Review: A SONG BY MAHLER at Chamber Music Northwest

When memory fails, music can still provide a connection. This is the idea at the core of A SONG BY MAHLER, Marc Neikrug's latest work, which had its world premiere at Chamber Music Northwest. Featuring soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, baritone Kelly Markgraf, and David Shifrin with the FLUX Quartet, the piece is about a concert singer who develops early-onset Alzheimer's. As she loses her memory, her husband strives to keep connected to her through the music they used to perform together. It's a heavy load, but also a powerful meditation on the nature of true love.

A SONG BY MAHLER is Neikrug's third piece in a genre that he describes as a "combination of theatre and music," but is neither a typical opera nor a musical. It incorporates speaking, classical singing, and sections where "speech is rhythmically controlled...to synchronize with the music." The natural speech and singing aspects are the most effective -- Neikrug uses speech for regular conversation and then the music takes over during moments of heightened emotion. Both Cano's and Margraf's voices are resplendent, and when they sang, my heart leapt into my throat and the auditorium came alive with feeling.

The in-between sections were less compelling as the rhythmically controlled speech came off as just slow talking. The piece would have been better served by either speeding these sections up with speech or letting them soar through music.

What A SONG BY MAHLER does exceptionally well is to make the emotion of the story visceral. I am, admittedly, not well versed in chamber music, but I never quite found solid footing with the score. It was unsettling, which was perfectly fitting, as my disorientation mirrored the characters'. And though the set and lighting was minimal, director Douglas Fitch used the limited tools to impressive effect, including quite a lot of shadow play. One scene that packed a particularly powerful punch used digital projections of drawings of a clock to convey the singer's descent into Alzheimer's.

I love experimental theatrical forms, and since I saw this one, I've been thinking a lot about what we might call it. Classical musical? Opera play? There's a clever portmanteau in there somewhere, I'm sure!

A SONG BY MAHLER's Portland run is over, but you can still access the recording via a Chamber Music Northwest At-Home Summer Festival Pass. You can also still enjoy plenty of live festival events through July 25. More details and tickets here: https://cmnw.org/

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