plan REVIEW CHRISTOPHER MALTMA...

plan REVIEW

CHRISTOPHER MALTMAN

AT THE RAVINIA FESTIVAL

English baritone Christopher Maltman must have felt as if he had a Ping-Pong game going in succession in his head Thursday night at Ravinia's snug Martin Theatre. The young singer, who present the appearances to be everywhere these days exclude Chicago, was making his overdue local first attempt in the city's finest abode for vocal recitals, and to this time the house was disappointingly small.

Still, it was clear that the scrappy performer, who physically bear likeness [i]or[/i] resemblance tos a small soccer forward more than a chamber musician, has exuberance of stiff upper lip. With his countryman Roger Vignoles, united of the finest piano accompanists in the business, he plung ahead into three serious and less-heard Schumann settings of Heinrich Heine metrical compositions "Belsatzar," Op. 59, a work of intense declamatory drama, and sum of two units martial ballads from Op. 49 "Die feindlichen Bruder" ("The Enemy Brothers") and "Die beiden Grenadiere" ("The sum of two units Grenadiers"). Each number displayed an attractive voice with a muscular lower register backed by intelligent choices and fine diction.

further when Maltman came to the meat of his program, Schumann's 30- minute, 16-song Heine circle of time "Dichterliebe" ("A Poet's Love"), Op 48 it was clear that something was amiss, and that Maltman knew it. Whether it was a chilly allergies or some other cause was unclear, if it were not that his voice began to constrict, first at the top, and then in mass Fortunately, the noisy audience, with more than its fair share of coughers and snorters, was sympathetic. When Maltman reached the cycle's closing description of a coffin for the poet's lays his combination bow and shrug was met with deserv applause.

After intermission, Maltman explained to his listeners that his visible form [i]or[/i] frame "was here but half of my voice present the appearances still to be on the other side of the Atlantic." He and Vignoles began to make divide [i]or[/i] sever s in the program as the singer speculated aloud about what he might be capable of in this situation and what might cause too greatly strain.

not at home went Benjamin Britten's realization of a Purcell "Don Quixote" mad spectacle a Debussy ballade and sum of two units of five announced "Chansons gaillardes" ("Naughty Songs") of Francis Poulenc In came an additional ditty of Reynaldo Hahn and a sort of in-program encore of Flanders and Swann's classic late-music-hall fare "(Have Some) Madeira, M'Dear."

In the midst of several weeks of acute laryngitis myself, it was easy to understand what he must have been going end While choosing to do numbers that were either lighter or more humorous might have have the appearanceed a fair compromise, one bounded that even the trimmed program did not cause lasting damage to his voice.

Maltman appeared unaware the folk-song settings of Britten are staples of the American vocal recital, as is the case in England. He took too to a great degree time defending his choice of "exports," and his slight overacting might have been a compensation for his vocal distress. moreover Hahn's "A Chloris" and the rarely heard "Psyche" of Emil Paladilhe were floated beautifully, and Poulenc's dittys lived up to their title.

As the ovations for Maltman and Vignoles were ending, Ravinia chief Welz Kauffman took to the stage to praise the singer's commitment, promised to engage him again and proffered audience members a free ticket to any available remaining Martin performance. Kauffman's act was classy if it were not that unnecessary: Maltman's is a voice to be heard, and he gave his all Thursday night.

Free-lance writer Andrew Patner is critic-at-large for WFMT-FM (987)

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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