It was an off-campus TONY editorial summit that drew me down to the Lower East Side on Tuesday night, but what kept me there was the chance to finally hear Gabriel Kahane, who performed at Tonic this evening. Son of the noted pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane, this young singer-songwriter has been making waves lately with an aesthetic that positions him as -- in his words -- "the bastard child of Alban Berg and Rufus Wainwright."
Barely a plausible marriage by any safe reckoning, yet somehow Kahane makes it work. He opened his set with an as-yet unnamed new song, introducing his characteristic style of wistful lyrics and sophisticated chord progressions. Berg made his spectral presence known in "Brocade," draped in a stiffened waltz like a starched tuxedo on a soft kid at a school dance. In "Libertine," once cited by Alex Ross, Kahane's voice was a cello in softer passages, a trumpet in the climaxes.
Three more such songs followed: "Vernon Drive" and "Underberg" (both from a new CD EP, Walking Away from Winter), split by "Baron of Yonkers" (from an earlier release, Five Songs). In all three, clever wordplay was wedded to sophisticated, elusive compositions, capped by melodies that lingered. I couldn't help but thinking that here was an idiom that might easily appeal to fans of smart singer-songwriters, while at the same time deserving the attention of that handful of classical/operatic singers who've added songs by the likes of Rufus Wainwright -- a Metropolitan Opera annointee, no less -- to their recital repertoire.
Concluding the concert proper was the world premiere of the complete Craigslistlieder, a clever eight-song cycle based on unedited posts from Craigslist.com. Here, Kahane unleashed his trickiest compositions, as well as an affected series of vocal characterizations that occasionally veered toward parody. Most of these songs had fairly plainspoken titles, but the turnarounds were pure money shots: to wit, "You Looked Sexy" (even though you were having a seizure) and "I'm Sorry" (I masturbated on your Ikea catalog). "Neurotic and Lonely" was a heartfelt plea for companionship and compassion; "I Have a Compulsion" was a full-blown operatic scena for a gently aberrant character with a penchant for slipping ice cubes down the shirts of roommates. For his encore, Kahane offered another ballad from Five Songs, "Delusion Road."
During Kahane's set, I kept an eye on the obvious hipsters in the crowd. Several grew restless during the more straightforwardly poppish tunes that opened the show, which might well have appealed to fans of Elton John and Ben Folds. On the other hand, the Craigslisterlieder, composed in a more formal and advanced idiom, won over the entire audience without exception; the snark factor surely had something to do with this. But truth be told, Kahane's more straightforwardly poignant songs were the ones that had more staying power for me. After the set, I bought a copy of Walking Away from Winter, and listened to it three times straight through on the subway ride home.
(Gabriel Kahane will be repeating much of tonight's program at Joe's Pub in New York City on Sunday, November 19, preceded by the latest installment in radical string quartet Ethel's "Ethel Lab" series.)
Playlist:
Michael Tippett - King Priam - Heather Harper, Felicity Palmer, Yvonne Minter, Philip Langridge, Robert Tear, Thomas Allen, Norman Bailey, London Sinfonietta Chorus, London Sinfonietta/David Atherton (London)
Tilly and the Wall - Bottoms of Barrels (Team Love)
Philip Glass - Satyagraha - Claudia Cummings, Rhonda Liss, Douglas Perry, Robert McFarland, New York City Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Christopher Keene (CBS Masterworks)
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Symphony No. 8 - London Philharmonic/Adrian Boult (Decca)
Philip Glass Ensemble - Live in Monterrey, Mexico (Orange Mountain Music download; view contents at PhilipGlass.com or iTunes)
Peter Schickele - Scherzo from Quartet No. 2, "In Memoriam"; Paul Moravec - Atmosfera a Villa Aurelia; Vince & Jan: 1945; George Gershwin/Stanley Silverman - Five Songs; Daniel Bernard Roumain - Quartet No. 5, "Rosa Parks"; Klap Ur Handz Remix - Lark Quartet (Endeavor Classics)
Gabriel Kahane - Walking Away from Winter (self-released CD EP)
