By Lyn Bronson
Tenor David Gordon, soprano Nancy Bennet and pianist Pauline Troia entertained us on Sunday afternoon with a charming and informal program called “Sing a Song with Me.” The event took place at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula, and there wasn’t an empty seat in sight.
It is not uncommon for vocal and instrumental programs to progress from music of an earlier historic period to the more contemporary. This can result in programs that are serious and academic in the first half, while being more enjoyable in the second (except for those of pianist Artur Schnabel, who used to comment that both halves of his programs were serious and boring).
Well, if there is anything we have learned about David Gordon’s concerts, it’s that he knows how to make music making fun. He is not trying to lecture us and bring us up to his level of erudition – well, maybe sometimes, but he is so fiendishly clever about it we never feel as though we are being condescended to. But, beyond the fun are life lessons about the human foibles and trivial matters that take up so much of our time and consume so much of our energy. Thus, in the process of making us laugh and smile about the human condition, we always come away from one of his concerts with a new and amusing perspective about ourselves.
