On April 25, at 8:30 p.m. at the Howard Performing Arts Center (HPAC), tenor Charles Reid and pianist Chi Yong Yun will join together to perform a recital. Reid and Yun, professors of music at the Andrews University Department of Music, have worked together to craft a program entirely of “art songs,” a genre of song that fuses poetry and music together. It will feature works by Richard Strauss, Reynaldo Hahn, Richard Schumann and Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti.
Though Reid and Yun have collaborated before on smaller, off-campus programs, this will be their first time performing a full recital together at the HPAC. Reid stated, “We have talked about doing a recital for a long time… for years, really,” adding that they are excited to finally see it come to life.
Richard Strauss’ “4 Lieder, Op. 27,” which Yun described as a “radiant and sweeping” love story, will open the concert. She added that the piece is full of emotions such as longing, ecstasy and transcendence, and that Strauss so effortlessly amplifies these feelings to the audience. Each piece of this larger work has lyrics by a different poet, which Strauss put to music and dedicated to his wife.
The next work on the program was composed by Reynaldo Hahn at roughly the age of 13-16, and is titled “7 Chansons Grises.” Each movement’s lyrics come from a set of poems by Paul Verlaine. Reid expressed that these seven songs are “delightful and light,” and that he chose them because they are “so simple, yet so amazing.”
Reid and Yun chose to combine five individual songs by Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti for the next part of the program. This will be the only work on the program that was not originally composed as a set. These five pieces still follow a theme, however, making illusions and comparisons between emotions and nature, including the moon, sea, rainbows, birds, and flowers.
After a brief intermission, the duo will close the concert by performing Robert Schumann’s “Dichterliebe, Op. 48,” which means “A Poet’s Love.” Yun expressed that this piece stands out to her. “What makes it unique is how deeply psychological it is. Rather than just telling a love story, it traces the inner collapse of the poet, from hopeful infatuation to irony, bitterness and quiet resignation.” She added, “The piano, especially, isn’t just accompaniment; it acts like the singer’s subconscious, revealing feelings the voice doesn’t fully express. Those extended postludes at the end of songs are almost like emotional aftershocks.”
Reid added that “there may be a couple of surprise encores,” but that people have to come to find out what they will be.
Though the entire program will be sung in foreign languages, including German, French and Italian, during the performance, there will be a slideshow presented on the screen with the lyrics translated into English, making the concert more accessible to a broader audience.
Both performers took a moment to describe the program and its importance to them. Yun stated that the concert “gives both the performer and the audience a full spectrum of romantic expression, from introspection to emotional overflow.”
Reid connected the concert to students, saying, “It’s songs about emotions of love and attraction and relationship and dating and marriage… which is quite relevant to what you might be thinking about as a college student.” If that doesn’t convince you, Reid also provided more reasons to come to the performance, expressing how the concert is a “chance to explore poetry and song and music that you don’t normally hear!”
Tickets can be purchased at the box office or on the HPAC’s website. Student tickets are available at a discounted rate.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.