Search - Johannes Brahms, Gabriel Faure, Gerald Finzi :: Jonathan Lemalu - Songs (Brahms, Fauré, Finzi, Schubert)

Accomplished Debut for Unique Young Kiwi Bass-Baritone

Ed Uyeshima | San Francisco, CA USA | 05/25/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was impressed enough with young bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu's recently released "Opera Arias" disc to get his 2002 recital debut CD, especially since it is part of the bargain-priced EMI Classics "Debut" series, the same series that produced fellow baritone Nathan Gunn's wonderful 1999 folk song panorama, "American Anthem". This time, Lemalu is accompanied only by the sure hands of pianist Roger Vignoles rather than a full orchestra, and the results are no less enthralling. His booming voice is amazingly nuanced and quite resonant for such a young singer (he was 25 when he recorded this disc), and his program is thoughtful and well-rounded here.



First, Lemalu ambitiously tackles Brahms' penultimate opus, "Vier ernste Gesänge" ("Four Serious Songs"). Written a year before the composer's death, they carry a dark funereal tone, which Lemalu carries with appropriate heft initially and then expertly lightens the tone with each successive song until he achieves a measured level of romanticism on the last one, "Wenn ich mit Menschen" about St. Paul's sermon on love in his first Epistle to the Corinthians. The Schubert series carries a fatalistic romanticism throughout the four selections here, which Lemalu showcases most notably on "Auf der Donau", which places a Johann Mayrhofer poem in a wintry setting, and "Der Schiffer", a beautifully rhythmic combination of rolling piano and sharply enunciated German verse. The four brief pieces that make up Fauré's "L'Horizon chimérique" ("The Illusory Horizon") are dream-like discourses that use images in nature to focus ironically on the disenchantment that comes with love.



The tone shifts gears with the English folk songs that make up the remainder of the program. Lemalu is downright jolly on the rambunctious "Rollicum-rorum" and openly yearning on the swooning "To Lizbie Browne", the latter my favorite track and his most accomplished performance here. The four remaining songs are devoted to the sea - the melancholy "Lowlands" is a chantey that sounds quite a bit like "Shenandoah" and beautiful all the same; "Sea Fever" and "Trade Winds" both vividly capture a sailor's need for the high seas in individually distinct fashion; and "The Estuary" is a haunting ballad which dramatically describes a ship passing into the distance and into one's memory. There are minor flaws in Lemalu's performance, for example, he has a slight tendency to roll his r's unnecessarily, an affectation that I hope he uses sparingly in the future. But the talent is rich and most promising, the tone velvety and the future quite bright for this New Zealand-born Samoan performer. A highly recommended peek at a talent ready to fly."