Ted Hearne:  Letter to my father

Ted Hearne: Letter to my father

Last week when Kendrick Lamar was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music, my Twitter feed was instantly filled with woke-classical- music-twitter chastising anyone who complained that a rapper won rather than a classical composer. I still haven’t actually seen anyone...
George Crumb: The Sleeper

George Crumb: The Sleeper

With today’s song, I want to prepare all my SOTD friends for the opening number of the song program I will be performing at Zankel Hall next season.  (You can purchase tickets starting on August 20 here.) I must admit that I sometimes feel discouraged by many of my...
J. S. Bach: Großer Herr, o starker König

J. S. Bach: Großer Herr, o starker König

Since I am feeling celebratory after our fantastic NYFOS 30 th Anniversary concert last night, I picked a joyous bass aria from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Bach has become my favorite composer over the years. He’s just the best not only because of his incomparable...
Francis Poulenc:  Tu vois le feu du soir

Francis Poulenc: Tu vois le feu du soir

I once asked a pianist friend of mine to read through “Tu vois le feu du soir” with me and he asked, “what’s this song about?”  I have never had a more difficult time answering that question. So I just shared the text with him. Here is the mysterious, surreal text of...