Review: Adamo featured at Cliburn at the Modern

The Cliburn at the Modern series presents the music of living composers. Typically he or she is present to engage in repartee with emcee Buddy Bray as an introduction to each piece. Sometimes this is the most interesting part of the program.

There was a bit of a handicap in Saturday afternoon’s version in the auditorium of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Composer Mark Adamo had an unmistakable case of laryngitis. This reduced his voice to a kind of soft croak.

Still, he’s a good sport, so the show went on, even if the clarity of his speech was not always at the optimum. There was compensation, though: His music is quite appealing, as those who heard his Lysistrata at the Fort Worth Opera in 2012 may remember.

The afternoon opened with a recent three-part work, Aristotle, for vocalist and string quartet. The performers were baritone David Grogan, violinists Michael Shih and Adriana DeCosta, violist Laura Bruton and cellist Leda Larson.

The text, by Billy Collins, is a rather depressing exploration of the idea of beginning, middle and ending — a kind of metaphor for life, one supposes. Basically, the poem is a long, evocative list of things representing each phase.

Adamo’s music is haunting and melodically attractive and fits the atmosphere of this somewhat moody poem. The performers were effective advocates for the work.

Grogan contributed a fine vocal quality combined with an impressive mastery of English diction. Printed texts were provided, but you really didn’t need one.

The third movement of Four Angels, a concerto for harp and strings, featured harpist Jill Roberts Levy, the aforementioned string quartet and bassist Brian Perry.

The movement was slow, highly lyrical and, well, heavenly (the movement was titled Regina Coeli).

The other work of the afternoon was a five-poem collection titled The Racer’s Widow. Performers were mezzo Virginia Dupuy, cellist Larson and pianist Bray.

The poems were a highly varied group written by five poets: Linda Pastan, Tennessee Williams, Marge Piercy, Louise Glück and Sara Teasdale.

Pastan’s opener was slyly erotic (if you are embarrassed easily, you could always pretend that you didn’t understand the metaphors). Williams’ gentle Across the Space, Piercy’s ironically titled Sentimental Poem — a kind of verbal scherzo — and Teasdale’s haunting The Beloved were nicely varied in atmosphere, in both Adamo’s musical setting and Dupuy’s interpretations.

This story was originally published March 28, 2015 at 10:28 PM with the headline "Review: Adamo featured at Cliburn at the Modern."