MUSIC REVIEWS : Dawn Upshaw and Richard Goode: A Recital to Cherish

Extraordinary pianism was the order of the weekend at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus.

Friday night, Robert McDonald, assisting violinist Midori in a memorable recital (reviewed Monday), restored respect for the sometimes dimming occupation of “collaborative artist.”

And Sunday, in a joint appearance with soprano, Dawn Upshaw, Richard Goode proved again that a gang of equals beats any other musical combination.

On paper, the program concocted by Upshaw and Goode looked gimmicky: It began with a brace of Haydn songs, offered one of that master’s lesser-known piano sonatas, then got down to the serious German business of Schumann’s “Liederkreis.”

After intermission, five excerpts from Mussorgsky’s song cycle, “The Nursery,” was followed by Debussy’s piano suite, “Coin des Enfants”; the closer was a group of lullabies, by Montsalvatge, Cimara, Falla and Brahms, the last one given an extra, third verse, in English.

Yet, it worked. The listener might have enjoyed another sonata between the Haydn and Schumann songs, but the one given served well enough, though it hardly showcased Goode’s dramatic flair. Then the pianist amazed us with a subtle and finely detailed run-through of “Children’s Corner”; one would not have expected this lightweight score to find a champion in Goode.

The real bonus in this project, however, was the probing and emotional specificity in Goode’s playing of the Haydn, Schumann and Mussorgsky piano parts.

That the personable, virtually irresistible and witty Upshaw would charm the audience in all this music could be no surprise; that she did so effortlessly and in such abundant detail became a mark of her artistic thoroughness. Some singers can do no wrong; even on a night when some kind of respiratory ailment hovered over her, the 32-year-old singer on Sunday seemed to be one of these.

The clarity of her word delivery, in the five languages here used, remains startling--every voice student should be given the opportunity to follow her model. But Upshaw does not sacrifice tone or vocal characterization or legato or musicality in showing off the fine points of poetry; her integration of all elements strengthens the total result.

For one who does not hesitate to vary her tone-colors, Upshaw still maintains her basic, glowing vocal sound most consistently. From the evidence of this splendid recital, as well as from the memory of the one she gave at UC Irvine two years ago, one cannot avoid calling her a paragon.

Not a cold and distant one, however. On Sunday, her relaxed, between-songs comments charmed as often as did her singing. That is saying a lot.

The two encores were Schubert’s “Rastlose Liebe” and Wolf’s “Blumengruss.”