Toyota Classics presents fascinating lyric concert / Brilliant teener performs

Toyota Classics proudly presented Italian conductor Lorenzo Castriota, the 40-member Chamber Orchestra Citta di Firenze, Italian tenor Leonardo Melani and our own, much sought-after soprano Rachelle Gerodias.

The featured Italians are thoroughly conversant with Italian opera repertoire, a felicitous circumstance because the program consisted mostly of arias and overtures from Italian operas.

Conductor Castriota wielded the baton in what sounded to this reviewer as the best orchestral rendition of our national anthem, with contrasts in dynamics giving it arresting eloquence.

To return to the program, the highly disciplined, tightly cohesive orchestra played in refined, elegant tones — here special mention should be given the quivering beauty of the strings in Verdi’s Prelude from “La Traviata”. In the rest of the selection, the excellent brasses, woodwinds and percussion were in perfect accord with the strings. Conductor Castriota rose to magnificent heights in the overtures: to Rossini’s La Gaza Ladra and “Barber of Seville” and to Verdi’s Giovanna D’Arco.

Like the other performers, soprano Rachelle Gerodias was thoroughly familiar with Italian opera, delivering her lines smoothly and seamlessly.

Both Gerodias’ instinct and training for dramatic communication were most discernible and fascinatingly so. Her sonorous, resonant voice could, in one minute, be pianissimo and, in the next, progress into amazing fortissimo steadfastly held, then, in another instant, return to pianissimo, such vocal control and flexibility characterizing all her renditions.

It was not only Gerodias’ voice that expressed diverse emotions — gaiety, surprise, sadness, longing, anxiety, ecstatic joy — but her spontaneous, graceful gestures as well. Her vocal power was, as always, a constant source of wonder, emanating from such a diminutive, frail-looking figure.

All these qualities were demonstrated in Porgi Amor from Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro”. Don Pasquale, and particularly in Una Voce Poco Fa from Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” with the soprano breezing through its pyrotechnical passages superbly.

Tenor Melani sang Ombra Mai Fu from Handel’s Serse, the Neapolitan Torna a Surriento and Granada with scores, Puccini’s La Tregenda from Le Villi, Lehar’s “Yours Is My Heart Alone” in its original language, and Denza’s Funiculi-Funicula without. The tenor lacked power, his volume sounding rather thin, but his ability to sustain high notes long and firmly was most impressive. His stage deportment seemed rather static but improved as the program progressed.

In “The Drinking Song” from La Traviata, his and Gerodias’ sustained, ringing top notes garnered lusty applause, and with conductor Castriota, the three had a standing ovation that led to a repeat of the duet.

With arias and overtures culled from Italian operas, the audience immensely enjoyed a most lyrical night.

Sixteen-year-old Arianna Abello Korting, a student-scholar at the Cleveland Institute of Music, will give a piano recital on Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. in St. Cecilia’s Hall. Arianna’s numerous international awards include first prize in the Bradshaw and Buono Piano Competition which earned her Carnegie Hall recital in June of 2007 at her young age.

Selected as a junior jury member of the 2009 Cleveland International Competition, Arianna has appeared with various orchestras in Cleveland. In 2008, she was on National Public Radio’s “From the Top”, and performed in Boston’s Jordan Hall.

Arianna began piano studies at three, by seven, she had won several competitions and made her debut as soloist with orchestra. Last September, she won first prize in the Julia Crane International Competition, the first by unanimous vote, with 15 of the world’s finest 13-18 year olds participating.

On Nov. 21, Arianna will interpret Bach, Haydn, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Soriabin and Liszt.