Jessye Norman, a busy and faithful participant in New York’s vocal world for so many years, has not been around much in recent seasons. She returned to Carnegie Hall on Thursday in a recital titled “The Five Seasons.” It consisted, she explained, of the usual four, and she added “The Eternal Season of Love.”
The soprano Jessye Norman performing on Thursday night.
Ms. Norman’s reputation has rested on her ability to sing powerfully, elegantly and with a flexibility that has stretched impressively from the top to the bottom of the soprano range. It was almost as if listeners were hearing two different singers in one body. In this very successful career the singer’s courage and sense of adventure have been too often overlooked. Thursday’s music, which included Messiaen, was as heavy on Schoenberg and Berg as it was on composers of popular classics, like Harold Arlen and Michel Legrand.
And how is Ms. Norman doing at 62? Well, she is not what she once was, but then, who is? Her opening songs, mostly late-Romantic lieder, were not kind to the present condition of her voice, relying as they did on the ability to sing at midrange quietly and in tune.
Things picked up from there. Berlioz’s “Villanelle” from “Les Nuits d’Été” sat higher and more comfortably. Vernon Duke’s “April in Paris,” benefiting from Ms. Norman’s clear yet restrained diction, was absolutely lovely. Joseph Kosma’s “Autumn Leaves” and Gershwin’s “Love Walked In,” here arranged to a tango rhythm, had the same quiet clarity. The lazy, drifting atmosphere of Richard Danielpour’s “I Envy Public Love” was nicely realized.
Ms. Norman has always been an exceptional voice wedded to a collection of eccentricities, and as the voice has diminished, the quirks have seemed more prominent. There are the swooping or ballooning attacks and the odd-sounding vowels. Given her not always reliable control of pitch, singing Kurt Weill’s “September Song” unaccompanied was an adventure. On the other hand, Ms. Norman’s involvement, both physical and psychic, in Wagner’s “Träume” at the end captured a magical musical moment, making listeners forget everything else that might have troubled them.
The evening’s pianist, Mark Markham, had much to do, playing virtuoso accompaniments with skill and following Ms. Norman’s free-style phrasing and tempo changes with sympathy and alertness.
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