On Thursday night the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College opened its season with a concert performance of "The Tender Land," presented without intermission in one 90-minute span.
When Ms. Price ended her performance of the tender spiritual with a gleaming high note that sopranos 40 years her junior would covet, the children cheered, applauded and asked for more.
The company's music director, James Levine, leads the orchestra in a gripping performance of the score — tender in its lyricism, mighty in its strength, and heartbreaking at its conclusion; Alexey Markov takes over the role of Anckarström from Dmitri Hvorostovsky.
Another highlight was Ms. von Otter's slightly sassy yet tender performance of the standard "Walkin' My Baby Back Home," performed in a version with Swedish lyrics.
There were some surprises as well, including Brian Stokes Mitchell's tender performance of the great song "Laura" by David Raksin with words by Johnny Mercer.
Enjoyable as much of the album is, though - Estelle's tender performance of the title track deserves special mention - it feels like a series of tracks rather than a fully realised long-player.
Memories of attending Roman Catholic schools in Washington led to Ms. von Stade's affecting performance of Virgil Thomson's tender setting of a Kenneth Koch poem, "A Prayer to Saint Catherine," and to Copland's "Why Do They Shut Me Out of Heaven?" from "12 Poems of Emily Dickinson".
Bevan's tender performance of "I know that my Redeemer liveth" from a hospital bed is outstanding, as is the uncredited violin obbligato in "If God be for us", but "Since by man came death" is frayed and sour and the mass resurrection from perspex sarcophagi is crass.
It is suggested that the present performance of dipo at such tender age is contributing to the increased rate of unprotected, premarital sex among the Krobos and its associated HIV/AIDS and other STI's infections [ 24, 37].
