when I attended Gabriel Preisser's 
Master recital last evening at St. Philips'.
Master recital last evening at St. Philips'. This may not sit well with everyone , but I am not fond of that space.
IMO, the vastness of this church space distorts the voices - this was not the first recital I attended there,, so I know whereof I speak ;-).
But that aside, rich sounding Baritone Gabriel Preisser delivered what he promised during many a performance at U of H Moores Opera House (Now, that is a space with great acoustics).
His program included a selection of German Lieder (C.P.E. Bach 1714-1788), French composer's Henri Duparc (1848-1933) rareties
an example here with Russian Baritone D. Hvorostosky (not the songs Preisser presented-but it will give you a feel for the music),
an excerpt from "I Pagliacci" (Leoncavallo 1857-1919) with soprano Amanda Kingston as Nedda, accompanied fittingly on the piano throughout by Katherine Ciscon 
and my favorite, "The Pilgrimage", a cantata, by Carlisle Floyd (1926- ) which he delivered with expressive sound and empathy, vocally and visually. And so apropriate for the space (church). These songs by Floyd are also rarely performed, I believe only one or two singers have attempted them and/or recorded some of them.
and my favorite, "The Pilgrimage", a cantata, by Carlisle Floyd (1926- ) which he delivered with expressive sound and empathy, vocally and visually. And so apropriate for the space (church). These songs by Floyd are also rarely performed, I believe only one or two singers have attempted them and/or recorded some of them. The titles are (to proof my point): Man that is born of a woman; Save me, o Lord..; O Lord, Thou hast searched me..; Praise the Lord, o my soul..; and For I am persuaded..;.This is a younger Samuel Ramey singing the aria 'Oh Lord, I beseech thee' by Olin Blitch in Floyd's opera 'Susanna', rather similar music to parts of "The Pilgrimage".
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FYI
I worked for the company that built the Moores Opera House. That is one of my career highlights. It is a spectacular building on its own, and then the acoustics in it - WOW.
Before it's grand opening in 1997, the acoustician that was testing the sound by having one person hit certain notes on the grand piano, as he would move around to different places in the theater to record the readings with his instruments.
Former Music Deptartment Director Dr. Tomas, was following him around like a little puppy and asked him when he was finished what the results were. The man doing the tests for the Acoustical Engineering firm on the project told him that the theater would rank in the top 10 acoustically perfect performance halls in the world.
And he was right! It is a lovely theater in looks and feel AND accoustics. U of H is lucky to have this gem on campus, as are her students, I am sure.
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