Concert review: Recital reunites talents of versatile soprano, pianist at Hamilton Studio

For seven years – between 2008 and 2015 – soprano Dawn Wolski and conductor Eckart Preu performed in a series of vocal recitals throughout the region. Attendance was primarily by invitation, and the homes of friends and supporters of the arts served as venues.

During this period, the general public knew Wolski as a versatile lyric soprano, appearing locally and internationally in opera, oratorio and symphonic works calling for solo voices, and also as the spouse of Mateusz Wolski, concertmaster of the Spokane Symphony. Dawn Wolski subsequently assumed the role of general and artistic director of Inland Northwest Opera until stepping down in 2022. Preu, of course, was conductor and music director of the symphony from 2004 to 2019. Their association as recital partners was largely below the radar of most of their fans, which is much to be regretted, as was shown by their first recital in nearly 10 years and the first ever to be publicized. It took place on Thursday evening at the Listening Room at Hamilton Studio, an up-and-coming music venue in West Central (see Hamilton.live).

On display throughout the evening was a collaboration of exceptional unity and refinement. In the 10 years since she performed the role of Gilda in “Rigoletto” with the Coeur D’Alene Opera, Dawn Wolski’s voice has grown in size and power, and taken on a richer palette of colors, all of which were deployed in the service of illuminating the 20 art songs on the program. Though there was a striking range and diversity to the program, the one constant in her performance was the beauty of everything she did. Dawn Wolski’s tone, whether pleading, wistful or heroic, was beautiful from the top to the bottom of her extensive range. Her diction, whether singing in German, French or English, was gorgeous. Anyone suffering under the misapprehension that the German language was in any way intrinsically harsh or guttural would have been permanently disabused of that notion by the clarity, precision and sensitivity with which she articulated the Romantic texts set by Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Hugo Wolf.

Supporting and intensifying the beauty of Dawn Wolski’s singing was the very exceptional accompaniment on the piano by Preu, who realized the old ideal of “a piano without hammers” – that is, exploiting the rhythmic and coloristic possibilities of the instrument while suppressing the percussive effect of felt hammers striking the strings – to an amazing degree. One was only aware that the harmonies of each song shifted precisely in union with Wolski’s voicing of the text. What might appear on the page to be repetitive keyboard passages, pointed out by Preu in his remarks to the audience, never sounded repetitive, as their rhythms appeared to arise from the melody, rather than being imposed upon it.

A ready explanation of this would be to say that, as a result of his experience as a conductor, Preu is able to “think symphonically,” and, to an extent, that may be true. A more accurate description of what we heard on Thursday night, however, would be to say that, perhaps thanks to his early and intensive training in choral singing (and to his God-given gifts of musicianship) Preu is able to think vocally. That was the impression created by his playing: tones arising out of silence and returning to silence in the way they would from a human voice.

The description by Hamilton Studio of its space as a “listening room” is most appropriate to a recital of art song, because that is what everyone does at such a recital, to an even greater degree than at other sorts of concerts of serious music: They listen. There is no orchestra, nor chorus, nor cast of other performers, nor a conductor to rely on.

For the audience, the act of listening is especially acute. Human beings are wired to respond to the sound of another human voice in a way that’s different from their response to a vibrating string or reed. The result is an experience of intimate, unmediated communication that has no equal in the world of music. When this intimacy occurs, the result is as intense and fulfilling as any in the enjoyment of art.

This was reflected not only in the quality of the performances, but in the behavior of the audience. Rather than sitting quietly and respectfully in their seats during the intermission, they turned excitedly to one another to establish new relationships, or to renew old ones. The energy in the room was different from what one observed during the performance, but, in its way, equally intense. The reason was that the close connection everyone felt with Dawn Wolski and Preu opened them to the joy of human contact and erased the barriers that normally keep us separate .

This makes one wish for an ongoing series of vocal recitals in Spokane, widely publicized and available to all. Especially now, when we are so aware of forces dividing us from one another, the results could be powerful and far-reaching.

An earlier version of this review misattributed the former general and artistic director of the Inland Northwest Opera.