Soprano Carol Menke

RESPLENDENT MENKE-THOMPSON DUO OPENS SRJC CHAMBER SERIES SEASON

Newman Auditorium was the venue Oct. 9 for the first concert in the Santa Rosa Junior College's Chamber Series season, an elegant recital by soprano Carol Menke and pianist Marilyn Thompson. An enthusiastic full house greeted the two musicians, the singer a SRJC faculty member and the pianist a professor of music at Sonoma State University.

The program was long but the compositional variety kept listener interest high. Art songs of the Romantic and Contemporary periods are meant to be duets, not melody and accompaniment, and both artists played these roles to perfection. They were always a team, playing off one another, complimenting their partner and sensitive to the whole of the parts. Ms. Thompson’s pianism was often virtuosic, and always sensitive with clean articulation and occasionally lush. Her playing was never in the background, always supportive and only on rare occasions (in the opening "Love Went a-Riding" of Bridge) covering her singer.

Arguably the North Bay’s most performing and popular vocalist, Ms. Menke has an ideal voice for art songs and chamber music. It is not large but very expressive and sensitive, with a sound that is beautifully resonant and having faultless intonation and clear diction. Lyricism is her specialty with a masterful sense of line and a quality that often is bright silvery. Occasionally in dramatic sections Ms. Menke pushes the line a bit, creating a breathy edginess to her voice. But this is rare, and is always followed by a flowing lyrical part of velvet sound. Her art is one of focus and refinement.

As the program unfolded Ms. Menke’s melismatic passages and ornaments were precise, as heard in Ravel’s “Tripatos.” Roger Quilter’s “Love’s Philosophy” was delicately shaded and sung with a full and free voice. “Mondnacht” by Schumann was an exquisite duet of soaring ethereal sound from both musicians. Ms. Thompson’s piano line in Marx’s “Hat dich die Liebe berührt” had moments when it greatly swelled, overtaking the end of the vocal phrase and then pulling back as the vocal line again entered, akin to a Wagnerian phrase. There were similar swellings in Poulenc’s “Reine des mouettes” to telling excitement.

But all was not dramatic, as humorous and even capricious songs were offered, including “Memories: very pleasant” of Ives, Poulenc’s “Paganini” and the sprightly “Mausfallen-Sprüchlein” of Wolf. Ms. Menke was obviously enjoying the playfulness of these songs, and finished the group with a hauntingly gorgeous performance of Duparc’s “Chanson Triste.”

The recital’s last group contained three jazz pieces, all of which found Ms. Menke connecting with the jazz idiom and using straight tone at times, and with sweet sensuousness. The words were pellucid and everywhere understandable.

There were no encores, perhaps because of the length of the program, but the audience left deliciously sated with the kaleidoscopic sounds of these two superb musicians.