By Peter Alexander
Fans of Olga Kern—of which there are many in Boulder—will be interested to read the New York Times review of her performance with superstar soprano Renée Fleming Wednesday (Mar. 9) at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Olga Kern
Kern has become known in Boulder through her performances at the Colorado Music Festival. Particularly memorable were her performances of all of the Rachmaninoff piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in two back-to-back Festival Orchestra concerts—a remarkable feat of pianistic athleticism that was also an outstanding musical accomplishment—July 19 and 21, 2013.
Kern will return to CMF this summer to perform Brahms’s Quintet for piano and strings in F minor on a chamber music concert Saturday, Aug. 6, and the Beethoven “Emperor” Piano Concerto Sunday, Aug 7. Both concerts will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Chautauqua Auditorium.
In a positive review of the Fleming-Kern song recital, James R. Oestreich wrote in the New York Times that Kern, “an established solo artist in her own right, was a strong collaborator throughout, and she had additional moments to shine.” Oestreich called attention to Kern’s solo turns on the program, noting that she “opened the second half, setting the stage brilliantly for the Debussy (song) set with Feu d’Artifices (‘Fireworks’) from the composer’s second book of ‘Préludes.’”
You may read the entire review here.
Sharps & Flatirons 
Thank you for sharing this interesting article Peter. George Todica and I shared the program in our recital in Reading it worked quite well, I thought perhaps next time I could sing a couple of unaccompanied songs, one in each half to give him a chance to rest and stretch his fingers before and after his solo sections.
What a great idea! I like that. Or if you know a good clarinetist, let me suggest the Vaughan Williams 3 Vocalises for voice & clarinet, a piece that I played on a recital when I was in grad. school. (I and two other musicology students did a program of music for voice, clarinet and piano, just to show that musicologists ARE musicians, too!)
Not heard those before Peter so thank you for the recommendation, I hope I get the chance for lots of collaboration. I’m in a concert on Wednesday with a clarinetist it would have been lovely to do something together.
Best wishes
Charlotte