If you weren’t among the 2,000 or so attendees at the New York Philharmonic’s Opening Night Gala featuring the orchestra with three-time GRAMMY Award-winning vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant, you missed the premiere concert event of the season. Salvant brought her considerable vocal prowess and unique capabilities as a curator of the treasures of the great vocal composers of this and past centuries to bear. She combined her considerable vocal skills with the lush arrangements of Music Director and Conductor Anthony Parnther, who put 100 members of the New York Philharmonic through their musical paces. His lush and intricate scores brought new vitality to both time-worn favorites and theatrical gems from Gershwin, Sondheim, Cy Coleman, and Ellington. Their 20th century compositions were combined seamlessly into a carefully woven tapestry with classics from Henry Purcell, Gabriel Faure, and Georges Bizet.
With the latter, Salvant let it be known that she grew up with French as her first language, having been raised in Miami’s Haitian American community. “My mother demanded that we were to only speak French in the house,” she recounted from the stage.
Her command of the French language was flawless, bringing forth a fresh and nuanced interpretation to a popular aria, La Taberna de Lillas Pastia, the “Tavern Dance” from Bizet’s Carmen. (Salvant is also the first artist I have heard give the correct pronunciation to the names of the famed composers Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht of The Three penny Opera, from which she sang Barbara Song.)
Under the swirling baton of conductor and arranger Anthony Parnther, Cecile’s voice melded perfectly into the orchestra with the nuanced intonation of a human Stradivarius. (Salvant has written and recorded a musical fable “Ogress” as well as a French language cantata “Melusine” which evoke the spiritual and musical traditions of her ancestral Haitian culture. I saw a performance in concert several years ago at the Rose Theater in Jazz at Lincoln Center and was mesmerized. I suggested to her in a post-concert meet-and-greet at the Gala that she might re-work them for performance at that little opera company located across the way from the Lincoln Center Fountain Plaza!)
Among the stand-out renditions of the evening were those of the aforementioned Bizet and her breathless interpretation of Stephen Sondheim’s Being Alive, from the musical Company. The care and attentiveness with which she caressed each of Sondheim’s heartfelt lines, attested to her unique genius as a champion and curator of the Great American Songbook. It was a clear example of her mastery of near-operatic recitative.
Parnther’s arrangement and Salvant’s enlightened reading of Ellington’s landmark suite Black, Brown and Beige from 1943, was the crowning moment of the evening and a glorious tribute to one of America’s greatest composers. This was a superlative and memorable performance in every way.
Next on the New York Philharmonic subscription schedule was David Robertson conducting violin sensation Leila Josefowicz in Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2, in a much-anticipated return to David Geffen Hall. October brings the celebrated conductor Esa Pekka Salonen in a program celebrating Pierre Boulez’s centennial with superstar pianist Pierre- Laurent Aimard. For more on upcoming concerts, visit nyphil.org.
