Alex Klein & Rita Costanzi: Amoroso
Navona Records
On Amoroso (“to be played tenderly and lovingly”), renowned oboist Alex Klein and acclaimed harpist Rita Costanzi perform chamber pieces by Debussy, Fauré, Massenet, Rachmaninoff, Piazzolla, Rodrigo, and NYC native Michael Cohen. While stylistic elements clearly distinguish one composer's material from another's, common to their selections is a romantic quality, a dimension the performances amplify in the coupling of harp and oboe. All of love's facets—longing, desire, passion, anguish, sorrow, et al.—are accounted for in Klein's and Costanzi's dulcet expressions.
The two play unerringly, though that's to be expected from a harpist whose talents have been recognized internationally and a Grammy award-winning oboist who in 2017 was named Principal Oboe Emeritus of the Chicago Symphony and is currently Principal Oboe with the Calgary Philharmonic. The composers are in superb hands throughout the release, recorded in June 2022 at Washburn University's White Concert Hall in Topeka, Kansas. While any number of moments illustrates the high level of their playing, the majesty and control they exhibit in their rendering of Jules Massenet's sublime Meditation from Thaïs deserves mention.
Canção Pequena by Cohen, a contemporary composer known for Yours, Anne (a music-theatre piece based on The Diary of Anne Frank) and other well-received works, sets the tone handily with a piece composed for this project and dedicated to Costanzi. Immediately we're seduced by the enrapturing combination of the instruments, Klein's supplicating oboe intoning alongside her softly sparkling embroidery. Claude Debussy's represented by three settings: Reverie, whose stirring melodies are voiced in turn and in unison by the duo; Beau Soir, quintessential Debussy in its refinement and lyricism; and Première Arabesque, whose serpentine melodic patterns wholly entrance. Three by Gabriel Fauré likewise appear, Aprés un Rêve affecting in its yearning expression, Clair de Lune poetic in its serene hush, and Sicilienne irresistible for its enticing melodies. Though Rachmaninoff's far removed geographically from the French composers, his mellifluous Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 partners with their material seamlessly.
The album's second half shifts the focus from French artists to pieces by Spanish and Argentine composers. Tango master Astor Piazzolla is well-represented by Oblivion, as sultry as it is elegiac, and the wistful Tanti anni prima. In an arrangement by Klein, Joaquin Rodrigo's En Aranjuez con tu Amor sings its haunting song as movingly as always, especially when the duo delivers the captivating travelogue with extreme sensitivity to pacing and dynamics, and Manuel De Falla's Nana provides a touching coda to the release. While Amoroso was sequenced by the performers to be a journey that like life comes full circle, the album's just as satisfying when experienced at the immediate levels of performance and material. The sound of these two exceptional musicians giving voice to the composers' music is all this beguiling recording needs to argue on its behalf.March 2023