Mammals Misbehaving, And Agonized Farewells

Cynics and conspiracy theorists might have suspected a hidden agenda in a concert presented by the Da Capo Chamber Players at Merkin Concert Hall on Tuesday night. The group, an accomplished instrumental quintet, augmented by many guests, offered four vocal pieces. Three featured poems by Dana Gioia, who also happens to be the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

It was amusing to imagine this as a brazen bid for generosity, come the next grant cycle. In truth, Mr. Gioia, who has worked as a music critic, writes poetry filled with lyric potential and in some cases musical imagery.

Paul Salerni responded to specific cues in “Speaking of Love,” a three-part cycle sung with clarity and sensitivity by Janna Baty, a soprano. In “Orchestra” pitches descended as the text referred to flutes, brasses and deep strings in turn. “The Song” offered similarly literal depictions of references to a heartbeat and a single note played simultaneously on two strings. The cycle’s title song stiffly alternated between speech and rangy sung lines.

More impressive was Mr. Salerni’s “Bad Pets,” three playful cabaret songs based on Mr. Gioia’s sly “Alley Cat Love Song,” Mark Doty’s frisky “Golden Retrievals” and Robert Frost’s placid “Cow in Apple-Time.” The bass-baritone Jan Opalach performed with comic gusto, gamely barking, mooing and meowing.

At the opposite extreme was Louis Karchin’s “Gods of Winter,” based on two poems by Mr. Gioia. The texts, somber responses to personal tragedy, elicited martial responses from Mr. Karchin, whose settings included tolling chimes, rumbling timpani and muted French-horn fanfares. The suspenseful “Veterans’ Cemetery” had an underlying tone of reproach, and a hymnlike chorale haunted the title song. Even in its quietest moments the work had a bare-nerve intensity; Mr. Opalach provided a gripping account.

Alla Borzova’s “Merry Hour,” in its premiere, featured verses by the Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov, set in an expressive polyglot style. Trying to follow the tenor Steven Ebel’s sung Russian with a printed text provided in Cyrillic characters and in English was daunting. But Mr. Ebel conveyed much through his tone, countenance and physical gestures.

Song even seemed to play a part in Igor Golubev’s “Sparkling Thirds,” the sole instrumental work on the program. Amid perky melodies and insistent seven-beat rhythms, each player had a brief, tuneful turn in the spotlight.

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