latest posts
Lawrence Tibbett sings ‘Goin’ Home’
I certainly didn’t plan it this way, but I am writing this blog post while waiting for my departing flight in the Vienna Airport – I am quite literally “going home” to visit my family in Rochester, NY. My nomadic existence as a singer is equally exciting and challenging, with the loss of a sense of home being by far the most difficult thing to deal with. I have learned the importance of bringing “home” with me wherever I travel, whether through the comfort of daily rituals, exercise, exploring, or listening to certain pieces of music.
Gabriel Fauré: Pie Jesu
There are some artists that just embody perfection when at their best. Cecilia Bartoli seems to be able to turn anything she touches to gold. She has superhuman control of her voice, especially in her stratospheric coloratura and hushed pianissimi. In this recording of the “Pie Jesu” from Fauré’s Requiem, she delicately phrases each note with a sensitive musical understanding, adding vibrato at just the right moments.
Gregorio Allegri: Miserere
After Sinatra and Strauss, now for something completely different. There is something ethereal and other-worldly about the polyphony of the late Renaissance. It has the ability to transport the listener and rejuvenate the spirit. In particular, this setting of the Miserere stops me in my tracks whenever I hear it, forcing my mind to slow down and simply absorb the music (usually with my eyes closed).
Clarice Assad
May’s Artist of the Month is the dynamic composer, pianist and vocalist Clarice Assad. Join her on Friday, May 4, when she curates and hosts a NYFOS Next evening focused on Brazilian song.
Johann Strauss: Her die Hand
My second “Song of the Day” stems from nostalgic memories of my time in Europe. After spending a summer with the Lehar Festival in Bad Ischl, Austria, I gained a newfound appreciation for operetta as a genre – particularly for the attitude and energy it takes to make operetta bubble and float. Something I love about this profession is the travel, getting to spend time immersed in different places and cultures.
Frank Sinatra sings ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’
I’d like to start off my “Song of the Day” week with an artist everyone can agree on – the man, the myth, ol’ blue eyes himself – Frank Sinatra. I’ve had a recurring fascination with Frank since I was a kid. The older I get, the more my appreciation and respect for him grows.
Ted Hearne: Letter to my father
As long as I have been paying attention to the Pulitzer Prize in music, I have valued it for the attention it provides to American composers who spend careers toiling in obscurity to create genuinely new pieces of music. And yes, I am most certainly chauvinistic and self-interested in this because I choose to make performing new music a central part of the work of my career. But I have made that decision because I truly believe that in order for the body and culture of classical music to continue to grow, adapt, and speak to our time in our time, we must support composers and their works in whatever way we can.
George Crumb: The Sleeper
I must admit that I sometimes feel discouraged by many of my classical concert-going friends’ reluctance to engage in new, challenging, or non-tonal music. New music is almost always hard to approach by virtue of the fact that it is new.
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 technical chops, his innovativeness and originality, the
deep feeling that is expressed in his music, his text setting and painting, his brilliant
orchestrations, etc. are all among the best any composer ever has to offer. But all of
his discrete skills are always tied together and elevated beyond the sum of their
parts by the joy of making music that is ever-present in his music.
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 the poem. The literal meaning is impossible to discern, yet the language is so beautiful and evokes a profound sense of meaning…it’s just hard to describe that meaning.
30th Anniversary Celebration
Preparing and performing NYFOS concerts is an all-consuming endeavor. Michael Barrett, my co-leader, can attest to this. So can Charles McKay and Claire Molloy, who have masterminded the administration for some years now with tireless grace. We are in a daily (and often nightly) wind-tunnel of schedules, negotiations, translations, editing, grant-writing, note-bashing, and ensemble rehearsal. Therefore when our round-number anniversaries come up, we emerge dazedly from the trenches to mount a celebration for ourselves and our audience, feeling somewhat like a groundhog on February 2. Years ago Justin Davidson called NYFOS “the longest-running song party in New York.” He had no idea.
Jorge Anckerman: Flor de Yumurí
I will be performing today’s song of the day, “Flor de Yumurí,” on our NYFOS 30th Anniversary concert tomorrow (Tuesday) night! I sang this song with Steve only once before, so I was a little surprised when he suggested this song for the big anniversary concert. I loved it and loved singing it that one time we performed it, so I am thrilled that we are bringing it back, and I have discovered a much deeper meaning in the song this time around.
Taras Shevchenko: The Mighty Dnieper Roars
Last but not least, it is my sincere pleasure to introduce you to a most beloved national Ukrainian song: “The Mighty Dnieper Roars.” Its three verses are taken from the famous Ukrainian poem “Prychynna” by Taras Shevchenko. The long version of the poem has a story similar to Romeo and Juliet, but it starts out with the first three verses in this song in which an orphan girl is waiting by the roaring river at night for her beloved to come back.
Dmitri Shostakovich: We Were Together
It’s almost Friday, but today is TBT – ‘throw back Thursday’. At first, I didn’t want to use my own recording but listening to the other few recordings on youtube of this song, I just wasn’t satisfied with the slightly slower tempo, and was forced to use my version.
Richard Strauss: Beim Schlafengehen
Guten Tag. I admire Richard Strauss’ music. His harmonic language, texture,...