SARA PAAR and MARCIA ECKERT, Wisdom's Harvest

Both widely acclaimed treasures of NYC’s contemporary classical scene with extensive, impactful individual histories, contemporary classical/opera soprano Sara Paar and pianist Marcia Eckert bring to their exquisitely rendered, intricately produced and thematically powerful full length collection Wisdom’s Harvest the full force of their longtime partnership, shared performance history and passion for sharing overlooked musical treasures they’ve found throughout their careers.

As they venture deep into the heart of works by Jake Heggie (1961-), Ned Rorem (1923-2022), Louise Talma (1906-1996) and Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) over the course of four suites and 22 tracks, they were moved by the profound lessons these selections imparted about what human beings gain and how they grow through the travails of hardship and misfortune – whether it be, as they impart in their compelling liner notes, “in war, love or identity.” At the end of the journey through equally soul-piercing moments of subtle elegance and fragility and intense, soaring cathartic expressions, the listener is rewarded with the titular promised harvest of wisdom.

For those experiencing their artistry for the first time on Wisdom’s Harvest, here’s a brief rundown of their prolific solo careers. Known for her expressive voice and dramatic interpretations, Sara Parr has performed with various NYC ensembles (including Ensemble 365, S.E.M. Ensemble) and Chelsea Opera, premiering works by living composers, teaching at Fordham University and serving as Co-Chair for New York Women Composers. Widely renowned for her expertise in solo piano, chamber music and the music of women composers, Marcia Eckert has served on the piano and chamber music faculty of the Mannes Preparatory Division since 1983. The founder of Pianophoria! – a summer intensive program for adult amateur pianists – she has appeared at major venues including the Mostly Mozart Festival, Merkin Concert Hall and Alice Tully Hall.

In the past few years, Paar and Eckert has worked together on several notable projects, including the “Ten By Three” concert (a performance of works by living women composers), an Amnesty International Benefit (where they premiered the soprano/piano version of La Frontera (The Border) at a benefit concert for the CAIR Coalition) and a recital titled Creation at Klavierhaus. They also record the track “The Divine Image” on the 2019 EP Short Songs to the Poetry of William Blake.

Their prodigious, intuitive creative flow on Wisdom’s Harvest springs forth on the rhythmically and thematically diverse five-piece Natural Selection, which Jake Heggie composed in 1997 during his tenure as a staff writer at the San Francisco Opera. From the visceral, heartrending opening ballad “Creation” through the intense, breathtaking exultation of “Joy Alone (Connection),” the work showcases the composer’s grand storytelling skills, chronicling a young women’s development and her search for identity. Along the way, Paar and Eckert whimsically embody the joy of her sexual awakening on “Animal Passion,” a piece whose narrative thrust is driven by jazzy riffs and tango rhythms. The story also includes the protagonist’s troubling romantic travails on her road to piece, explored dynamically by the duo on “Alas! Alack!” and “Indian Summer – Blue.”   

The second majestic suite on Wisdom’s Harvest is Ned Rorem’s Poèmes pour la paix, which he composed during his time in Paris and captures the despair of war with a sparse and eloquent yet often dramatic simplicity. Starting with the graceful prayer “Lay” – beseeching the divine for peace amidst the chaos – and concluding with the questioning of mankind’s propensity for evil via “L’hymne de la paix,” the six-piece cycle reflects Rorem’s pacifist beliefs, drawing emphatic parallels between historical and modern conflicts. The music is centered around five Renaissance poems by Jehan Regnier, Pierre de Ronsad, Olivier de Magny, Jean Daurat and Jean Antoine de Baif. The emotional centerpieces are the three sonnets (two by de Magny, one by Daurat) expressing the desire for peace amidst the war-torn ravages of the country, rendered in a great, passionate swirl of Eckert’s alternating sensitivity and dramatic ivory flourishes, and Paar’s multi-dimensional expression of the French poetry. The liner notes include the English translations.

The duo next ventures into another collection of emotionally charged poetry set to music via five selections from Louise Talma’s Seven Songs suite, which highlights the pioneering composer’s mastery across decades as she explored the intricacies of such curiosities as the inner demons of Emily Dickinson (“One need not be a chamber to be haunted”), the “babble babble” of nature (Jean Garrigue’s “Rain Song”), colorful musings on the strange intricacies of God’s creation (Gerald Manley Hopkins’ “Glory be to God for dappled things”) and the courageous exhortations of W.H. Auden to “Leap Before You Look.” While there’s a bit of pluckiness in Eckert’s and Paar’s performance of the Dickinson piece, it’s mostly (as expected) a reflective, haunting piece of bittersweet grandeur. Those looking for the duo’s freshest, high-spirited joy need only forward to their spritely, cheery strut through “Rain Song.” The remaining track in the cycle is another Manley Hopkins piece, th graceful and dreamy, charmingly innocent “Spring and Fall: to a young child.”

Offering Paar another chance to bring her operatic transcendence to French is the final cycle of Wisdom’s Harvest, Germain Tailleferre’s Six Chansons Francaises, With Eckert providing the alternately soothing/thoughtful and lively/quirky ivory foundations, she brings her blend of joyful, witty phrasing and gentle voice caress to gripping pieces the composer wrote in 1929 that consist of settings of French texts from the 15th through the 18th centuries. These chansons are often considered Tailleferre’s most feminist works due to the way she immerses in each poem to bring her wit and daring sense of exploration to themes of marital unhappiness and female empowerment/independence.

The lyrics of "Non, la fidélité..." (No, faithfulness...) boldly suggest that fidelity is foolish and outdated, while the composer’s lyrical take on Voltaire’s "Souvent un air de vérité" (Often an air of truth) allows Paar to subtly dramatize a dream where the speaker was a king who dared to express love – only to awaken to find the kingdom lost. Ironically, the most exuberant and frolicsome chanson is the darker themed "Mon mari m'a diffamée" (My husband has vilified me..” about a wife whose husband criticizes her for her male friend. Paar brings forth the sense of delight the woman feels when she decides to continue her behavior despite his disapproval. As with Rorem’s suite, the liner notes include English translations to follow the story as Paar enraptures the listener with her perfect French intonations.