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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,...
Tchaikovsky: Ja vas lyublu
Dobriy den…(Good day in RU & UA) to you, lovely people. Today, I want to invite you to live with me in the sound and soul of one of my all time favorite artists, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, as well as one of my all time favorite composers, Pyotr the Great, Mr. Tchaikovsky!
Edwin Hawkins Singers: Oh, happy day
“Oh, happy day” performed by the Edwin Hawkins Singers is my Song of the Day, everyday! I love this song and I live it. It just makes me so so happy! It illuminates me with energy, ‘yes-ness’, and makes me dance away throughout the day because yes, oh happy day, I got another day to DO LIFE!
John Corigliano: May You Be Forever Young
The 2017-2018 season was (is) our 30th at the New York Festival of Song. We’ve managed to cover quite a bit of ground. There were early celebrations of Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday in the fall and the winter (the Lenny celebrations officially began on his 99th birthday), and one of NY’s only acknowledgement’s of William Bolcom and John Corigliano 80th birthdays.
Tom Waits: I Can’t Wait to Get Off Work
On April 24 we are celebrating the NYFOS 30th Anniversary with a concert at Merkin Hall at 8:00. Tenor Paul Appleby, a NYFOS regular over the past decade will be with us singing Schubert, Lennon and McCartney, and several other things. Paul has an enviable international career by now, and we don’t get to see him very often, so this this will be a treat for Steve Blier and myself.
Leonard Bernstein: Somewhere
I’ve been trying to absorb the fact that NYFOS is approaching the end of our 30th season. It’s a little beyond me, I admit. I’m the kind of person who might take a half day off after a big project, but after that, it’s on to the next. But celebrating a 30th anniversary is maybe a good time for some reflection.