A Concert with Leonard J. Lehrman – Reviewed by Jonathan Dzik

Charles Osborne and Leonard Lehrman, taken in Lake Success, NY on August 24, 2024

To honor composer/conductor/pianist Leonard Lehrman’s 75^th birthday, a concert of his compositions was held at Gold Hall in the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library on August 20, 2024.  Performing were 6 female vocal soloists and at various points, 6 dancers, all from Dance Visions NY, with choreography by Beth Jucovy.

All the compositions, with the exception of 12 Jewish Haikus and Psalm 122, were based on previously written poems and texts by a variety of writers, including Russian, Romanian, Spanish and American writers. Dr. Lehrman set these texts to his music and he was the pianist throughout, with the exception of Psalm 122, in which the composer and longtime friend of Dr. Lehrman, Charles Osborne conducted, with his wife Susan Piltch as accompanist. For those poems that were not originally in English, Lehrman was also the translator.

I will not attempt to analyze every selection, but that said, here are some observations.

Leyb Neydus

The first two selections, set to Yiddish poems by Leyb Naydus were sung by Lehrman’s wife Helene Williams and Mr. Osborne.  The first selection, In the evening, let’s go (“Kum tsu geyn in der nakht”), was composed by Beyle Borts and arranged by Lehrman.  It is a tender lullaby, with a gentle, arpeggiated accompaniment.  The meshing of text and music immediately draws in the listener to the “evening by the river bank…with the waves gently murm’ring…”  The poet Naydus has been called the Jewish Keats and he was a contemporary of the composer’s maternal grandmother in Vilna, Lithuania. The second song, Longing for you (“In der Fremd”) was sung by Charles Osborne.  It also had an arpeggiated accompaniment, but it was more impetuous in tempo and appropriately created the “longing” mood as called for in the title.

The next set included 3 Romanian songs set to poems by Romania’s national poet, Mihai Eminescu, which apparently, according to Lehrman, “every Romanian knows by heart.”

Mezzo-soprano Perri Sussman sang the first song—Sonnet #2—Ms. Williams sang the second—And if, and Sussman sang the third—Sonnet #3.  Noticeable in all three was that they didn’t have a traditional tonic ending, no final resolution on the home note.  Upon speaking to the composer after the performance of this non-traditional ending, he explained that “the absence of a final resolution calls on the listener to realize that what is being depicted is in fact ongoing, not yet finished.”

So Low from Lehrman’s 1981 musical Growing Up Woman featured, in addition to soprano Williams, dancer Beth Jucovy.  Using only two scarves as props, Jucovy performed a solo dance.  Both music and dance describe a sunset in nature, mirroring the sunset of a relationship.  Lehrman provided a powerful musical interlude within the song to allow everyone to totally focus on the dancer, before the singer resumed.  Part of the text was spoken, which starkly stood out from the sung portion, adding a dramatic urgency.   Especially noteworthy was the clear enunciation of the text.   This was, in fact, true of all the singers.   Although Lehrman provided the text of each song in a hand-out, the clear articulation of the singers made this almost unnecessary.

Dawn in New York, set to a poem by the Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca in 1934 when he spent a year in New York, was sung by Ms. Sussman and danced by Ms. Jucovy.

Lehrman and Williams performing E.G.: A Musical Portrait of Emma Goldman

The next two excerpts were from Lehrman’s most performed work, E.G.: A Musical Portrait of Emma Goldman, a musical portrait of the Russian/Jewish anarchist Emma Goldman.  The first of these, Where Do I Belong? is in three verses, each beginning with a question.  Having sung the part of Ms. Goldman many times, Ms. Williams literally became the protagonist, giving a confident, authentic portrait of this troublemaker.  The second excerpt from this work, If I Can’t Dance, It’s Not My Revolution, featured three singers—Caryn Hartglass, Delaney Page and Perri Sussman, along with three dancers—Louisa Armstrong-Harrison, Abby Dias and Anne Parichon, seen below.  The overall feel for this selection was a Broadway style, somewhat jazzy accompaniment with a harmonic ending on a traditional tonic chord (a minor triad with an added major 6^th) creating that Broadway-ish chord.

The program continued with two excerpts from Lehrman’s opera Sima, and based on a Russian short story discovered by Lehrman’s uncle Edgar.  (This is the only one of his operas not yet performed in New York City, although it is scheduled for a performance there in November of 2025.)  This was followed by a 12-tone, yet tonal sounding, melodic setting of a poem by Emily Dickinson and then two songs with texts by the Australian poet Alex Skovron.

Mr. Osborne conducted a quintet of women in his setting of Psalm 122, Samachti B’omrim Li (“How I rejoiced when they said to me”).  This traditional diatonic setting provided a warm contrast to some of the dissonances and incomplete cadences heard in many of the previous selections.  One could hear Mr. Osborne and Dr. Lehrman singing along to fill in the men’s part of the original SATB setting.

Now came the novelty number—12 Jewish Haikus, ostensibly one for each tribe of Israel, sung in alternation and sometimes simultaneously by Mr. Osborne and Ms. Williams.  The haikus are very brief 3-line poems.   The first two lines are the set-up and the third line is a kind of punch line.  Each of the 12 was on a different topic, and the final one incorporated the famous tune of Dayenu traditionally sung at the Passover seder.  Not only did Osborne and Williams perform each of these 12 with great aplomb, their facial expressions and gestures were right on point.

For the grand finale, Lehrman chose an episode from the Biblical book of Numbers, chapter 27—the story of the 5 daughters of Zelophehad.  Traditionally, only males inherited land from their deceased father.   But Zelophehad did not have any sons, so his daughters would, therefore, be disinherited from any share in the promised land which they were about to enter. So they came to beseech Moses for their rightful claim.   There was no precedent for their situation, so Moses inquired of G-d, what to do.  A decision was reached that the 5 daughters would, in fact, inherit.  This was the first struggle for women’s rights in history.  Their case had merit, and the decision was in their favor.  Appropriately, 5 singers and 5 dancers (mirroring the text) performed.  The powerful text setting concluded with:

Rejoice in the victory for justice,

Rejoice in the victory for all Israel.

Rejoice in the victory not just for women alone.

Rejoice in the victory for all humanity!

The music ended on the tonic “Amen”, but with the added “spice” of an added major 9^th and 11^th tone.  This was a most fitting conclusion to a wonderful concert of great variety, talent and execution by the singers, dancers and especially the composer, arranger, pianist and birthday boy of the hour—Dr. Leonard Lehrman.  At its conclusion, the audience spontaneously burst into a Happy Birthday tribute to this multi-talented man.

To see a video of this concert, go to:  https://tinyurl.com/20240820HWL