PERFORMING ARTS

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Flamenco Festival

A diverse program that told stories of passion, joy and despair through a refreshing combination of bold and understated works, the Eighth Annual Flamenco Festival kicked off Saturday at Lisner Auditorium with "Cuatro Esquinas." The program was a partnership among vocalists Carmen Linares and Miguel Poveda, guitarist Juan Carlos Romero and dancer Pastora Galv¿n, all natives of Spain.

In "Buenas Intenciones" and "Y en Medio el R¿o," Poveda sang to Galv¿n as she deftly and sensually swung an embellished white shawl around her body. Particularly when Galv¿n circled her wrists and swayed her hips, she exhibited a velvety yet commanding grace.

"La Gabriela" began with Galv¿n looking positively anxious as she sat on the edge of a chair with her back in a tense, straight posture and her eyes delivering a searing gaze. Linares rose from her seated position behind the microphone and stood closer to Galv¿n, making it seem as though the dancer was no longer the interpreter of the song but rather its subject. It appeared that Galv¿n connected very deeply to Linares's vocals, which seemed to evoke from her a more natural, expressive performance than her earlier pieces with Poveda.

In the closing work, "Fin de Fiesta," Galv¿n was dazzling. Not only did she abandon the meditative intensity of her earlier dancing for a more playful, enticing persona, she finally had the chance to fully display her virtuosity. As the musicians picked up speed and their rhythms became more complex, Galv¿n kept pace; her heels feverishly pounded the floor and her arms moved with sharpness and insistence.

The festival continues through Friday.

-- Sarah Halzack

Tarrus Riley

It's Black History Month. It's Reggae Month. And February is for lovers.

Tarrus Riley soulfully represented all three themes at his Saturday night (actually Sunday morning) concert at Crossroads.

The budding roots-reggae superstar, and son of vintage Jamaican crooner Jimmy Riley, presented a smooth mix of romantic tunes and smart cultural songs, mixing intelligence and emotion in perfect amounts. His tenor voice is as pure as the Caribbean Sea.

Backed by three female singers and the seven-piece Black Soil Band, which is led by saxophonist Dean Fraser and anchored by legendary bassist Glen Brown, Riley wended his way through 12 songs with supreme confidence. Starting the show at 1:55 a.m. in a black suit-and-shirt combo, a matching turban keeping his dreadlocks off his bespectacled face, Riley sang his anti-violence number "Beware," breaking it down in the middle to announce, "I'm not a gunman; I only fire musical shots." He kept the crowd in the palm of his "Lion Paw" (one of his finest songs) until a quarter to 3, when he finished with "My Baby (Cyaan Sleep)," a lovely ode to his daughter and parenthood.

But the biggest screams came for the Caribbean radio megahit "She's Royal," a praise-filled tune for strong, independent women. In other words, the perfect song to play on Feb. 14, during Black/Reggae History Month.

-- Christopher Porter

Alexander Fiterstein And Alon Goldstein

The imperfections and eccentricities of live performance produce much of its attraction. Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein and pianist Alon Goldstein suffered some imprecisions of notes and ensemble in Brahms's Clarinet Sonata No. 2 at Congregation Beth El in Bethesda on Sunday -- but that did not diminish the bucolic charm of their interpretation.

Fiterstein seems to have a nearly inexhaustible breath supply. He put it to good use in Poulenc's Clarinet Sonata, negotiating wide leaps and a dusky chalumeau register with apparent ease. He and Goldstein were at their best in the finale, in which Poulenc channels his inner Prokofiev.

The melancholy pervading Schumann's "Fantasiestuecke" also elicited fine cooperation, with some attractive rhythmic swing in the second piece.

Goldstein opened each half of the concert with piano solos: The four Schubert "Impromptus," Op. 90 -- two at the start, two after intermission. He was strongest in Nos. 2 and 4, whose note cascades look ahead to Chopin and sacrifice some virtuosity on the altar of emotional connection.

Fiterstein and Goldstein were most relaxed in their encore, the lovely little Canzonetta, Op. 19, by Gabriel Piern¿.

The performers' body language was a study in contrast: Fiterstein upright and focused, Goldstein swaying and talking silently to the score. In live performance, that's how people make beautiful music together.

-- Mark J. Estren

Orchestra Of New Spain

A store of forgotten Spanish music, its extent still unknown, lies on library shelves in Spain and Latin America waiting to be rediscovered. Some pioneer researchers have begun to unearth this rich musical trove bit by bit. One scholar, Grover Wilkins, conducted two vocal soloists and the Orchestra of New Spain at the National Gallery on Sunday, bringing to life a luminous sampling of 18th-century Spanish court and theater music. All of it displays a distinctly Iberian stamp -- glistening timbres, pungent Italianate rhythms, even the modal melodic legacy from Moorish Spain. The concert marked the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Fulbright program, a major contributor to Wilkins's archival project.

Soprano Eugenia Ramirez and tenor Scot Cameron traded solos or joined together in sacred works for the Madrid court, composed by Francisco Courcelle and Jose de Nebra, followed by three "tonadillas," teasing romantic comedies meant to entertain the theater public. Both singers captured the emotional radiance and buoyant energy streaming through the sacred fare, awash in muted mysticism, and secular works, for the general populace. They engaged in extended chains of melodic embellishments with astounding expertise.

-- Cecelia Porter