Johnny Mathis

Johnny Mathis didn't have to sing a note to get his first standing ovation at Heinz Hall Saturday night. He responded with "When I Fall In Love," accompanied only by piano.

Mathis was always a song stylist, singular for his pronounced vibrato, almost a warble, and plaintive high register. At age 72 and appearing once more with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, he has grown in elegance and ease, the long-winded phrases still there, if occasionally raspy. It was strangely endearing.

Obviously Mathis wanted a little room to roam: a nifty Brazilian song set that concluded the program with his attention to rhythmic acuity; a "Kismet" collection with the light jazz inflections of "Baubles, Bangles and Beads"; "You Make Me Feel Brand New," evoking the smooth sound of '70s group The Stylistics; and the '30s British ditty, "And Her Mother Came Too," first performed by actor, singer and composer Ivor Novello. Mathis even shared a Pittsburgh connection, with movie songs by West Aliquippa native Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, including "Moon River" and Mancini's oft-expressed favorite, "Two For the Road."

The audience ate it up but waited for the songs that made this balladeer famous. He produced that high note in "Misty" and the passion that often simmered beneath the surface came out in songs like "Twelfth of Never" and "Chances Are."

Mathis could cast his spell after all these years and reduce this decidedly adult audience into a bunch of rapturous teenagers -- still wonderful, wonderful.

-- Jane Vranish, Post-Gazette staff writer

Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble

Exploring time, rhythm and silence Friday night, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble continued its summer season at City Theatre. Programmed with works by Frederick Rzewski, John Cage and George Crumb, the ensemble used Olivier Messiaen's powerful "Quartet for the End of Time" as the musical centerpiece for the program's larger narrative arc.

This year marks Messiaen's centenary anniversary, and Friday's performance of his "Quartet" by Campbell MacDonald (clarinet), Norbert Lewandowski (cello), Nathalie Shaw (violin) and Danny Spiegel (piano) was marked by their extremely tight ensemble and thoughtful pacing. The group brought out Messiaen's rhythmic contrasts exceedingly well, making audible the composer's juxtaposition of movements composed with a steady metric pulse to the movements utilizing his more fluid compositional technique. Adding to the quality was the balance the players found for City Theatre's dry performance space.

From the "perch," a raised platform situated behind a scrim, Lindsey Goodman's amplified flute filled the theater for Crumb's "Idyll for the Misbegotten." Goodman skillfully realized Crumb's athletic and virtuosic flute writing while percussionists David Skidmore, Christ Carmean and Peter Martin gave voice to Crumb's primordial rhythmic backdrop. Goodman's harmonics were particularly clear and focused.

The earthy rhythms of Crumb's composition made a pronounced connection with the concert's opening piece, Rzewski's "To the Earth." Performing on four flowerpots, Skidmore also narrated a seventh-century B.C. text. He did his best with the narration (his percussion skills made the flower pots sound more interesting than expected), but the piece suffered from not having a trained vocalist provide the text.

Cage's silent "4'33" " linked Messiaen's work to Crumb's. A profound piece about ambient sounds, the ensemble's rendition (replete with a miscalculated reference to Haydn's "Farewell Symphony") interrupted the theatrical flow instead of enhancing it.

-- Burkhardt Reiter, Pittsburgh-based composer, lecturer and writer