Bramwell Tovey,
conductor
Alison Balsom,
trumpet
The program:
- Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
- Tovey: Songs of the Paradise Saloon
- Shostakovich: Symphony #5
Tovey's trumpet concerto was not a premiere; it was something even rarer -- a piece of new music getting performed several years after its premiere by a soloist other than the one who premiered it. Songs of the Paradise Saloon is five years old now, and it's a spinoff of sorts from Tovey's opera, The Inventor, about the real-life Civil War-era con man Alexander Keith. One short scene of the opera finds Keith at Manhattan's Paradise Saloon, and Tovey has expanded some of the musical ideas from that scene into a concerto, in which the orchestra plays the role of the saloon's colorful denizens, and the trumpet plays the role of Keith, manipulating and maneuvering each of them. In musical terms, that becomes a sort of theme and variations, with the trumpet soloist bending, twisting, and altering the various melodies presented by the orchestra.
It makes for a fragmented and kaleidoscopic concerto, in which the soloist rarely gets a full-fledged melody, but is instead playing with fragmentary bits and pieces; there are frequent jazz influences, including a lovely passage in which Balsom and the orchestral brass, all muted, sound like a 40s swing band. As in any bar, multiple "conversations" are often happening at once, and they don't always quite mix; there's one striking passage where the oboes are playing a lovely waltz that's not really in the same key as the rest of the orchestra, and Balsom is ignoring them all with a series of frantic military fanfares.
The disjointed nature of the piece makes it hard to fully grasp on a single hearing; it's never unpleasant to listen to, and there are some fine moments, but I can't say that it ever gripped me strongly enough to make me long for a second shot at it.
The rest of the concert reminded me of how spoiled we are here in Los Angeles, where under Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel, I've become so accustomed to thrilling performances that the merely excellent is almost a disappointment. Tovey's take on the Young Person's Guide was charming, and all of the Philharmonic's principals made the most of their moments in the spotlight. The Shostakovich was a solid, sturdy performance, but for most of the way, it felt slightly lacking; the Largo, for instance, had me thinking mostly of how heartbreaking it could be with a stronger conductor.
Tovey's interpretation came fully to life, though, in the final movement, especially in the coda, which was absolutely thrilling, and which brought the audience to its feet for a rousing ovation.
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Anssi Karttunen, cello
women of the Los Angeles Master Chorale
The program:
- Debussy: Nocturnes
- Lindberg: Cello Concerto #2 (world premiere)
- Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
I have come to the conclusion that Debussy is a composer whose music I'm simply never going to connect to. It's well-crafted, and it's pretty, but for me, it's a very monotonous pretty, like staring at a canvas in eighteen impeccably chosen shades of beige, and it washes over me without making any real impression.
The Nocturnes are a bit more interesting than the other Debussy I've heard, I will admit. There are moments in the Fêtes movement that caught my ear, particularly a long crescendo that begins with timpani, harp, and brass, and the use of the women's chorus in the Sirènes movement is often lovely.
Magnus Lindberg's new cello concerto uses a small orchestra by contemporary standards -- double winds and horns; a single trumpet and trombone; no tuba, harp, keyboards, or percussion. The orchestral writing is dominated by the strings, though the brass have a few nice moments; they have a particularly lovely moment as the orchestra re-enters after the cadenza, playing a series of burnished dark chords.
It would, I think, take two or three more hearings to get a good grasp on how the concerto is put together. Those additional hearings would allow me to understand the piece better, and there are parts of it that I could even come to like; I doubt, though, that it would ever be a piece that I would love.
The highlight of the program was the Bartók, which I like to think of "Sugar Plum Fairies in Hell." It's a piece that mixes creepiness and brutality in fascinating ways, and Salonen brought out both in spectacular fashion. The percussionists were in fine form today, as they so often are, and the opening of the third movement was a highlight; the timpani playing blooping glissandos while the xylophone repeats a single note so insistently that you start to forget it's a pitched instrument and begin to hear it almost as a woodblock.
So, got my season tickets, did some exchanges, and this is the lineup of 12 concerts for which I have tickets:
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Yefim Bronfman, piano; Pedro Carneiro, percussion
- Schubert: Symphony #4
- Lieberson (realized by Knussen): Shing Kham (world premiere -- Lieberson died before quite finishing this percussion concerto; Knussen did the final work to put the piece into a performable condition)
- Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto #1
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor; Anssi Karttunen, cello
- Debussy: Nocturnes
- Lindberg: new work for cello and orchestra (world premiere)
- Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
Bramwell Tovey, conductor; Alison Balsom, trumpet
- Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
- Tovey: Songs of the Paradise Saloon
- Shostakovich: Symphony #5
Semyon Bychkov, conductor
Dudamel; Yuja Wang, piano
- Bjarnason: new work (world premiere)
- Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto #3
- Stravinsky: Petrushka
Krzysztof Urbanski, conductor; Khatia Buniatishvili, piano
- Kilar: Krzesany
- Chopin: Piano Concerto #2
- Prokofiev: Symphony #5
Andrey Boreyko, conductor; Hilary Hahn, violin
- Hillborg: King Tide (US premiere)
- Nielsen: Violin Concerto
- Sibelius: Symphony #2
Dudamel
- Corigliano: Symphony #1
- Brahms: Symphony #2
Charles Dutoit, conductor; Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
- Beethoven: Piano Concerto #5 ("Emperor")
- Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe
John Adams, conductor; Cameron Carpenter, organ
- Gordon: Sunshine of Your Love (US premiere)
- Riley: Organ Concerto (world premiere)
- Adams: Naive and Sentimental Music
Dudamel; Emanuel Ax, piano
- Brahms: Academic Festival Overture
- Norman: new work for piano and orchestra (world premiere)
- Brahms: Piano Concerto #2
Dudamel; Lang Lang, piano
- Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
- Prokofiev: Piano Concerto #3
- Desenne: Sinfonia Burocratica ed' Amazzonica
- Ravel: La valse
A good season, I think. A lot of Brahms -- they seem to be really keeping it in their repertoire after the Brahms festival a couple of years back -- and I think I'm going to be tired of Ravel after those last few concerts, but a lot of new music, and plenty of concertos outside the piano/violin/cello hierarchy -- percussion, organ, trumpet (Tovey's piece is a trumpet concerto). Composers I don't know enough about (Riley, Nielsen, Bruckner); pieces I will be happy to hear again (Bartok, Britten, Corigliano).
I'll miss at least three of these, of course, as things get in the way and life pops up, but I'm the sort of neurotic who is happy to have the tickets in hand well ahead of time.
It's Candice vs. Kree, in an Idol final that feels a bit lopsided going in, but also promises to be one of the most entertaining in years; I'd happily take either of these finalists over any winner the show has given us since Carrie Underwood.
Three rounds tonight: a song chosen by Idol creator Simon Fuller, the winner's first single, and a repeat of a favorite performance from earlier in the season.
The rundown:
Kree, "Angel" -- I appreciate that she didn't try to turn the song into a belt-fest, letting it stay the low key song that it is. The challenge, though, is that you still have to fiind a way to hold the audience's attention even without the big notes and the flashy technique to show off, and Kree didn't quite figure out how to do that. Quiet can be riveting; this was just sleepy.
Candice, "Chasing Pavements" -- Not a terribly interesting song, and the little ending tag (I assume the record ends with a fadeout) was a bit too sleazy Vegas lounge. She worked it as well as she could, but you can't make tapioca very interesting no matter what you do to it.
Round One to Candice, but not by a lot, and neither was anything to write home about.
Kree, "All Cried Out" -- The song suits Kree well, and it's a pleasantly serviceable country tune, which is a nice change from the usual Inspirational Anthems. It seems tailored to show off the strong belt she has in her upper register; however, even though the notes aren't all that high, Kree sounds strained as she goes for them, and she's not always quite getting to them. That's unusual for her, and I'd bet it's just a mark of exhaustion and stress.
Candice, "I Am Beautiful" -- It strikes me that no one ever sings a song with the message "I Am X" unless there might be some reason to doubt the singer's X-ness. You wouldn't hear Elton John singing "I Am Gay," or Marvin Gaye singing "I Am Black." And so there is something just a little unpleasant about assigning a song called "I Am Beautiful" to the woman who's not a size 2. And even beyond that, Candice projects such confidence that it feels off to hear her singing in the voice of a woman who takes such comfort in the fact that "he says" she is beautiful. She knows that already, dammit, and doesn't need anyone to tell her so. As for the performance, it's fine, though I'm not sure the song is as instantly commercial within her market as Kree's would be in hers.
Round Two to Candice, by a somewhat wider margin than Round One. But we still haven't seen anything exciting from either singer.
Kree, "Up On the Mountain (MLK Song)" -- Very good. She's slightly drowned out by the band and chorus at one point, but she sounds better than she has all night. Still not hearing the spark of magic you'd hope to hear at least once from an Idol champion on finale night, though; it's a solid performance, but it's not a thrilling one. And that, I think, is an apt summation for Kree's season. She's been a consistently solid performer, but she's never had that moment that makes you sit up with chills and say "oh, my" (It's been many weeks since we heard her do this song, but I think her earlier performance of it was better than this one, and the closest she's ever come to giving us that "oh, my" moment.)
Candice, "I (Who Have Nothing)" -- Oh, my. That's what I'm talking about. That's as close to flawless as you get on Idol, and it ought to be the decisive knockout punch.
Round Three to Candice, by a landslide.
Which means that with three wins in three rounds (and, in my opinion, season-long dominance), Candice should be the easy winner. But as we learned from Kree's surprising survival over Amber last week, you cannot underestimate the strength of the Idol country audience, and I will not be surprised at all if Kree wins.
You lucky folks on the east coast are watching the final even as I type, but it's still a couple of hours away here in California, which means I've got just enough time to slip in the annual end-of-year awards for the best and the worst of the season. As always, only performances from the Top 10 on are considered.
Best performance: Candice, "Lovesong"Runner-up: none
Worst
performance: Lazaro, "Close to You"
Runner-up: the rest of the Lazaro Arbos songbook, really, but in the interest of sharing the wealth, we'll give it to Burnell, "You Give Love a Bad Name"Voted off too soon:
BurnellRunner-up:
Curtis
(though it should be noted both of these are much smaller offenses than we get in most years; with one glaring exception, Idol voters pretty much got it right this year)Lasted too long:
Lazaro (and there's our glaring exception)Runner-up:
noneMost disappointing:
Burnell. At this point in the show's history, there's no excuse for not knowing what probable theme nights are likely to trip you up, and not having something prepared for them.
Most pleasant surprise: Candice. Sure, it was obvious from the beginning that she was good, but she kept getting better, spinning gold from unlikely straw ("Straight Up"? Really?) and singing songs you'd never have expected from her ("Come Together," for instance). At this point, it's clear that she's one of the two or three best singers Idol has ever produced.
Rebecca Petra Naomi Seaman, conductor
The program:
- Henrik Ødegaard: Bruremarsj (Wedding March), from Fem slåtter (Five folk songs)
- Edvard Grieg: selections from Fire Salmer (Four Psalms): Hva est du dog skon; Guds son har grort meg fri; I himmelen
- Peter Erasmus Lange-Müller: Tre Madonnasange (Three Madonna Songs): Ave maris stella; Madonna over Bolgerne; Salve Regina
- Jón Leifs: Requiem
- Jaakko Mäntyjärvi: Four Shakespeare Songs: Come away, death; Lullaby; Double, double, toil and trouble; Full fathom five
- Lars Magnus Béen: Sköna maj, välkommen (Fair May, welcome)
- Fredrik Sixten: Peace
- Karin Rehnqvist: The Raven Himself Is Hoarse
- Rehnqvist: I varje bit bröd (In every bit of bread)
I'd been looking for an excuse to spend a few days in San Francisco, and this concert from chamber chorus Sacred and Profane seemed like a good one. It's an adventurous program, and most of the composers are not exactly household names. The concert was a delight.
S&P is a chorus of about 2 dozen singers, and while their website doesn't say for sure, I believe they are entirely an unpaid group. They specialize in a cappella music, and while their repertoire does include some acknowledged standards, they lean to the unusual.
This program was called "Music of Transcendence: Songs from the North," and includes music from all five Scandinavian countries. (I had thought there were four, but apparently Iceland is now frequently included in the group.) The only piece on the program that I'd heard before (and that only in recordings) was the group of Shakespeare songs by Mäntyjärvi, which S&P delivered in fine style. They had great fun with the great swooping notes, frenzied chanting, and foot-stomping in "Double, double," and their "Full fathom five" had just the right eerie atmosphere. Perhaps it's just a side effect of the relative familiarity, but I thought it was the highlight of the concert.
The other name that intrigued me was Leifs, who I've heard about on many occasions, but whose music I've never had the chance to hear. He is almost always described as Iceland's greatest classical composer; given how little music we hear from Iceland, I was curious to learn whether that was a significant achievement, or something more akin to being the most sophisticated guy in Bugtussle. His Requiem is a short piece -- none of the individual pieces on this program were more than 7 or 8 minutes long, I don't think -- and he uses none of the traditional Latin text, opting instead for selections from Icelandic folk poetry. It's focused on the sad, serene mystery of death, with none of the fist-shaking anger we sometimes get in Requiems. It's not really enough exposure to his music to decide whether he's a genuinely world-class figure, but he's certainly more than Mr. Bugtussle.
The men and women of the chorus each had a chance to shine on their own. The men were at their strongest of the day in Béen's Sköna maj, an arrangement of a traditional tune that is a standard part of Swedish spring festivals; it comes across as a cross between glee club and barbershop, Swedish style.
The women's solo moment came with Rehnqvist's The Raven Himself Is Hoarse, a setting of one of Shakespeare's monologues for Lady Macbeth. It was an intense and fully committed performance that called for the women to sing in their highest and lowest registers, often to deliberately unattractive effect. The program notes say that Rehnqvist is a favorite composer of S&P; based on the two pieces we heard to today, I can't quite see the appeal.
I was more taken with the Sixten, a setting of John 14:27 written in memory of the victims of a 2011 terrorist attack in Norway. The music and the text are very much in tension -- you've never heard so troubling a setting of "let not your heart be troubled" -- but it's a lovely piece, and the choir handled the difficult dissonance very well.
Intonation is, in general, one of Sacred and Profane's strengths; I suppose if a chorus is devoted entirely to a cappella music, it had better be. Their balance and blend are also quite good. And while I can't speak to the accuracy of their Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, or Swedish, I can say that they were at least in agreement about which sounds they wanted to make. And when they were singing in English, their enunciation was excellent; I found myself having to glance at the program for text in those moments where the word choice had gotten particularly Biblical or Shakespearean.
Were these absolutely ideal performances? No, probably not. But the problems that Sacred and Profane has are the problems you'd expect from a very good chorus that's working to become a superb one. Entrances were occasionally somewhat tentative, particularly from the men (it is always harder to find good male singers than female). The sopranos tended to be shrill in their highest register, and the overall sound is notably less rich and solid when singing quietly. (At full volume, though, the chorus is capable of a beautiful, robust tone.)
But when a chorus is offering programs this unusual and challenging, those quibbles seem even more quibble-y. To hear this music at all is a marvelous opportunity; to hear it sung this well is a spectacular one.
It's the final three, which (as we were repeatedly reminded last week) means hometown visits, during which each singer is "surprised" with a message declaring what song the judges have assigned them. The producers and Jimmy Iovine also get to choose songs, giving us three songs apiece. As always on choice night, I wish that we were still getting choices from the reanimated corpse of Clive Davis, whose choices were always the smartest and most interesting. Ah well, let's see what we get from Jimmy and the gang, shall we?
The rundown:
Round One: Jimmy's choice
Kree, "Fuckin' Perfect" -- Or "Perfect," as it's identified by Idol. Pink doesn't seem a good choice for Kree (but then, Jimmy's seemed rather hostile to her in previous weeks, so maybe it's deliberate). The song's vaguely inspirational lyrics, which boil down to "yay, you!," are bland enough to be reshaped into any genre, though, and Kree gives us a mildly country flavored version. It's competently pleasant, but not really Top Three caliber.
Candice, "One" -- Loved the first verse and chorus all to bits. Subtle, understated, tasteful, restrained singing. Then the drums kick in, and it's just another bit of belting to be heard over the band. It's a nicely performed bit of belting, to be sure, and I'd rather listen to this again than the U2 original. Again, though, Jimmy is choosing songs far outside the singers' wheelhouses.
Angie, "Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word" -- This is certainly the most suitable choice Jimmy's made; the song is right in Angie's sweet spot (and I'm rather surprised that she's chosen not to do it at the piano). It's a fine performance, though some of the highest notes ("it's a sad, sad situation") get a bit screechy.
For Round One: Angie, Candice, Kree. But Jimmy's song selections had as much to do with Angie's relative success in the round as the singers' talent did.
Round Two: Judges' choice
Candice, "Next to Me" -- It's a catchy little song, and it suits Candice fairly well. It's not her finest performance, but it's cheerful and entertaining, and it could almost convince you that the song has more substance than it does.
("Now entering Beverly," says Angie during her home-visit video piece, and we few who know and adore the music of John Forster go into quiet giggling fits.)
Angie, "Try" -- A good choice for Angie. It shows off her wide range, both in volume and pitch. I like her better in the verses -- quieter and lower in pitch -- than in the choruses, which are too bellowed, but I do admire the clarity of her upper register, and how high she can go without having to slip into a falsetto/head voice. And she does seem more comfortable than she ever has away from the piano.
Kree, "Here Comes Goodbye" -- Another unkind choice for Kree. (One might almost think that someone was really rooting for a Candice/Angie final.) Yeah, it's country, but it's firmly at the pop end of today's country spectrum, and Kree is far more comfortable with the more traditional style. It's not a terrible performance; it's just never a very interesting one.
(A side note: While romantic loss and the loss of one's parents are very different things, there's still something disturbing about the judges picking this song for Kree. And from their post-song comments, it's clear that they chose the song fully intending to take emotional advantage of the resonance that her personal loss would bring to it.)
For Round Two: Candice, Angie, Kree. But there was nothing here to be very enthusiastic about.
Round Three: Producers' choice
Angie, "Maybe" -- She's overpowering the son with a "look, Ma, I got tonsils!" assault. It's all power, all the time, and the lack of tonal variety would be wearying, even if it weren't a bad fit for the song. (Who would have thought that her worst performance of the night would be the one she does at the piano?)
Kree, "Better Dig Two" -- I don't know if the problem is in the original version of the song, or in this arrangement, but there's a serious mismatch between the lyric and the music. The words are about someone who loves her husband so much that she doesn't want to go on living without him; the music is a not very melodic burst of anger. And try though she might, Kree can't reconcile the contradiction; there's no coherent point to the song. (And another song about dead loved ones? Really? The emotional vampirism is bordering on the sadistic.)
Candice, "Somewhere" -- Oh my. Yes. All the prizes for Candice, please.
For Round Three: Candice, Angie, Kree.
For the night: Candice, Angie, Kree. Song choices were so much harsher for Kree than for the other singers that even I find it hard to believe it wasn't deliberate, and I am not given to conspiracy theories.
For the season: Candice, Angie, Kree. The second-place battle is ridiculously close, taking the season as a whole, and if you wanted to argue that Kree should be ahead of Angie, I wouldn't put up much of a fuss.
Let's send home: But it'll be Kree going home, largely because of tonight's ridiculously unbalanced song choices, but because Angie has momentum on her side. Her best moments have come later in the season; Kree's best moments came early, and she's faded in recent weeks.
The final four are back for a second week, which makes it all the more baffling that the judges chose not to save Janelle on the final night they could have used the save. We'd have gotten the final five twice, instead of the final four twice, which isn't a big difference, really. Janelle would probably still have gone home in fifth, but she'd have gotten to sing one more time. (And given some of the awful song selections last week, who knows? She might have hung around for another week.)
In any event, it's the final four again, for Now & Then night, when each singer gives us a 2013 hit and a song from the Great American Songbook. And we're even trotting out a celebrity mentor for the first time in many weeks, with Harry Connick Jr. on hand to provide advice.
The rundown:
Angie, "Diamonds" -- Pretty enough, though there is one very loud, very high note on which she falls short of the actual pitch. But like most Rihanna songs (heck, most of today's pop), the production is more interesting than the song itself, and with the production stripped down to a minimum, there's not much left to hold our attention.
Amber, "Just Give Me a Reason" -- Not a great effort. She's frequently drowned out by the band; when she can be heard, her enunciation is unusually mushy; and she's chosen a key in which she can't hit the low notes. And she seems nervous and uncomfortable; still struggling to remember the words, maybe?
Candice, "When I Was Your Man" -- Candice is helped by the fact that this is a somewhat better song than the others we've heard tonight. But she doesn't really need that help. She's just flat out a better singer than the other three, by a wide margin. This isn't her most exciting or interesting performance, but it's easily the best of the night so far.
Kree, 'See You Again" -- I'm not sure what was missing from that, but all the time Kree was belting the big notes and getting a pained "I'm feeling something, really" look on her face, I was being distracted by the cute guy playing the guitar next to her, which is a measure of how dull that was, because as much as I like a cute guy, I am not that shallow.
For Round One: Candice, Angie, Kree, Amber.
Angie, "Someone to Watch Over Me" -- The opening was quite nice, but then she turned on the Full Angie, and if ever a song shouldn't be belted with a big, confident smile, it's this one. It's about longing and desperation and the fear of being alone. She made a lovely sound; it just had no connection to the emotional content of the song.
Amber, "My Funny Valentine" -- Very good. She ran out of breath on the note before that final little riff, and I think there were more unnecessary runs and frills than when she sang this in the semifinal rounds, but the song suits her voice and range extremely well.
Candice, "You've Changed" -- That was showier and brassier than it needed to be, but unlike Angie's performance, the emotional content was appropriate to the song; the volume became an expression of anger, loss, and frustration.
Kree, "Stormy Weather" -- Certainly an improvement over her first round, though like everyone else, it was overly embellished and too big. (I am firmly in the Harry Connick camp when it comes to singing these songs simply, as written.) But given that these are young 21st-century singers, utterly at sea without the crutch of their ruffles and flourishes, that was about as good as could be hoped for.
For Round Two: Candice, Kree, Amber, Angie.
For the night: Candice, Kree, Amber, Angie.
For the season: Candice, Amber, Angie, Kree.
Let's send home: As I said last week, as long as it's not Candice, I don't much care. And given that last week's votes are being added in to this week's results, and we know that Candice and Amber were the bottom two last week, I think it's a tough week to predict. Angie had a bad week, but may have enough of a cushion from last week to survive. I think it'll be Amber going home, but I have no confidence in that prediction.
For those inclined to keep track of these things in terms of gender, this is the second all-female final four that Idol has had, and there's never been an all-male final four. More important, though, it is by a long shot the most talented final four ever, and none of the remaining contestants would be an embarrassing winner. (Which isn't to say that I don't have my favorites, of course.) And with a competition as close as this, there's no room for error.
And since the first round tonight is free choice for the singers, there's not much excuse for it, either. And even the second round -- One Hit Wonders, a new theme for the show -- offers enough choices that no one's being forced into a style that doesn't suit them.
So, theoretically, it should be a good night. Let's see, shall we?
The rundown:
Amber, "The Power of Love" -- The opening verse is weak; when you're the only sound being heard and we still can't tell what you're saying, you're in trouble. But once Amber hits the verse and gets to belt with no subtlety whatsoever (and what could be a better Celine homage than that?), her voice sounds fine. At this point, though, "fine" may not be enough. And the arrangement, which is rather more sluggish than the original, isn't helping.
Candice, "Find Your Love" -- I don't know that Idol has ever had a contestant whose song choices are as consistently unexpected as Candice's, and she has a knack for finding something interesting even in a fairly blah song like this. I think I could set my iPod on Shuffle and give her the first twelve songs that came up, and she'd turn them into a fabulous album.
Kree, "It Hurt So Bad" -- "I get to dance," Kree tells one of the kids at Children's Hospital, and then she plants her feet, never taking more than two steps in any direction. But musically, this is the equivalent of a 2-foot putt for Kree, and it's a strong performance. It never gets the oomph it needs to be a thrilling one, but it's the best we've heard so far. On the other hand, Idol voters do not always respond to obscurities like this one.
Angie, "Who You Are" -- For all the volume and power, that felt easier and more effortless than anything she's done in weeks, and the quiet moments were particularly good. I don't know what the magic is about her and the piano, but she goes from a C+/B- singer on her feet to a B+/A- singer at the keyboard. She could win this thing if she never leaves the piano again.
For Round One: Angie, Kree, Candice, Amber.
Next, a pair of officially non-competitive duets as palate cleanser and time killer:
Kree & Amber, "Rumour Has It" -- There are many songs, y'know, that have been written as duets. So why bother doing this, which isn't really a duet at all? It's another case of singers performing next to, instead of with, each other; I heard only one phrase of five or six notes with any harmony at all. They both sounded OK, but it was a lot of effort with no real point.
Candice & Angie, "Stay" -- At least they seem to realize that they're both on the stage, and there's some attempt at interaction between them. But the song doesn't really suit either of their voices, and their styles are so different that they never find a comfortable blend.
Amber, "MacArthur Park" -- There is no point to doing this song if you don't have the full seven minutes to devote to it. Every time she hits the big long high note, it starts fine and slowly sinks flat. And she doesn't have the skill (or, I suspect, the drug experience) that it would take to sing all the "sweet green icing" stuff as though it actually meant something. A blah moment.
(Were I sort to nitpick about the spirit and the letter of the rules -- oh, hell, you know that's exactly the sort I am -- I might suggest that when the theme is "one-hit wonders," you are at least skirting the spirit of the thing to do what is clearly more of a Donna Summer version than a Richard Harris version.)
Candice, "Emotion" -- Even Candice can't convince us that there's a real song here, and it's a bad fit for her. The appeal of the Samantha Sang version was that airy, ethereal voice, and Candice's voice is too much for the song (at least not without changing the arrangement more drastically than has been done here). It's like trying to pick up a feather with a bulldozer.
Kree, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" -- It was a lovely string of notes, and I continue to marvel at the clarity and force of her upper register. But it was entirely devoid of emotion, and wasn't communicating anything beyond "these are pretty notes." In her defense, I don't think anyone's ever been able to communicate any emotion with these hippy-dippy lyrics, but that's not much of a defense. It's been a round of bad song choices so far.
Angie, "Cry Me a River" -- There's a bit of a mismatch between Angie's vocal, which feels very contemporary, and the arrangement, which is certainly somewhat updated from the 50s, but still feels a bit old-school. Still, it's a reasonably good performance, and comes off maybe even a bit better than it deserves simply because it's a good song in a round of lesser ones.
(If you remember how big Julie London was in the 50s, you might wonder what this song is doing here in a one hit wonder round. But as big as she was, she wasn't successful in a top-40 pop charts way, and this was indeed her only such hit.)
For Round Two: Angie, Amber, Candice, Kree.
For the night: Angie, Kree, Candice, Amber.
For the season: Candice, Angie, Kree, Amber.
Let's send home: As long as it's not Candice, I won't complain too loudly. I'd probably send home Amber, but I think it'll be Kree.
With Lazaro's departure, we're guaranteed the first female winner since Jordin Sparks in season six, and the first all-female finale since season three (Fantasia Barrino over Diana DeGarmo). The themes tonight are a mix of old and new -- the perennial favorite "song from the year I was born" and the first appearance of "divas" as a theme. Hard to do that one with men still in the field, I suppose.
Even more important than gender, though, this is the most talented final five the show's ever had. While I think that Candice and Kree are the favorites, one never knows what to expect from Idol voters, and it should be an entertaining season from here on out.
The rundown:
Candice, "Straight Up" -- Not a song choice I'd have expected from Candice, and not a song I would have thought worth bothering with, but she gives it a serious re-imagining, treating it as a jazzy nightclub number with a Latin flair. It's light, breezy, and surprisingly charming. A delightful surprise.
Janelle, "When I Call Your Name" -- A nice performance, I suppose, though some of the lyrics are too breathy to be understood. She's not going to be our winner, but Janelle has a fine career ahead of her as the opening act for some semi-retired country singer in Branson.
Kree, "She Talks to Angels" -- One of those tedious rock songs that confuses cryptic lyrics for profundity, and things aren't helped by Kree's uncharacteristically mushy enunciation. One of her worse performances.
Angie, "I'll Stand By You" -- Mentioning her connection to Boston comes off as a cheap bit of begging for pity votes, and it wasn't necessary, because the performance is strong. I always like her better at the piano, and she's in fine voice tonight, delivering an emotional performance that is her best of the season.
Amber, "Without You" -- This theme always brings at least one cheat, so here's Amber (born in 1994) singing a song from 1970, theoretically justified by the Mariah Carey remake. And it's not working; the low notes are too low for her, some of them so much so that she's re-writing the melody to avoid them. She sounds fine once she gets to take the chorus up the octave and belt the high notes, but for this song to work, you have to sing the entire range of it well, and she doesn't.
For Round One: Angie, Candice, Janelle, Amber, Kree
Candice, "When You Believe" -- There's an interesting paradox at work here. The Mariah/Whitney school of diva singing is built, in large part, around the slightly exhausting athleticism of the performance -- the runs, the flourishes, the high notes, the frills -- and the "how did they do that?!?" awe it inspires. Candice does all of that stuff, and does it very well, but it sounds so easy that some of the thrill of seeing it done is lacking. The fact that there's so little apparent effort disguises to some extent just how good she is.
Janelle, "Dumb Blonde" -- Where's the playfulness, the fun, the joy that Dolly would bring to a song like this? Janelle's giving us no subtlety, and her vocal has a harsh edge to it that is odd for her. A bad stumble.
Kree, "Have You Ever Been In Love" -- The big high notes are lovely as ever, but the rest of it is tapioca-bland, and her face looks pained and uncomfortable. She's having such a bad night that I'm wondering if that pinched nerve from a while back is still bothering her.
Angie, "Halo" -- One of the things I'm realizing as this round goes on is just how boring contemporary diva singing really is, and here's a fine example. It's well done -- the notes are in tune, the runs properly placed, the big belty notes big and belty -- but it doesn't go any deeper than the technique. It's the triumph of style over substance.
Amber, "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" -- She's at her best with songs like this; she brings to them an elegant refinement that shows off her voice very well. Unfortunately for her, the world of current pop music doesn't have much use for elegant refinement.
For Round Two: Amber, Candice, Angie, Janelle, Kree.
For the night: Candice, Amber, Angie, Janelle, Kree.
For the season: Candice, Kree, Amber, Janelle, Angie.
Let's send home: Tough call. Candice is the only singer who had two good performances, and she only solidified her lead over the pack. Amber and Angie had one strong performance each, and on a weak night overall, that should be enough to keep them around. I'd expect Kree and Janelle to be the bottom two, and while Janelle has certainly been the weaker of the two overall, Kree had a very bad night, and I won't be surprised if she gets the boot. As for the save, my bet is that the judges use it to save Kree, but not to save Janelle.
Five women and Lazaro head into the first two-songs-apiece week, and we're getting two separate themes.
Round one will be songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The show hasn't had a Bacharach night since Season 1, and that was devoted to all of Bacharach's work, not just the "and David" part. His songs have popped up on other nights, and because they are generally harder than they look, performances tend to be either thrilling or disastrous.
Round two will be songs the contestants wish they'd written, which is a broad enough theme that there will be no excuse for poor performances. That does not mean there won't be any, of course. (Hi, Lazaro!)
The rundown:
Angie, "Anyone Who Had a Heart" -- Very pretty strings of notes, and she handles the tricky rhythms and melodic leaps well. I would have liked more emotion, or some variety in dynamics, to make it more than just a series of pretty notes. There was a bland sameness throughout.
Amber, "I Say a Little Prayer" -- A few sour notes scattered throughout, and she gets lost in her own melisma as she comes back into the final chorus. And like Angie -- I suspect this will be a theme in this round -- she's put in the time to get the rhythms and (mostly) the notes right, but at the expense of thought about what the song means.
Lazaro, "Close to You" -- He did his best. It really wasn't very good.
Kree, "What the World Needs Now Is Love" -- The first performance to depart significantly from the familiar arrangement, which in itself is ballsy, since the arrangements are such a key part of how we think of those songs. Like the other women, Kree's a touch too smooth and bland, but she's putting more personality into it than they were, and the unaccompanied intro is lovely.
Janelle, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" -- Barely serviceable karaoke. Pitch problems throughout, and the highest notes (the second "HERE TO RE-mind you") were woefully under.
Candice, "Don't Make Me Over" -- The first performance tonight that makes me believe she knew the song before the week began. What amazes me about Candice is that for all her power and force, it feels so easy; her mechanics and technique are impeccable
For Round One: Candice, Kree, Angie, Amber, Janelle, Lazaro.
Angie, "Love Came Down" -- Meh. Perfectly pleasant, and being at the piano helps her, but this is more interesting as vote-getting strategy than as a performance. Do one obscure song by a Christian music act, and it's an interesting choice; do a second one, as Angie's doing here, and it's a carefully considered tactic.
Amber, "Love on Top" -- Some of those very high "ooh-ooh" notes are impressive, but on the whole, this style doesn't suit her, and she doesn't look comfortable with all the dancing about. Nothing horribly wrong with it, but it's not very interesting.
Lazaro, "Angels" -- He did his best. It wasn't very good.
Kree, "Help Me Make It Through the Night"-- Lovely. There are a few moments where it feels like she's deliberately overdoing the twang and the country break to remind us that she's a country gal, but on the whole it's a simple and understated performance.
Janelle, "The Dance" -- That last long note wobbles rather precariously, and she's singing the song as if it actually were an Important Philosophical Statement, instead of a tolerably well-written Sunday homily. But it's certainly an improvement over her first round.
Candice, "Lovesong" -- Stunning. Flawless.
For Round Two: Candice, Kree, Angie, Janelle, Amber, Lazaro.
For the night: Candice, Kree, Angie, Amber, Janelle, Lazaro.
For the season: Candice, Kree, Angie, Janelle, Amber, Lazaro.
Nothing terribly surprising tonight. Candice is clearly at the front of the pack; only Kree can come close to her. It's a tight three-way race among the other women for third. And Lazaro's presence has long since passed from amusing to embarrassing.
Let's send home: Even by the low standards that Lazaro has set for himself, his performances tonight were weak; the first one was among the worst performances Idol has ever seen. If anyone other than Lazaro is sent home this week, it will be a travesty, and a crippling blow to whatever credibility the show has left. If that happens, I think it will be Janelle who is voted off, and I don't think the judges will save her.
David Robertson, conductor
Orli Shaham, piano
The program:
- Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
- Mackey: Stumble to Grace
- Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition
Unfortunately, I had to leave today's concert at intermission, so didn't get to hear the Pictures at an Exhibition, but the first half of the concert was quite delightful.
David Robertson conducted, and the program opened with Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, which were full of glorious orchestral color. As is so often the case with the Phil, the horns made a particularly fine impression. Robertson played the Interludes without pause between them, which made the mood shifts between them feel uncomfortably abrupt.
The new work on today's program was Steven Mackey's piano concerto Stumble Into Grace; the soloist was Orli Shaham, who happens to be Robertson's wife. Mackey and the Robertson-Shahams happen to have children of about the same age, and the overarching metaphor for the concerto was a child learning to walk, progressing from timid, tentative gestures at the beginning to full on virtuosity (a triple fugue, no less) at the end of the piece.
Mackey and Shaham took part in the pre-concert talk that the Philharmonic does before each concert. By "took part," I mean that the host introduced them, asked one question, and didn't say another word for twenty minutes as they completely charmed the audience with anecdotes about the piece's origin, tales of their friendship, and discussion of Mackey's musical influences in the piece. And those influences are wide-ranging; Mackey describes his cadenza as a Beethoven bagatelle filtered through Vince Guaraldi, and also mentioned Thelonious Monk and Andre Kostelanetz ("don't tell anyone, or my career will be over").
The concerto is a fine piece that I think would reward repeated hearing. The "Guaraldi bagatelle" cadenza has a lovely groove, and Mackey uses quarter-tones to interesting effect; the piece opens with a small group of string, who have been tuned slightly flat, making the piano's first clunky chords seem out of tune, and a few of the harp's strings are tuned either sharp or flat throughout.
It doesn't, I think, grab you as instantly as Mackey's violin concerto Beautiful Passing, which the Phil played a couple of years back, and which has been one of the highlights of my years of Philharmonic concerts. But to those companies who are still making CDs: They would make a delightful pairing, and a look at Mackey's list of works shows several pieces -- a cello concerto, a double concerto for violin and electric guitar -- of the right length to fill out the disc.
A day late getting to this week's show, thanks to the demands of life. The results will be known by the time I finish watching the DVR'd show, but I promise not to peek.
It's Classic Rock tonight, and "no ballads," says Ryan. That makes this the third week in a row in which music that the contestants might actually remember from their own lives is off limits. Are they any more likely to find songs they actually know already than they did during Beatles and Detroit weeks? Let's find out, shall we?
The rundown:
Burnell, "You Give Love a Bad Name" -- Ouch. This was never going to be Burnell's strongest night. His crisp enunciation and tastefully eccentric phrasing are wildly out of place in this song, though he makes an admirable attempt to put a little growly rasp in his voice on the chorus. Not the horrific embarrassment it might have been, but he's clearly uncomfortable, and he'll be glad to have this night behind him.
Angie & Lazaro, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" -- Angie draws the short straw for this week's duets/trios. She and Lazaro aren't really singing with each other so much as they're singing beside each other; there's no connection at all. She's the perkiest little rocker in the Miss Teen Peoria 1982 pageant, he's struggling to hit notes far too low for him, and there's a patch in the middle where they both forget the words entirely. To his credit, there are a few scattered notes where Lazaro's tone has a richness and depth that's entirely new, and for those few brief moments, he doesn't completely suck.
Kree, "Piece of My Heart" -- It's very well sung, but on the bland side emotionally. Where's the anger, the passion, the fury? If Kree has a weakness, it's that she sometimes coasts on her ability to hit big, impressive notes rather than dig deeper into the song to actually say something with them. Pretty notes are not enough, and that may eventually be her downfall. Probably not for another week or two, though.
Burnell & Candice, "The Letter" -- That was nice. I liked that. I had a big dumb smile on my face all the way through. Two marvelous voices, singing a song in a style that suits them both, having fun doing it. A shame Burnell couldn't have done that as his solo. (Mariah, weirdly enough, complains that they should have done something more R&B. On Classic Rock night.)
Janelle, "You May Be Right" -- That was surprisingly good, and she managed to give it just enough of a country-rock feel that it didn't seem completely alien to her. There was far more power in her lower register than I think we've heard from her before. The phrasing was a little more tidy and prissy than a real rocker's would have been, but not shamefully so.
Lazaro, "We Are the Champions" -- He did his best. It wasn't very good.
Amber, Janelle, & Kree -- "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" -- This song doesn't work at all as a trio; hearing one person plow through those long rat-a-tat lines of lyrics is half the appeal. The performance is blandly adequate, but not any more than that.
Candice, "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" -- Very nicely done. Now I'm wanting the producers to throw her some other curveball -- country or Rat Pack or Broadway -- to see if there's anything she can't do at least reasonably well.
Amber, "What About Love" -- Like Burnell, Amber is giving us a karaoke performance in a genre she's not comfortable with and hasn't figured out how to make her own. This isn't quite as awkward as Burnell's song was, but she's pushing too hard for volume and she sounds strained all the way through.
Angie, "Bring Me to Life" -- Hmmm ... one of these songs is not like the others, boys and girls. It's not only of a different generation than the Classic Era, it's not nearly as interesting. As for Angie, I don't know if it's about posture or psychology or what, but she always sounds better to me when she's at the piano; the first thirty seconds of this were marvelous, then she stood up and it just became another series of very pretty great big notes. Meh.
For the night: Janelle, Candice, Kree, Angie, Amber, Burnell, Lazaro.
For the season: Candice, Kree, Janelle, Angie, Amber, Burnell, Lazaro.
Let's send home: It really should be Lazaro, and based on overall performance, there is no excuse for sending anyone else. But Burnell's performance tonight was bad enough that I fear he is in serious jeopardy. The question is whether the quality of the duet with Candice was enough to save him.
It's music from Detroit tonight, and any artist from Detroit is up for grabs. So that means lots of Motown, maybe some Aretha, perhaps some Madonna, and... I dunno, who else is from Detroit?
Because we no longer have enough singers to fill 2 hours, we're also getting duets and trios thrown in to fill out the evening. Those technically don't count as part of the competition, but it's silly to think that a particularly good or bad small group number won't help or hurt.
The rundown:
Candice,
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" -- Most of the song works well, and the slower, bluesy arrangment is a nice change. The opening and the tag with the prominent sax feels cheesy, though, and undercuts the overall effect. As ever, Candice's singing is excellent.
Janelle & Kree, "Like a Prayer" -- Aside from a little twang in their voices, I'm hard pressed to say what's country about this song. Kree is certainly the better singer, though Janelle held her own better than I'd have expected. It wasn't a passionate or emotionally involved performance, but I imagine that they spent most of their time working on their solo numbers.
Lazaro,
"For Once In My Life" -- He did his best. It wasn't very good.
Janelle,
"You Keep Me Hangin' On" -- The singing is quite nice, but the arrangement is a mess. This is not a sophisticated song, musically or lyrically; it's a light fluffy piece of pop, and it's not substantial enough to be taken this seriously. It's like building a 12-ton marble display case for a feather.
Devin,
"The Tracks of My Tears" -- It's an overwhelmingly pleasant performance, the sort that puts a mild smile on your face, the sort that will inspire aunts to pinch his cheeks, the sort that would easily win his high school talent show. But it's not exciting or interesting or memorable in the slightest. (I don't know why it took that red jacket to make me realize this, but oh my god, how much does Devin look like Tintin?)
Candice, Amber, & Angie, "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" -- To answer Ryan's mean-spirited pre-song question, it is obvious that Candice is the Diana. It's also obvious that Angie is the least comfortable with this song and style, but even so, she's a good enough singer that she's not horrifyingly bad. I do wish the background singers weren't mixed so heavily on the choruses, so that we could hear how well the three harmonize.
Burnell,
"My Cherie Amour" -- Not his best moment. Making the "la la" phrases quieter meant making them choppy, since he needed to breathe midway through them. He's throwing in far too many runs and frills, and his pitch is way off for a few seconds after the key change at the end. (And, please, Idol stylists, let the man keep his glasses!)
Angie,
"Shop Around"-- I don't know if it's because she's trying so hard to be relaxed and have fun, but her pitch is all over the place tonight. And though I gasped and cried "blasphemy" when Jimmy told her not to worry so much about enunciation, he may have been right; the first few lines in particular felt overly precise and prissy, with every consonant falling too crisply into place.
Amber,
"Lately" -- A couple of the low notes in the first verse are too low, and can't be heard. Aside from that, it's a lovely performance. I'm beginning to fear, though, that she will be this year's victim of the long-standing Idol lack of enthusiasm for elegant black women. (See, for instance, Stephanie Edwards, Nadia Turner, LaToya London, Trenyce, Tamyra Gray...)
Lazaro, Burnell, & Devin, "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" -- Remarkable evidence of just how bad Lazaro and Devin are: They dragged Burnell down to their level. That was sad and embarrassing.
Kree,
"Don't Play That Song (You Lied)" -- I wish her physical attitude matched her vocal attitude; she's just plodding back and forth across the stage with none of the swagger that's in her voice. But the vocal attitude and energy is more than enough to sell it, and it's great fun to listen to.
For the night: Kree, Candice, Amber, Janelle, Burnell, Angie, Devin, Lazaro.
For the season: Candice, Kree, Amber, Burnell, Angie, Janelle, Devin, Lazaro.
Let's send home: Should be Lazaro, but I think the sympathy vote is good for another week or two; Devin would be an acceptable alternative. I have this strange fear, though, that Amber will be the first woman to go.
It's Beatles night, a popular theme for the show -- this is their fourth night devoted either to the Beatles or to Lennon/McCartney -- but one that hasn't led to many great performances. And the memorable ones have been among the show's most polarizing: Chikezie's wacked-out genre-scrambling version of "She's a Woman;" an "Eight Days a Week" from Kristy Lee Cook that was, depending on who you asked, either lovably charming or intensely grating.
But for the most part, Beatles nights on Idol lean to the bland, perhaps because the songs are so familiar a part of our musical heritage that it feels blasphemous to do anything radical to them. Will anyone tonight find a way to surprise us? Let's find out...
The rundown:
Kree,
"With a Little Help From My Friends" -- Not the most interesting performance, perhaps, but most of the other women would have been buried under that band and chorus. This does show off her upper register, and how high she can sing at full power without sounding forced or harsh. Nothing exciting, but comfortably solid work, and certainly good enough to keep her around.
Burnell,
"Let It Be" -- He's pushing a little too hard in spots, and it creates a harsh rasp that isn't pretty. I love his phrasing, though, which is relaxed and conversational. He's also got the cleanest enunciation in Idol history; there is never the slightest doubt what he's saying. The performance is overly polite and respectful, perhaps, but it's pretty to listen to. (And I'm glad to see the glasses are back!)
Amber,
"She's Leaving Home" -- The biggest problem isn't her fault: We can barely hear the background singers, and the lyrical counterpoint is a huge part of the song. Her vocal is quite nice, although perhaps too calm and laidback; there needs to be more emotional urgency so that we're not left thinking that the note was "gone shopping; back for dinner."
Lazaro,
"In My Life" -- He did his best. It wasn't very good.
(After the commercial break, Ryan spends a few minutes essentially scolding the judges and demanding that they justify their cruelty to Lazaro. It plays as an unfortunate attempt to drum up enough sympathy to keep the guy around for another week.)
Candice,
"Come Together" -- Not a song I'd have expected her to pick, but she makes it work by coming at it from the blues end of R&B instead of trying to turn herself into a serious rocker. She does well with those gibberish lyrics, singing them with enough passion and commitment that they almost seem to mean something. Very nicely done, and bonus points for making a risky choice and not simply coasting through the night on a big ballad.
Paul,
"Eleanor Rigby" -- Not a good idea to start with several bars of very exposed falsetto if you can't get your falsetto in tune. And he's adding a thick layer of drama to the song that it doesn't need; the melody and the lyrics are already doing that work, so he's only coming across as desperate and a little bit campy. The high notes aren't well integrated, and they pop out in a painful way. Not good.
Angie,
"Yesterday" -- She's got a marvelous voice, and I love to listen to her. But this song is so damned close to perfect that any change you make to it has to be extraordinarily well thought out, and hers aren't; they're just changes made for the sake of showing off. The big long note on "something WROOOOOOOOOOOOONG" is, well, wrong. Sometimes, you need to get out of your own way and just sing the damn song.
Devin,
"The Long and Winding Road" -- When he's content to just sing, this is really lovely; when he throws in an elaborate run at the end of every phrase, it's not, and it's not by a wide enough margin to outweigh the quality of everything else.. Even worse, he puts in an extra "and" that changes the meaning of the lyric ("it always leads me here / AND leads me to your door," which makes it sound as if "here" and "your door" are two different places).
Janelle,
"I Will" -- Very smart song selection for a country singer on Beatles night, and sung with admirable simplicity and restraint. Breath is, as discussed in her intro piece, a problem, and these phrases really aren't so long that she shouldn't be able to sing them. But apart from a slight wobbling of the pitch on the last long "me," this was one of the night's highlights.
For the night: Candice, Janelle, Burnell, Amber, Kree, Angie, Devin, Paul, Lazaro.
For the season: Candice, Kree, Angie, Burnell, Janelle, Amber, Devin, Paul, Lazaro.
Let's send home: It should be Lazaro, as always, but it won't be, so I'll settle for Paul.
The competition gets underway in earnest this week, with a rather nebulous theme: Pick a song sung by a previous Idol champ, either during their time on the show or during their post-Idol career. With eleven winners to choose from, there are 100 or so in-show songs to choose from, covering a wide range of musical styles. One would think that the women might have an advantage, as the ongoing careers of the female winners have been, on the whole, more successful than those of the men. But who knows? Maybe the show will give us exciting covers of every song from Lee DeWyze's Live It Up.
The rundown:
Curtis, "I Believe" -- I was actually enjoying his relative restraint until he went for that high note at the end, which was neither necessary nor tasteful. Some pitch problems throughout, and a restrained Curtis does pile on the runs and flourishes. Perfectly nice performance, though lacking in the get-up-outta-your-pew gospel thrills the song needs. (And the paisley jacket? No. Absolutely not. Never again.)
Janelle, "Gone" -- Making it to the top ten has given her a needed ego boost, and she looks more confident than she has before. There are moments in the verse when she finds the right sassy attitude for the song, but once she hits the chorus, that vanishes and it becomes just a piece of pretty singing with not much personality. She does well with the passages of rapid-fire lyrics, though, almost every word of which can be clearly understood.
Devin, "Temporary Home" -- That was astonishingly tepid. No energy, no emotion, no style, no nothing that would bring it to life or make it even slighly memorable for an instant. The song gets a small part of the blame, but most of it falls squarely on Devin. And how was this supposed to be a breakout from the comfort zone of ballads?
Angie, "I Surrender" -- Very good, and little to complain about. One small technical thing in some of the opening phrases: She's climbing in pitch at the same time that she's increasing in volume. Because the higher notes are easier to sing, the volume will tend to increase naturally, so she doesn't need to work as hard to get that crescendo as she is working, and some of the top notes pop out a little too much, making the crescendo less smooth than it should be. But the fact that I'm commenting on such a nitpicky thing is a sign of how solid the performance was.
Paul, "Amazed" -- He's still equating "sensitive" with "breathy," so about 80% of the verse is too airy to register as sound, much less as coherent words. And the chorus is a string of pretty notes with no emotional force or impact. He could be eating a bowl of tapioca for all the amazement he's showing.
Candice, "I (Who Have Nothing)" -- This song brings out the best in Idol women; it was the best performance of Jordin Sparks' run on the show, and Haley Reinhart's stalker-scary take was brilliant. And this is right up there with both of those. Absolutely riveting. There were moments here that sent chills up my spine -- that drop from a full belt into falsetto-y head voice on the "I love you" at the end of the first verse, for instance. No complaints at all.
Lazaro, "Breakaway" -- A few years back when Sanjaya Malakar was on the show, I eventually ran out of ways to describe the ineptness of his performances; it started to feel like beating up on the guy. So I decided that for the rest of his run, I would say nothing more than "He did his best. It wasn't very good." It's sad to reach that point with Lazaro after only three performances, but that's where I am. So: He did his best. It wasn't very good.
Kree, "Crying" -- The problem with this as an Idol song has been that if the performance is too faithful to the original, the time constraints don't allow for the smooth build up to the high octave, resulting in a sudden awkward jump. This arrangement tinkers with the melody just enough to smooth out that transition, and it lets Kree show off her terrific range. The high notes never feel forced or pushed, and the low notes have enough force behind them to be heard. Very nice.
Burnell, "Flying Without Wings" -- I'm a little disappointed that he's let the stylists take away his glasses; he had a distinctive look, and now he's just another cute R&B singer. Some of the high notes sounded a little pinched, and there wasn't much emotional depth in the performance (then again, there's not much in the song). There were some low notes, though, that I don't think we've heard before, and I'd like to hear more of that part of his voice.
Amber, "A Moment Like This" -- Amber has a big powerful voice, and she is barrelling through this song like Godzilla through Tokyo. But the song requires at least some measure of vulnerability, of "I can't believe this is happening to me," and she's missing that entirely. "Some people wait a lifetime," she seems to be saying, "and I laugh at those puny, pathetic people."
And so, not too many surprises in the first week, as the favorites mostly do well, and the long-shots mostly don't, with Amber's stumble being the major exception. The most interesting storyline of the season, however, is Lazaro, who will give us an answer to this question: In the absence of talent, how far into the season can one get purely on sympathy and pity? I'm betting it'll take him at least to the top six.
For the night: Candice, Kree, Angie, Burnell, Curtis, Janelle, Amber, Devin, Paul, Lazaro
For the season: Candice, Kree, Angie, Burnell, Curtis, Amber, Janelle, Devin, Paul, Lazaro
Let's send home: It should be Lazaro, but it won't be. Either Paul or Devin would be an acceptable alternative.
The choices in last week's mens' rounds were far less clear than in the womens', with no real standouts and lots of mediocrities. And with so many "who cares" choices, it's not surprising that the judges and I were less in accord. There were four singers I thought deserved to move forward; only 2 did (Burnell and Curtis; Bryant and Mathenee went home, with Bryant's ouster being particularly undeserved). Of the seven who I thought should have been booted, three are still with us (Paul, Elijah, and Lazaro).
It's hard to imagine that these guys will produce anything as good as the second half of last night's show, which was one of Idol's best hours ever. But maybe it won't suck too badly. Cross your fingers, boys and girls.
The rundown:
Elijah, "Stay" -- There are good things here. He's got a wide range, and he moves smoothly from loud to quiet. And occasionally, when the sound opens up, you hear the marvelous singer he could be. But more often, the sound is pinched and tense, and you can see that tension in the giant knot between his eyebrows. He needs another year or two with a good vocal coach.
Cortez, "Locked Out of Heaven" -- Big improvement from last week; this actually had some life and personality in it. Nothing particularly original about the performance, but solidly done.
Charlie, "Mama" -- He needs to work on microphone technique. Especially in the quieter opening section, every breath sounds like a hurricane and the closing consonants are popping way too loud. The high notes he's going for are unpleasantly shrieky. And yet, there is something strangely fascinating about this; he's intensely committed to what he's doing, and the singing is often quite good. But it's so damn weird and dark and uncomfortable that I can't imagine voters responding positively to it. (There will, however, be some sympathy votes after that moment of vague confession with Ryan after the judges' comments.)
Nick, "Iris" -- The hushed intimacy of the opening verse is lovely, but when we hit the chorus and he starts going for power, the pitch gets iffy. He's got a strong falsetto, though, and if he can learn to control his belt better, he could be a real force.
Burnell, "I'm Here" -- The lyrics are an awful mess of meandering feel-good pablum, and I want to strap his hands down to stop him from constantly waving them about, but his voice is marvelous, and he sings with absolute sincerity. It's simple, straightforward, and powerful. By far the best performance of what has been a mediocre night.
Paul, "Just a Fool" -- He's working very hard and not getting much for his effort. It's such a dull performance that I've already forgotten it.
Lazaro, "Feeling Good" -- The song is a better fit for him than the country song he did last week. But the approach leans unpleasantly toward the lounge lizard, and the combination of his accent and his sloppiness makes it an impenetrable bowl of sound soup. There may be words floating around in there somewhere, but damn if I can pick any of them out.
Curtis, "I Believe I Can Fly" -- I have largely the same reaction as last week, which is that this is not a style that does much for me, but he does it extremely well. And those high falsetto notes in the middle were absolutely killer. He comes across as a bit smug, though; I'm not sure anyone is quite so impressed by Curtis as Curtis is.
Devin, "It's Impossible" -- I don't speak Spanish, so I don't know what he's saying for the second half of the song, but it has much more energy and commitment than the English-language first half, which is bland by comparison. The arrangement's rather old-fashioned, and doesn't do enough to bring the song into the modern era. Might be enough to get him through on a very mediocre night.
Vincent, "End of the Road" -- Very nice. A significant deduction, though, for the way he cheats that very high falsetto note; he turns away from the mike to be sure the note's in tune, and doesn't let us hear it until he's sure it is.
So, what are the judges to do? There are only three who I would send forward with any enthusiasm -- Burnell, Curtis, and Vincent -- and Burnell is the only one who I think is at a level to compete with the top four women. At the bottom end, Elijah, Lazaro, and Paul deserve to be sent home. I have no terribly strong feelings about the other four, and won't be particularly surprised by whatever happens to any of them. I'd probably keep Devin and Cortez over Nick and Charlie, but with no excitement about the choice.
