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.
On this occasion Gordon, Bennet and Troia presented a program of about twenty-five songs. We were told that this would not be a program of love songs (although there would be some songs about love), but there would be others that touch on a wide variety of amusing topics. Some would be solos some would be duets, and there would even two piano solos by Troia.
Gordon showed us a newly designed “folio” (that formerly simple black binder used to hold vocal and choral music), and his was a “Mach 3 Turbo” model that was oversized with places for cell phone, flashlight, pencils, and even a mirror and comb. This was used to good effect in his rendition of “Old Mother Hubbard” in an arrangement by Victor Hutchinson as though written by Handel. It was a hilarious parody of 18th century endless melismas and cadenzas. It was a show stopper.
Bennet got in her licks with a wonderful song by William Bolcom, “Lime Jell-O,” which she sang in an outlandish dress and hat in the role of a committee woman reporting about the dessert refreshment at a recent meeting – a hideous misadventure described as a “Lime Jell-O, marshmallow, cottage cheese surprise.” This song was delivered in a slightly snooty clubwoman voice – Bennet has very good dramatic skills – and her diction was so clear that standing up against the wall in the rear of the room, I heard every word as clear as a bell.
Pianist Pauline Troia is a treasure. Not only was her participation in collaboration rock solid rhythmically, but we also had an opportunity to hear her in a nice solo performance of William Bolcom’s amusing “Graceful Ghost Rag.” She had one other mini solo in Comden and Green’s “Make Someone Happy” where she slipped in a lovely rendition of the second theme of the first movement of Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto and demonstrated a lovely cantabile and beautifully shaped phrases.
There were too many songs to describe individually, but each had panache of its own. David Gordon and Nancy Bennet could be poster models for the “Joy of Singing.” And, beware, for this joy is infectious.
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