Quivar Gives a Showy, Accessible Recital

Sometimes, in a world of discounted artistic values and audience cynicism, strong achievement can make prospects suddenly look good. One of those times brought together an important singer in her artistic prime, and in good voice, with a discerning and hard-listening audience, Sunday afternoon in UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall Auditorium.

It was a recital given in connection with the 1997 Summer SongFest by the UCLA Vocal Arts Institute. American mezzo-soprano Florence Quivar was the recitalist; her distinguished collaborator, and a principal teacher at SongFest, was pianist Martin Katz.

Their recital--including music by Respighi, Brahms, Zemlinsky, Faure and Mahler, plus a final group of spirituals--offered sustenance to many musical tastes, and faltered in no moment. After a quarter of a century on the concert stage, Quivar has honed her technical skills and large, creamy voice to the point where they illuminate any music at hand. She delivers words carefully and projects feelings consistently. And Katz may be the best possible partner on the planet to assist such accomplishment.

The audience was rapt, caught up in the event, and, at the end, wild in its enthusiastic approbation.

The opening Respighi group set a tone of seriousness and musical amplitude; four songs by Brahms revived one’s affections for that composer’s abundance and breadth. Zemlinsky’s brief but potent Waltz-Songs on Tuscan Folksongs reminded us of the riches ever awaiting in that corner of the world. In a Faure sampler, beautiful sounds wed to poetic ideas emerged handsomely.

Katz excelled at all these composers, but came into his own in Mahler. At the end of a four-item group from the “Ruckert� Lieder, his postlude to “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,� proved exquisite and perfectly targeted emotionally. After that, three rousing arrangements of unhackneyed spirituals became the climax to a most touching afternoon.