It is axiomatic that when an artist is acclaimed as universally and enthusiastically as mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, the pressure is on for every performance. Audiences always come expecting greatness.
The Carnegie Hall audience on February 27, at Miss Horne's only New York recital of the season, got just that. Again.
That was clear from the audience's reaction at the end of her demanding and highly varied program. For the last two of the five encores, every person in the capacity crowd if 2,800 long on their feet and irrepressible, excitedly sat down and got settled in again.
American-born Horne is a credit to the arts in this country. The program on February 27 was something one would expect to find in this "melting pot" nation--an adventurous mix of composers from five different nations and a representation of four different languages, all sung with authority, and some with almost tangible passion.
Miss Horne's agility is what legendary musicianship is made of, and after her opening selection, "Piango, gemo, sospiro" ("I Weep, I Grieve, I Sigh"), from Antonio Vivaldi's cantata of the same title, she was stunning in her execution of the rapid melismas in George Frideric Handel's "Furibondo spira il cento" ("Fierce blows the Wind") from Partenope.
With regard to the firmament of elements that contribute to the achievement of greatness in the performing arts, it would be presumptuous to single out any one of them as central or key. But certainly two factors that have characterized Miss Horne's thirty-year career, and that were clearly in evidence in this recital, are her vast powers of imagination and a seemingly inexhaustible sincerity.
These aspects of her interpretive prowess have made Marilyn Horne one of the most versatile living mezzo-sopranos, and they won her the hearty approbation of the Carnegie Hall public as well, as she readily assumed one character after another, delivering convincing renditions of twenty-seven different selections representing a vast range of emotions. Her capacity to feel and impart the profound emotions and experiences of music and poetry make her as much an actress as a singer; this accounts in significant measure for the success she has had in opera houses throughout America as well as in both Eastern and Western Europe.
It may be fairly observed that Miss Horne's low register is almost husky, and the tone color markedly distinct from that of her middle and high registers. This disparity is never clearer than when she executes rapidly repeated resister shifts of the kind demanded by "Das irdische Leben" ("This Mortal Life"), the second selection from Gustav Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Child's Magical Horn). The grace with which she negotiated these intervals in her Carnegie Hall recital, however, was noteworthy; more so than the change in tone color.
While one may take issue with the disparity of the sound between the registers, the technique was always sound and assured. It goes without saying that the ability to execute technique skillfully is second nature to this performer. But that in itself says
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