Ewa Podles

On Sunday evening, October 19, I attended a magical concert given by Ewa Podles (sorry, I can't get my keyboard to make the accent above the final "s" in her name) in Baltimore, on the campus of Johns Hopkins University. My partner and I bought tickets to the concert at his suggestion - a rarity for us, as I'm usually the proponent for "classical" events - but he is mesmerized by her album featuring Handel pieces, as am I. Given our fondness for that album - and baroque music generally - we were somewhat (OK, extremely) disappointed to learn a day or two in advance that Ewa was performing Russian repertoire. Not exactly Handel, to say the least. But I went in with an open mind, and left with not one, but two albums of hers featuring the Chopin and Mussorgsky pieces she had sung that evening, and was disappointed that she didn't have a third album available with the Tchaikovsky pieces. Contrary to what the Washington Post critic Anne Midgette said in her review, Ewa's voice is beautiful, and her acting and stage presence is not at all overdone - they are expressive in an authetic, organic sort of way, and made me yearn to see her operatic performances. I strongly, strongly (did I say strongly?) recommend her recordings of Russian arias - listen, and you'll see what I mean.