Stone Recital Proves Less Than Captivating

One of the opening events in the 1998 Cal State University Summer Arts series at Long Beach, the recital Wednesday by American baritone William Stone, should have been more inspiring than it turned out to be.

Stone is an admirable artist, with extensive European and North American operatic credits, and a healthy voice of much variety and resource. His program, at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, of 25 American songs--from Chadwick and Sousa to Bolcom, Ward, Musto and John Duke--had been intelligently planned and offered a good range of poets and musical subjects.

Yet it seemed incomplete--this wasn’t an evening that grabbed the listener. Part of the problem was low energy from Stone and his correct but bland pianistic partner, Thomas Warburton. And however carefully the program was planned, it featured an abundance of lyric, rather than dramatic, items, which kept the climaxes sparse.

Certainly, the songs themselves were of high quality--the first half included masterpieces such as Barber’s “I Hear an Army” and Ives’ “Charlie Rutlage”; the second half had lesser-known but still interesting pieces.

Stone’s perfect enunciation made the inclusion of texts in the printed program practically unnecessary. But the singer’s word delivery, however, was not always matched by tone coloration, and Stone’s rich voice seldom gave all his words their complete meaning.

The best moments came in unfamiliar songs by David Diamond, George Chadwick and J.P. Sousa, and in a poignant Bolcom-Musto group, the high emotional points of which were Musto’s “Litany” and “Island.” These songs have a marvelous economy and textual pointedness, and Stone let each of them be the best they could be.

The single encore, which many in the youngest generation of recital-goers may never have heard before, was a chestnut, Mana-Zucca’s “I Love Life” (1923). Here, just to prove he is human, perhaps, the accomplished Stone forgot the words, twice. Charming.

* Cal State University Summer Arts events at Cal State Long Beach continue through July 25. Next week, the Nieuw Ensemble from the Netherlands plays Thursday at 8 p.m. and July 11 at 2 p.m., and the vocal ensemble Western Wind appears July 12 at 8 p.m. (562) 985-7000.