One day, two concerts, three singers and we were still home before dark. Result!
At 2pm I saw Dorothea Röschmann and David Daniels sing Handel duets at Carnegie Hall with Juilliard415. At least, the website called it "Handel Duets" but there only three such duets on the program. The bulk of it was arias and orchestral numbers — fine with me, I'd been hoping to hear Dorothea on her own anyway. Which I did, and she was lovely, and I liked David Daniels more in person than I've tended to on record, which was a nice surprise. I wouldn't have minded a bit more variety in the repertoire — it was mostly slow, lovelorn stuff, despite the fact that both of them became immediately more exciting when they headed into vengeance territory. Three encores, too: one each and then one together, "Pur ti miro" which is of course not Handel, but Monteverdi.
Then a leisurely walk to Alice Tully to hear Matthew Polenzani and Julius Drake in Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin. Definitely more exciting than the Handel, although it's still a maudlin Schubert song cycle, so not actually exciting as such. But I enjoyed Matthew's very sincere, engaging performance. His sort of tenor is not really my voice of choice for this kind of repertoire (gimme a baritone) but once my ears became accustomed, I warmed to him and was glad I'd risked vocal overdose and booked for both concerts. I wasn't the only one, either; I spotted several audience members at both Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully, including the delightful gentlemen (by which I mean the absolute opposite) with whom I shared my box at the Handel. Thankfully they were nowhere near me for the Schubert. And I don't think I can blame them for the faulty hearing aid which plagued Matthew's recital, although I'd sure like to try. (Yes, they were that bad.)
But the real highlight of my day? Walking past Jackie Mason in the street. Thank you, New York.
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