Music Review: 2 Singers, One Experienced and One Not

Various music competitions and programs offer promising young singers a means to be heard above the fray. One important contest is the George London Foundation awards competition, named for the renowned American bass-baritone, which recognized singers like Joyce DiDonato and Renée Fleming early in their careers.

In addition to receiving cash prizes, laureates of the annual awards are presented at Gilder Lehrman Hall of the Morgan Library & Museum in recitals that often pair a recent winner with an established artist. On Sunday afternoon the promising young tenor Sean Panikkar — who won a $10,000 award last March — joined the coloratura soprano June Anderson for an eclectic program ranging from Beethoven to Weill.

Performing with the pianist Ken Noda, Mr. Panikkar opened the program with a passionate, if sometimes rough-hewn, rendition of “An die Ferne Geliebte,” Beethoven’s only song cycle. Mr. Panikkar displayed his rich, ardent tenor to emotive effect in “Kuda, Kuda,” Lensky’s aria from Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” although here, too, more refined phrasing and dynamics would have improved the performance. He also offered lively renditions of five songs by Hubert Parry.

Veteran singers like Ms. Anderson invariably manage the resonant acoustics in this hall far better than their younger colleagues, who tend to deafen the audience in louder passages.

Ms. Anderson, heard infrequently in New York in recent seasons, specialized in bel canto repertory early in her career before branching out. On Sunday she offered Rossini’s “Giusto ciel, in tal periglio” and Bellini’s “Dopo l’oscuro nembo” and “La Ricordanza” on the first half of the program and songs by Duparc and Weill on the second.

While her voice has lost some of its bloom, and there were some wobbly, off-pitch top notes, she mostly sang expressively and with elegant phrasing, ably accompanied by Jeff Cohen.

The two singers concluded the evening with a passionate rendition of “De mon amie, fleur endormie,” Leila and Nadir’s duet from Bizet’s “Pêcheurs de perles.”

The George London Foundation awards competition finals are on March 19 at the Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street; (212) 685-0008, themorgan.org.