Music as Sweet as Love

Music as sweet as love was the theme of todays concert at the Nixon Library. Antoinette Brosius, Soprano and Micheal Sanders, Piano. Ok, I have been listening to the Baroque period music and I follow along with the listening guide to help me understand it better. So, this is what I got out of todays performance with no listening guide and remembering the instructions from the listening tips. I heard a soprano singing with passion, expressing what is really happening and I felt that this was Aria. She used a lot of hand motions and facial expressions while she sang. The long notes she sang were full of vibrato. Could this performance be called a chamber cantata... it was not a mini opera because it had pieces from different composers but it was accompanied solo singing, no costumes or scenery?!? There were a few songs that I thought were sung Arioso because they were not as slow as Recitative or as passionate as Aria. One was a song about everything reminding the singer about being a bird and flying around (Frank Schubert). Impromptu No. 4 in C-sharp minor, Op. 66, by Frederic Chopin was a piano piece that had a lot of repeat patterns in it. It started out with the low notes playing very slow while the high notes were quick. The speed picked up in the middle and then got louder and louder until he was pounding the low notes and quickly playing the high notes at the end. One of the last songs was Gospel Blues and it was slow and dramatic but not spoken, more like Arioso than Aria. Her voice was beautiful and the pianist was great. I think that I would enjoy a comic opera because even though the singing is not my favorite, the comedy and humor would make it more enjoyable.