for his travels, and its companion song, “Up-Hill,” by Rebecca Clarke, whose traveler frets about possible difficulties. Ruth Crawford Seeger’s “Chinaman! Landryman!” gave voice to a recently arrived Chinese immigrant’s anger over the racism he’s encountered, nicely paired with Schubert’s “Pilgerweise,” in which a pilgrim appreciates welcomes from those he meets.

Among the 20th-century takes, the standouts were a sensitively rendered “Whither Must I Wander?” from Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Songs of Travel, Florence Price’s “Sympathy,” which explored the frustrations of a caged bird and, most of all, the heartfelt dream of a mythical paradise in Weill’s bittersweet “Youkali” (to a delicious tango beat).

An encore changed the tone. Phan sang Caroline Shaw’s tongue-in-cheek — but ultimately wistful — “Is A Rose: No.2, And So” straight-faced but with charm, while the quartet rendered Shaw’s slinky music deftly in support.” – Aspen Times