a recording review by Elizabeth Lauer as published in the IAWM Journal, February 1993, pp. 10.
Solo with Christine Ascher, mezzo-soprano
NOMOS CD 9.1012111
Hauptstrasse 5, 2150 Buxtehude, GERMANY
Violeta Dinescu: Quatrain
Rosenfeld: Ognuno sta solo
Grueger: De umbra loquens
Berio: Sequenza III
Janarcekova: Hymnos an Vater Laerm
Malfatti: beSTIMMung
Kupferman: A Soul for the Moon
The designation "Solo" does not say it all, by any matter of means. The American mezzo, Christine Ascher, reveals her talents as singer, actress and vocal serialist on this disc. She is superb in her brilliant display of singing, her intellectual grip on a breathtaking assortment of performing tasks, and her ability to project emotional content. Ascher shows that she is equal to giving voice to an enormous tessitura, with impeccable breath control (Rosenfeld: Ognuno sta solo); to yelps, whispers, leaping intervals, quick shifts in dynamics (Grueger: De umbra loquens); to (Berio: Sequenza III) pyrotechnics-yips, pops, giggles, hums, rapid whispers, flutters-interspersed with in-the-cracks intoning; to accompanying herself (for the 18 1/2 minutes of Janarcekova's Hymnos an Vater Laerm-a tedious conceit) on a panoply of percussion, while ranging over a huge spectrum of vocal gymnastics (in German that is perfekt); to collaborating with tape in more hiss-boom-bah mouthings that go from kennel to jungle, from spitoon to W.C. (Malfatti: beSTIMMung); to some entertaining-if protracted-scat singing (Kupferman: A Soul for the Moon).
One has to think that it was a great pleasure for Ascher to perform Violeta Dinescu's Quatrain which allows the singer the luxury of letting loose her sumptuous voice. Dinescu's piece, a kind of mini-drama about François Villon, has a fine theatricality which Ascher responds to beautifully. Quatrain opens in strong declamation, then subsides to a singing whisper. Ascher takes full advantage of the ensuing rise-and-fall lines of wailing, keening, moaning. The well-constructed piece features at its center a fast-moving repeated figure, which appears-briefly-at the close. Here, it is the words that are clearly projected, and the singer's French is parfait, with just the required soupçon of nasality. (As an out-of-context aside: Ascher would be marvelous in the title role of Massenet's Le Navarraise.) Finally, the musical line becomes an intense chanting, and the satisfying ending-an upward thrust of affirmation-is right on target. Dinescu's excellent sense for vocal line and her ear for right-on prosody are well served by Ascher's skills. Quatrain presents to the mezzo an opportunity to give full expression to her abilities to range from light, quick, feathery singing to rich and dark outpourings. This is an excellent coming-together of composer and interpreter.