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Frederica Von Stade at The National Concert Hall national |
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opinion/analysis
 Friday November 13, 2009 16:38 by Sean Crudden - impero sean.crudden at iol dot ie Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth 0879739945
 Celebrity Concert As an event in The Irish Times Celebrity Concert Series 2009/2010, Frederica Von Stade gave a recital of songs last night (121109) in The National Concert Hall. She was accompanied on piano by her friend Laurana Mitchelmore. The concert started at 20.00 and finished at 22.00. The audience was appreciative but a little more reverence and hush would have improved matters both for the performers and for those trying to get to grips with the performance. "He’s like a big child!" my mother remarked many year ago about my father. Her epithet sprang to mind today as a summary of last night’s recital by Frederica Von Stade in The National Concert Hall. Indeed my father was big and he was no child at the time I am writing about. Frederica is big in terms of technique, voice and stage presence. But she projected a simple, guileless, direct almost childlike personality to a full attendance. However it would be foolish to put this down to a lack of sophistication for, as we all know, there is an art which conceals art. On the other hand it may be just the American way? She certainly managed to convey childhood and youth and she did a lot to elevate the banal, the everyday, the domestic. The program was peppered with a lot of clever songs in the English language which were wittily shaped. In general terms Frederica went to great pains to make sure all her material was readily accessible to the audience using spoken introductions and explanations before each song. It seemed to me that her performance last night did not produce 100% instant gratification but the value and worth of the performance seemed to grow and increase in my mind as I reflected on it this morning.
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