Eine Musik-Collage aus Flüstern, Knurren und Schreien Beim Finale der Musik-Collagen beeindruckte das TonArt Ensemble gemeinsam mit dem Countertenor Robert Crowe durch eine eindrucksvolle Darbietung von Arnold Schönbergs „Pierrot Lunaire“. 18.10.2024
 
Von Thomas Tritsch

Das TonArt Ensemble meisterte mit Countertenor Robert Crowe die musikalischen Herausforderungen der komplexen atonalen Kompositionen mit Bravour.

Zwingenberg. „Die Mehrheit des Publikums war empört“, erinnert sich die österreichische Schauspielerin Salka Viertel in ihren Memoiren an die Berliner Uraufführung im Jahr 1912. Das Melodram „Pierrot Lunaire“ von Arnold Schönberg, in dem er den gleichnamigen französischen Gedichtzyklus von Albert Giraud in bis dahin ungehörte – und unerhörte – Klangstrukturen goss, hat schon immer die Hörer gespalten. Und Salka Viertel verschweigt nicht, dass es bei der Premiere auch fanatischen Beifall gegeben habe. Das Auditorium erlebte einen Meilenstein der Moderne im Augenblick seiner Geburt. Auch in Zwingenberg wurde Schönbergs atonale Übersetzung von drei Mal sieben Gedichten ausgiebig beklatscht. Das Finale der Musik-Collagen war eine Herausforderung, die vom Tonart Ensemble Darmstadt brillant gemeistert wurde. Doch es war der wilde, expressionistische und stets fein akzentuierte Sprechgesang von Robert Crowe, der den skurrilen Texten ein Maximum an Intensität und Ausdruck verliehen hat. Der amerikanische Opernsänger, ein Sopran und Countertenor, hat Schönbergs Fusion aus Poetik und Musik gleichsam mit seinem Können geadelt. Wie er die absurden und frei getakteten Verse rhythmisch durch verschiedene Tonhöhen jagt und dabei immer die Kontrolle bewahrt – wie er die innere Dramatik und die komplexen Strukturen des dreiteiligen Werks zu den Klängen des hoch konzentrierten Kammermusikensembles intoniert, das war große Kunst im kleinen Rahmen. Ein Höhepunkt des Expressionismus Dass der Diefenbachsaal an diesem Sonntag nicht aus allen Nähten platzen würde, war beinahe zu erwarten. Doch mit dem Konzert haben Festivalchef Holger Habich (Organisation) und der künstlerische Leiter Michael Veit, Cellist im Tonart Ensemble, dennoch einen Treffer gelandet. Denn „Pierrot Lunaire“ markiert einen Höhepunkt in Schönbergs expressionistischer Kompositionsperiode, der Verzicht auf tonale Zentren und Bezugssysteme war innovativ und provokant, noch bevor er Jahre später die Zwölftonmethode entwickelt hat. Was Schönberg als „Emanzipation der Dissonanz“ bezeichnet hat und einen radikalen Wandel von Formverständnis und Intensitätsgraden im musikalischen Ausdruck bedeutete, war im „Bunten Löwen“ sinnlich fühlbar und intellektuell fassbar.
Das Publikum hatte die Gelegenheit, die Gedichte synchron zu Robert Crowes Stimme zu lesen, denn allein durch Ohren waren die zerdehnten, fragmentierten und exaltiert überspitzten Zeilen äußert schwierig zu verstehen. Es war eine Collage aus Flüstern und Hauchen, Knurren und Schreien. Der Sopran hat die Texte jenseits von Metrik und klassischem Versbau in die Luft gemeißelt und dem Ensemble ein weiteres, rein organisches Instrument hinzugefügt. Crowe schwebt über dem Orchester, lädt die Zeilen mit Energie auf und verfällt trotz der starken Klangdynamik nicht in ein beliebiges „Singsang“, was bereits Schönberg als falsche Interpretationsform betont hatte. Die Klänge spiegeln unmittelbar sinnliche und psychische Bewegungen, befreit von konventioneller Tonmelodie und üblicher Gesangstechniken. Die Kunst der Zuspitzung wird hier buchstäblich auf die Spitze getrieben. An Melodien und Harmonien mangelt es dem Werk, entgegen vieler Klischees, keineswegs. Der Hörer muss sie lediglich anders wahrnehmen und einordnen. Ein Albtraum in Klang und Poesie der Extreme Das Werk besteht aus 21 kleinen Melodramen für Stimme und Instrumente, die ironisch, zart und grotesk zugleich sind. Der Zyklus um den bleichen, melancholischen Clown Pierrot – innerhalb des Stücks durch die Flöte von Iris Rath verkörpert - kombiniert isolierte Erzählungen ohne Zusammenhang, die jedoch durch Assoziation und traumhafte Passagen in eine Beziehung miteinander treten. Die Musik ist reiner Wohlklang, atonal und vertrackt harmonisch. Die Strophen sind Bruchstücke und zerfetzte Kommentare auf die Welt in Schönbergs Zeit, mit politischen Anspielungen und zeithistorischen Fußnoten. Die Gedichte verbinden eine recht strenge Form mit einem albtraumhaften, oft grausamen und manchmal auch komischen Inhalt, den man als Ankündigung des Expressionismus und des Surrealismus verstehen darf. Pierrot erscheint in vielen Passagen, der Bezug zum Mond ist ein wiederkehrendes Motiv. Eine Hommage zu Schönbergs 150. Geburtstag Das Ensemble unter der Leitung von Christian Ross agierte hoch flexibel und folgte Schönbergs kantiger Dramaturgie mit einem hohen Maß an Präzision und musikalischem Verständnis. David Wolf (Klarinette), Ingo de Haas und Martin Landzettel (Violinen), Vaida Rozinskaite (Viola), Hie-Jeong Byun (Harmonium) und Joachim Enders am Klavier haben Robert Crowe famos begleitet und ihm den nötigen Raum für seine Stimmkunst eingeräumt. Mit drei von Schönberg für ein Kammermusikensemble arrangierten Walzern wurde der Abend dramaturgisch aufgelockert und kontrastreich beflügelt. Für das Publikum waren die melodischen Intermezzi auch eine taktvolle Ruhephase zwischen den visionären, experimentellen und fieberhaft ästhetischen Klängen von Arnold Schönberg, die auch weit über hundert Jahre später noch eine zeitlose Schönheit und künstlerischer Innovationskraft ausstrahlen. „Der Künstler tut nichts, was andere für schön halten, sondern nur, was ihm notwendig ist“, lautet ein Zitat des Urhebers. Das Konzert war laut Michael Veit auch Anlass, um Schönbergs 150. Geburtstag zu feiern. Der Komponist, Musiktheoretiker und Dichter wurde am 13. September 1874 in der Leopoldstadt in Wien, geboren. Außerdem sollte das Gastspiel auch auf das 750-jährige Zwingenberger Stadtjubiläum verweisen.

Berstrasse Anzeiger, October 18, 2024

(in English)

A musical collage of whispers, growls and screams The TonArt Ensemble and countertenor Robert Crowe gave an impressive performance of Arnold Schönberg's “Pierrot Lunaire” at the finale of the musical collages.       18.10.2024
 
By Thomas Tritsch
 
The TonArt Ensemble mastered the musical challenges of the complex atonal compositions with bravura countertenor Robert Crowe.
 
Zwingenberg. “The majority of the audience was outraged,” recalls the Austrian actress Salka Viertel in her memoirs of the Berlin premiere in 1912. Arnold Schönberg's melodrama ‘Pierrot Lunaire’, in which he poured the French poetry cycle of the same name by Albert Giraud into previously unheard - and unheard of - sound structures, has always divided audiences. Salka Viertel does not conceal the fact that there was also fanatical applause at the premiere. The audience experienced a milestone of modernism at the moment of its birth. Schönberg's atonal translation of 3 x 7 poems was also applauded extensively in Zwingenberg. The finale of the musical collages [The Chamber Music Festival] was a challenge that was brilliantly mastered by the Tonart Ensemble Darmstadt. But it was Robert Crowe's wild, expressionistic and always finely accentuated Sprechgesang that lent the whimsical texts maximum intensity and expression. The American opera singer, a soprano and countertenor, ennobled Schönberg's fusion of poetics and music with his abilites. The way he rhythmically chases the absurd and freely timed verses through different pitches while always maintaining control - the way he intones the inner drama and complex structures of the three-part work to the sounds of the highly concentrated chamber music ensemble - was great art on a small scale. A highlight of expressionism. It was almost to be expected that the Diefenbachsaal would not be bursting at the seams on this Sunday. However, festival director Holger Habich (organizer) and artistic director Michael Veit, cellist in the Tonart Ensemble, still scored a hit with the concert, for “Pierrot Lunaire” marks a high point in Schönberg's expressionist compositional period. His renunciation of tonal centers and reference systems was innovative and provocative, even before he developed the twelve-tone method years later. What Schönberg called the “emancipation of dissonance” - meaning a radical change in the understanding of form and degrees of intensity in musical expression - could be sensually felt and intellectually grasped in the “Bunte Löwen” [the Concert Hall].
The audience had the opportunity to read the poems in sync with Robert Crowe's voice, as the stretched, fragmented, and over-the-top, exaggerated lines were extremely difficult to understand by ear alone. It was a collage of whispers and breaths, growls and screams. The soprano chiseled the texts into the air, beyond metrics and classical verse construction, adding another purely organic instrument to the ensemble. Crowe floats above the orchestra, charges the lines with energy and, despite the strong sound dynamics, does not lapse into an arbitrary “singsong”, which Schönberg had already emphasized as the wrong form of interpretation. The sounds directly reflect sensual and psychological movements, freed from conventional melody and singing techniques. Here, the art of intensification is quite literally taken to the extreme. Contrary to many clichés, the work is by no means lacking in melodies and harmonies. The listener simply has to perceive and categorize them differently. A nightmare in sound and poetry of extremes, the work consists of 21 small melodramas for voice and instruments: ironic, tender and grotesque at the same time. The cycle about the pale, melancholy clown Pierrot - embodied within the piece by Iris Rath's flute - combines isolated narratives without context, which nevertheless enter into a relationship with each other through association and dreamlike passages. The music is pure euphony, atonal and intricately [trickily or sneakily] harmonious. The verses are fragments and fragmented commentaries on the world in Schönberg's time, with political allusions and historical footnotes. The poems combine a rather austere form with a nightmarish, often cruel and sometimes comical content, which can be understood as a declaration of Expressionism and Surrealism. Pierrot appears in many passages, and the reference to the moon is a recurring motif.
Organized in tribute to Schönberg's 150th birthday, the ensemble under the direction of Christian Ross was highly flexible and followed Schönberg's edgy dramaturgy with a high degree of precision and musical understanding. David Wolf (clarinet), Ingo de Haas and Martin Landzettel (violins), Vaida Rozinskaite (viola), Hie-Jeong Byun (harmonium) and Joachim Enders on the piano accompanied Robert Crowe splendidly and gave him the necessary space for his vocal artistry. Three waltzes arranged by Schönberg for a chamber music ensemble livened up the evening dramaturgically and inspired it with contrasts. For the audience, the melodic intermezzi were also a tactful respite between the visionary, experimental, feverish aesthetic of Arnold Schönberg; they still radiate a timeless beauty and artistic innovation well over a hundred years later. “The artist does nothing that others consider beautiful, but only what is necessary for him,” is a quote from the composer. According to Michael Veit, the concert was also an occasion to celebrate Schönberg's 150th birthday. The composer, music theorist and poet was born on September 13, 1874 in Leopoldstadt in Vienna. The guest performance was also intended to mark the 750th anniversary of the town of Zwingenberg.



Heilbronner Stimme, January 22, 2019
 
"A mixture of free Latin poetry and selections from Psalm 22 comprise the dramatic work 'Oleum effusum est.' For almost 25 minutes Robert Crowe uses all registers and rhetorical finesse in this presentation. ... With the Fall into the underworld, Crowe mixes his very impressive vocal range through into clean, tenorial depths. Unrelieved dissonances between the voice and the organ [Michael Saum] are savored in, at times, very slow passages. ... Painfully drawn-out, at the end mortality is articulated through stark intervals on 'dust of death.' Bravo!"

Lothar Heinle

Early Music America, August 10, 2018 (CD Review: "Complete 'Amen, Alleluia' Arias of G. F. Handel, HWV 269-277")

"Crowe’s musical instincts are spot-on throughout as he explores each work’s unique character. He tosses off some impressive sudden register shifts, including an unexpected dip into chest voice following chiming, upper-register melismas at the end of Croft’s “A Hymn On Divine Music.” Even during the most ornate line of the three Harmonia Sacra pieces, Crowe demonstrates fine diction and consistency of tone."

Andrew Sammut

Darmstädter Echo & Wiesbadener Kurier, September 9, 2018  

The countertenor Robert Crowe is to be experienced in four roles. As Musica, Euridice, Speranza and Apollo he lets his elegant soprano voice apparently effortlessly float.

Klaus Trapp 

Frankfurter Neue Presse, September 14, 2018 

So even a male alto can sing women's roles, like the wonderfully adaptable Robert Crowe (Euridice, Speranza, Apollo and La Musica, who praises the power of music at the beginning).

Andreas Bomba

Teatrionline, September 14, 2018 

The countertenor Robert Crowe covers with ease and beautiful agility four parts of the work (La Musica, Euridice, La Speranza, and Apollo), always at his ease in all role changes." 

Stefano Borgioli​

 Schwäbische Post, September 19, 2017
 
A shadowy presence has long occupied the European stages: countertenors, even when they clearly serve the soprano range. Often they have been cast in castrato roles, as their tessitura was perceived as essentially unmanly. Thankfully is this prejudice long since passé--for too beautiful is the art of men who, because of their disposition and technique, are able to climb into the high soprano ranges.
 
And so a large audience appeared on Sunday, as the male soprano Robert Crowe and the organist Julia Gillich-Naroschnaja invited them to a baroque concert in the Church of Saint Johann.
 
Robert Crowe, trained at the Boston University School for the Arts, set himself the task of presenting six different "Amen, Allelujas" from the quill of Georg Friederich Händel. Even when the reason for their creation is not really knowable, the beauty of these compositions and the sparkle of Crowe's presentation of them spoke for itself. The text could retreat into the background and one could delight entirely in Crowe's voice. This offered everything that could make the ear joyful. Being equally at home in the tessitura of the classical alto all the way into a shining soprano allowed Crowe to perform with feeling and sensitivity. As well as the lyrical, transparently woven passages, he sang enthusiastic runs that not infrequently culminated in fortes, bursting with power.
 
The opera singer couldn't be denied. To clear was his delight in performance, in ever new colorations of coloratura, in lyricism and in aria-like passages.
 
Crowe found a congenial partner in Julia Gilliach-Naroschnja. Powerfully communicative in their shared pieces where she balanced accompaniment and drive, she showed her true virtuosity in her solo pieces. Finely spun fugal passages were as successful as the solemn gravity of the opening Chorale "Veni Sancte Spiritus" by Peter Phillips.
 
Also impressive was her multi-tasking: highly skilled fingers on the manual accomplished simultaneously with page turning and changing registrations. Of course she could rely on her colleague Thomas Haller in the most difficult registration changes who, with his wife, was otherwise occupied arduously pumping the manual bellows that provide the organ its power.
 
After an hour of the best kind of sacred music, the musicians gave a two further encores.
 
--staff


​Schwäbische Post, Sept. 10, 2017

Everybody knows the many-voiced Halleluja from Georg Friedrich Händels “Messiah.” Also surviving, from the same composer, are Hallelujas for smaller forces which are no less appealing, though almost completely unknown. On his new CD, the singer and musicologist Robert Crowe presents the “Amen-Alleluia-Arias” for the first time. The shortest of one minute and the longest of just over six, these small but refined compositions set the words Amen and Halleluja wonderfully artistically. Brilliantly jubilant, with majestic pride or with deep-seating feeling, Robert Crowe gives each aria its own character and expression. He masters coloraturas and trills with breathtaking virtuosity, using many-faceted vocal colors and articulations. As a male soprano, Crowe commands an enormous vocal range. The swift changes from the heights into the lower reaches give one goose bumps–also in the spiritual hymns of English composers which, alongside several instrumental pieces, are to be discovered on this CD, all well-worth a listen. 

– Beate Krannich

World Premiere, Roger Doyle's electronic opera Heresy at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland

The Arts Review, Dublin, Nov. 2, 2016

"Robert Crowe...delivers a truly astounding performance."

-- Chris O'Rourke

The Irish Times, Nov 1, 2016

"Bruno's various nemeses are mostly sung by the amazing male soprano Robert Crowe."

--- Michael Dungan.

Das Opernglas, Nov. 1, 2016

"The multitalented Morgan Crowley ... switches effortlessly between tenor and countertenor. His Giordano Bruno is a man of aestheticism and vision, which Crowley expresses through his unusually beautiful voice. At the same high level, singing the role of Bruno's antagonist Cardinal Robert Bellarmine is the American countertenor Robert Crowe. He achieves this cynical, infernally cunning character with great exactitude. He is just as convincing, however, as King Henri III and as Sir Francis Walsingham, the many-faced chief spy of Elizabeth I. His entrance as James Joyce in Giordano Bruno's death cell is especially moving--he imitates the movements, appearance and demeanor of the great poet astoundingly well." 

Die Taunus Zeitung-Frankfurter Neue Presse, July 8, 2016

The audience was delighted and showed this with thunderous applause and calls of "Bravo." The ensemble "Lux et Umbrae"--above all sopranist Robert Crowe--more than earned them.  ...  With words like "I've never heard anything like it" the listeners at the concert in the Lutheran church meant the male soprano Robert Crowe. He made an impression with the range of his voice, its clarity, expressivity and timbre. ... Today male sopranos achieve their high head voice and warm lower voice with talent, technique and engagement. And these Robert Crowe delivered with delicately breathed tones of love, singing the agony of the fainting grief of love.

--Gerrit Mai

“Male Soprano Enchants: Robert Crowe sings Chansons d’Amour in Gmünd’s Schwörhaus” Gmünder Tagespost, February 16, 2016
 
“Fauré’s music has a special charm. Floating, dreamy, it is inwardly directed. Urbanely communicative, the singer directed his warm-timbred voice through this sound-world. Equally beautiful sounding in the upper and lower reaches, he offered these simple melodies of the French composer with expression and character. “Chanson d’amour” quivered with joyful excitement. “Lydia” sang the sweetness of the attractions of the beloved. “Clair de lune” sounded as sorrowful elegy. Pianist Feng Wu presented herself as a senstive accompanist at the grand piano, and between song sections played solo works by Claude Debussy.
 
---Beate Krannich 

“Something Charming for Pounding Hearts:The Countertenor Robert Crowe and Pianist Feng Wu give a piano and art song Valentine’s Day concert in the Schwörhaus.” Rems Zeitung, February 16, 2016
 
French charm and an unusual casting: the piano and art song evening in the Schwörsaal put Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré in the focal point and delivered with “Chansons d’amour” a magical performance for Valentine’s Day.
 
On Sunday evening, Crowe brought to hearing twelve songs by Gabriel Fauré with an unbelievably facet-rich and sensitive voice. Melancholy works like “Spleen” (op. 51) or “Clair de lune” (op. 45) he sang with the dynamic balance of poignant longing, and he touched the listeners with inner warmth in the interpretation of “Lydia” (op. 4). A light vibrato was only judiciously employed and, despite a cold, the brilliance and clarity of his voice dominated. In the more lively songs like “Mandoline” (op. 58) or “Chanson d’amour” (op. 27) Crowe played with language and tone and the Melodies thus sparkled with a lissomeness, despite which one still heard the palpitating heart of the lovers in the music.
 
As is unavoidable in piano-art songs, there was a close dialogue between the singer, Crowe, and the pianist, Feng Wu. This tête-a-tête was always empathetic and mutually reinforcing. The performers complemented one another through a mixture of individuality and attention of each to the other.  
 
---Julia Berkenhof

“Magical Atmosphere” Frankfurter Neue Presse, January 21, 2016 

The sopranist Robert Crowe appeared in Frankfurt’s Festeburgkirche, accompanied by Sigrun Richter (Lute) and Michael Eberth (Cembalo).
 
The young American Robert Crowe has mastered the soprano range like only very few of his peers. In a manner exceeding that of many countertenors, he ranges virtuosically in his head voice. Many songs from the sixteenth century (sic), heretofore unknown  to his audience, were delivered with Crowe’s slender, gentle, warm-timbered voice which never gave the impression of strenuous effort.
 
The songs from John Danyel, Thomas Campion and the famous John Dowland bathed the Festeburgkirche, with its marvelous acoustics, in a uniquely magical atmosphere. 

---staff

Operalounge.de, March 2015

For "Amore" in Martin y Soler's L'Arbore di Diana at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, with the Theaterakademie and the Bayerisches Rundfunkorchester

...he [Crowe] controls a multiplicity of variations and possibilities, vocal effects, the occasional intentional, controlled slippery phrasing or the ability to suddenly plunge into the baritonal “normal” range. Of this art, Crowe is marvelously the master. He can, in delightful order, coo, trill, moan and mock, so that it is a joy [to experience]. On top of all this, he spins through diverse, strange metamorphoses throughout these goings-on, always sure of his goals: that is, setting up explosive theatrical effects.  

---Fabian Stallknecht


München Abendzeitung, February 24, 2015

In Robert Crowe, a male soprano, the ideal casting was found—in the “manly” scenes, he also went seamlessly into deeper registers.
---Adrian Prechtel

Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 23, 2015

...everything is steered by the eventually victorious Amore (as the guest, the superb male soprano Robert Crowe)...

--- Klaus Kalchschimd

Munich and Co, February 23, 2015

At last, the soprano Robert Crowe, who lent his talents to embody Amore, seems to play with the difficult coloratura with his beautiful, flute-like voice and clear timbre, as well as a delicious acting style, notably in the scenes de travesti. 

---Luc Roger

For Giuseppe Nicolini's  Carlo Magno, in the role of "Vitekindo."  Frankfurt (Main) and Königstein (Taunus).


Taunus Nachrichten, Königstein, January 21, 2015

The sensation of the evening is Robert Crowe, a soprano. In the tradition of the bel canto, he’s the “true star” of the evening. ... After an amusing discourse [on the castrato as lover by Michael Quast] one hears the sound of Robert Crowe’s bright soprano voice and cannot believe the eyes or ears. There sings a man, the hero, in the highest female range, with a power and range that shocks...a stroke of luck to experience such an exceptional voice. ... The high point of the evening is a cavatina for the male soprano in which his [Velluti’s] “soul-to-soul relationship with the flute” (Quast) becomes audible...”The specialty of the castrato Velluti.” As listener, one is made speechless and breathless by the sound of Crowe’s voice.

---staff

Frankfurter Rundschau, December 7, 2014

Crowe is a secure, powerful male soprano--still a rare listening experience, when compared to the many male alto voices. It was a quite piquant delight to hear him in the duet with soprano Bernadette Schäfer, singing in the same range. 

---Judith von Sternburg

Offenbacher Post, December 3, 2014

Intensively presented were the baroque solo motets by Robert Crowe: Carissimi’s “Salve Puellule” and Alessandro Grandi’s “Cantabo Domino.” In a perfect ensemble with [Sigrun] Richter’s filigreed lute playing, the American, now living in Schwäbisch Gmünd showed what an unbelievable vocal artist he is. Seamlessly the singer changed from playful, lower tones easily into the highest possible “castrato region,” also changing without effort from fine coloratura to powerful declamation. The expression and depth heard in the “Noels” and “Allelujas” could not be exceeded. 

---Rheinhold Greis

Offenbacher Post, July 2, 2013
 
"...a thoroughly manly singer began his solos, but (his listeners) heard a bell-clear soprano voice. His playful, high-climbing virtuoso voice mastered the Heart's Pain songs, little musical dramas and laments of ... John Dowland; those difficulties, coloratura and artistic, as if everything were terribly easy." ... What she (Lutenist Sigrun Richter) and her high-flying vocalist Crowe offered in Dowland's "Go Crystal Tears" and "In Darkness let me Dwell," and Thomas Campion's "When Laura smiles" and Thomas Ford's "Come, Phyllis, Come," must belong to the most beautiful lute songs Offenbach has ever heard."

--Reinhold Gries

Boston Musical Intelligencer, May 18, 2013
 
"Sung beautifully by male soprano Robert Crowe with an ensemble of Baroque flute and strings, the music [Ruth Lomon's "Songs from a Requiem] is an attractive essay in what might be called post-expressionism, occasionally reminiscent of Schoenberg or Webern and certainly sharing their concision."

--David Schulenberg

Boston Musical Intelligencer, January 31, 2013.

"Crowe sang Crescentini's "Dal Di Ch'Io Ti Mirai" ... playfully, with the little upper register twists of "Se Spiegar Potessi O Dio" ...sweet and delicate.  ...the aria "Bella Fiamma Del Mio Core" highlighted Crowe as a period singer who isn't afraid of portamento or hitting the back of the house, as awell as a male soprano with rich, even production across registers.


--Andrew Shawmut

Frankfurter Neue Press, May 8, 2012.
 
"The Höchster Organ-Summer started with the baroque suites of organist Simon Harden and the vocal wonder of the soprano, Robert Crowe, who, in selections from "Napoleon's Castrato" Girolamo Crescentini, caused female hearts to melt. On the faces of the women in the church's pews, Crowe magicked captured, dedicated smiles."


--Gernot Gottwais


Opera News, May 2011
 
"...his voice is smooth and vibrant--he reserves the once-obligatory straight tones as a tool with which to shape sustained notes--and his tuning is pure and accurate...  Additionally, his careful balancing of registers allows him access to a wider range of colors and dynamics than many male trebles can muster.  (In Salve, Salve Puellule) Crowe's solid midrange "sit" is welcome, and he rises easily to the triumphant cry of "Rex sine termino" (King without end).  


--Stephen Francis Vasta

Darmstäder Echo, February 24, 2010
 
"Crowe executes the changes of mood and feeling with great sensitivity and understanding--and admirable ease.   This ease is also evident in his technique.  Crowe effortlessly moves out of the depths into the uppermost ranges.  When he reaches the top, his voice fills the great space of the church, at times penetratingly.  This makes the effect of Crowe’s voice in the soft passages even more delightful.  He matches his voice exactly to the organ in the beginning of the motet “Domine, Deus Meus”, emerging through tremolo with ornamentations precisely sung.  Once he arrives in the rush of ornamentation, the singer further decorates the final motet with an extravagant cadenza."

--staff

Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 7, 2010
 
"Robert Crowe presented in two solo motets of Giacomo Carissimi the other extreme of the male voice, penetrating into the chilly heights, contrasting with the expressively warm piano."


--Klaus Kalchschmid


For "Sesto" in Mozart's  La Clemenza di Tito in the Bode-Museum Berlin

Münchner Merkur, November 3, 2010


"The poised, clear, at times penetrating countertenor of Robert Crowe made Sextus’ inner conflict palpable.  The high point of the evening was his aria “Parto, ma tu ben mio” in which he—in a magical internal dialogue with the clarinet—sings himself the courage for the assassination attempt."

--Marco Schmidt

Berliner Zeitung, October 30, 2010
 
"Brilliant, above all others, countertenor Robert Crowe"

--HK


Märkische Oberzeitung, October 30, 2010

"...and especially Robert Crowe’s male soprano enraptured the public."

--staff

Der Tagesspeigel, October 30, 2010
 
"His aria, „Parto, ma tu ben mio“, in which Sesto sings himself the courage for the attack, was one of the highlights of the evening."

--Udo Badelt

Die Mark Online, November 1, 2010



"Countertenor Robert Crowe sings with bell-like clarity and compels the audience again and again to scene-breaking applause. "

--Claudia Duda

OperaBlog, November 29, 2010


"From a distance, his gripping sonority, puissant inflections and sensual vibrato recollect acoustic recordings of sopranos long past. His technique -- if you can even use that word in his case -- is astounding. It's as though his gifts were endowed, not developed: no perceptible breaks between registers, solid at the bottom, malleable in the middle and resplendent at the top. He is also blessed with a swimmer's torso and can rattle off ornamentations while crawling snake-like along the catwalk. Crowe apparently concentrates his professional activity on pre-romantic repertory, but it would be fascinating to hear what he does with Orsini, Bellini's Romeo or even Oscar and Oktavian. … Titus continues at the Bode Museum through 19 December. If you can manage to get in -- it's pretty much sold out -- it will open a new window onto Mozart's masterpiece, especially if Crowe is performing."

--Sam Sharikawa