Christine Brewer vs. Pollen

Charles T. Downey, For Christine Brewer, a rare miss at Kennedy Center Terrace Theater
Washington Post, April 27, 2013

Strauss, Four Last Songs (inter alia), C. Brewer, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, D. Runnicles (Telarc, 2006)

Christine Brewer does not play it safe in programming, which means that not every recital by the lauded American singer will be a winner. She is one of the most exciting dramatic sopranos in the music of Wagner and Strauss, but she has excelled in everything from Gluck to contemporary song. Her recital of Iberian and American songs on Thursday night, presented by Vocal Arts D.C. at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater (rescheduled from October, when it was canceled because of Hurricane Sandy), was one of the rare misses.

Part of the problem was that Brewer was suffering from pollen allergies, and her voice sounded a little raspy and disconnected between registers. The music on the Iberian half was sometimes disappointing, with the lushly chromatic songs of Catalan composers Federico Mompou and Fernando Obradors as notable exceptions.
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Christine Brewer, soprano
Vocal Arts D.C.
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

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