70^th birthday recital by Grace Bumbry (mezzo) / Alexander Schmalcz (piano). Wigmore Hall, London. 9.05.07 (ED)

 

A milestone birthday for anyone is indeed worthy of being marked. But performers oftentimes find that the cruel gift of age is to slowly take away from the talent and facility that comes so readily with youth. I am not one to set out to be unkind to any performer who has the motivation to take to a world stage and celebrate their seventieth birthday in public. The fact that Grace Bumbry had the wherewithal to do so was in itself enough to earn significant deference and respect as the evening began.

The demanding two hour programme might have taxed a singer half Grace Bumbry’s age, given its mix of several languages and covering lieder by composers including Handel, Schubert, Schumann, Mozart, Berlioz, Wagner, Rachmaninov and de Falla. Suffice it to say throughout the concert Ms. Bumbry willed the music to pour forth. This much was never in question. The fact that the performances told a far different story in terms of quality cannot be denied, even if significant allowances for age and decline of vocal powers are made. Words can be cruel, and none could be more cutting that those starting the first Rachmaninov song: “Sing no more to me…” By some irony this was the most credibly shaped and beautifully sung of any item given during the concert.

Alexander Schmalcz accompanied with restraint throughout most of the programme, in sensitive response no doubt to Grace Bumbry’s vocal condition. An inexplicable hiatus of tempo change marred an otherwise reasonable stab at Wagner’s ‘Träume’ by Grace Bumbry; why it occurred still puzzles me. Only in the final de Falla items did he let out true forte tone to give a more impassioned account of himself.

Be all this as it may, it is better by far that Grace Bumbry be remembered as the great mezzo-soprano she was in her prime: full of drama, passion and vocal conviction borne of the certainty that great things could be achieved. The wild adulation with which the audience repaid her efforts on this occasion was at least in part acknowledgment of the many notable achievements in a career that has spanned almost fifty years. As I write this, the glorious strains of her Amneris ring loudly in my ears and bring much emotion to my heart. For that will I ever be grateful.

 

Evan Dickerson