The second gear was marked by vocal, facial and physical contortions for a crooning piano to forte. Phan shifted into this gear for his top notes, but the mannerisms created a barrier between song and listener. The third gear was a bellowing fortissimo that overpowered the brittle acoustics of the small auditorium. A conservatory such as Longy deserves a better performance space than Pickman Hall.
Between song groupings Phan had an affable patter that would suit a cabaret show. The centerpiece of the Schubert set was the epic-in-miniature Viola D786, which the singer explained was about a little flower that bloomed too early and was killed by a late frost. This drew chuckles from a Boston audience that knew all too well about a backward spring.
Phan stopped himself shortly into Frühlingssehnsucht D957 (Longing for Spring), apologizing that he had sung the wrong verse. Huang snarked from the piano, "Not that anyone would have known!" – again to the amusement of the listeners. The second go went without a hitch.
The Britten half of the program featured Winter Words op. 52, a cycle of eight songs to poems by Thomas Hardy, and various folk tunes arranged by the composer. Phan's delivery of the English texts was captivating until his oversinging continually broke the spell.
The first encore was Schubert's final song, Die Taubenpost D978a (Carrier Pigeon); the second encore was Britten's arrangement of Greensleeves. The understated treatment of these gems left me wishing I could have heard an entire evening of Nicholas Phan stuck in first gear.
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