Two professors told a love story through a vocal and piano duet Nov. 13.

Anton Belov, assistant professor of music, and Jill Timmons, professor of music, combined talents to create their faculty recital in Ice Auditorium.

Belov, a baritone, sang pieces by a range of composers, from Tchaikovsky to Robert Schumann. Timmons accompanied him on piano.

The recital, titled, “A Poet’s Love,” featured the works of Schumann, who used Heinrich Heine’s poetry to compose the song, “Dichterliebe.”

The song tells the story of a poet who falls in love with a young woman.

The piece incorporates strong images from the natural world, using things like plants and water to evoke the descriptions attached to the characters.

Throughout the segments of the song, the characters’ love develops before falling apart.

Belov sang passionately during the middle segments, illustrating how the narrator must have felt to see the woman he loved betray him.

“It’s a dark kind of love story,” Belov said.

Timmons and Belov also performed works by Tchaikovsky, Franz Liszt, Francesco Santoliquido, Alexander Glazunov and Sergey Rachmaninoff.

The duo chose Schumann’s piece because Belov had previously performed it many times, and because Timmons said she had always dreamed of performing it.

“I have such a strong connection to the piece,” Belov said. “There is so much hidden. There is secret meaning in each poem and strong connections throughout.”

Timmons said she and Belov met weekly before the recital, working on song interpretation, style and performance.

“Sometimes we had different interpretations of the pieces, but we worked through them,” Belov said.

Timmons said that working collaboratively was a positive experience because it gave her the opportunity to see pieces from new perspectives.

“The beauty of working with another musician is the way you adjust to each other’s interpretations of the piece,” Timmons said. “[Belov] had a different view of the work than I did, so I found myself adapting, which was really refreshing.”

The pieces evolved during their practice times, Belov said. He said they would continue to change each time the duo performed them, shifting along with the musicians.

Timmons said she enjoyed the performance and the wide range of audience members who attended—from trustees to the president of the school to students.

“We had great audience interaction,” she said. “We felt strong participation in the music and poetry.”

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Joanna Peterson/Managing editor
Joanna Peterson can be reached at [email protected].