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William Bolcom: Soneto de la dulce queja
I’ve spent the fall with the music of William Bolcom and John Corigliano, who are the leading men in my Juilliard concert this January. They are each about to turn 80 next year, which strikes me as impossible. How could two such fiery renegades be octogenarians?
Jules Massenet: Dis-moi que je suis belle
These days I find that I don’t venture out much to hear the standard operas at the Met. For one thing, I’ve been familiar with them since my pre-teen years, and their music is now so familiar to me that they have become like mantras or prayers, part of my ongoing inner soundtrack.
O hoary nooit (“O Holy Night”), sung by Joan Sutherland
This week I thought I’d share some of the music that has filled my recent weeks. It is the Christmas season and we’re about to put up our traditional tree, a present we received at the end of the last century from Jim’s brother and sister. They had each been assigned to one of us in their family’s Christmas lottery, and decided to pool their resources and go in on a gift together.
Eartha Kitt: I wanna be evil
I was originally enticed by Eartha Kitt’s quirks and unmistakable timbre, but the more I read and listen, the more I recognize her immense intelligence and depth of interpretation. She was an accomplished polyglot and formidable actress, and though categorized as a “pop” artist in her day, her erudition and singularity render her unrecognizable from most of today’s pop singers.
Jula de Palma & Lelio Luttazzi: Mi piace
This gem of classic Italian jazz came to me from a dear conductor friend in Rome. (He specializes in baroque repertoire, but no matter.) I’ve had trouble finding sheet music for it, or any information at all really, but its lulling, languid mood never fails to enchant. Jula de Palma is an Italian singer whose early career was closely associated with Lelio Luttazzi, a performer and composer of many stripes who made a decades-long career in Italian radio and television.
Jazmine Sullivan: Stupid Girl
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Jazmine Sullivan stands among my favorite singers alive. Her raw vocal dynamism and flawless technique are matched by an incisive lyricism. Her songwriting feels both old and new—jazz, motown, R&B, and hip-hop meld with electronic production, often in the context of unconventional structure.
Rachmaninov: Ne poy, krasavitsa, pri mne
I first heard Anita Rachvelishvili with my grandmother in a Met simulcast of Carmen. (I share a love of opera with both my grandmothers, for which I’m eternally grateful.) A year later, I was a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed first-year masters student at Juilliard, stumbling around YouTube in search of repertoire, and I found Rachvelishvili’s powerful rendition of this Rachmaninov warhorse, “Ne poy, krasavitsa, pri mne.”
Kelela: Frontline
Blending R&B vocals with innovative electronic production, and citing influences from Janet Jackson to Björk to Betty Carter, Kelela represents, in my estimation and that of the New York Times Magazine and The Guardian, a new musical forefront. Unfettered by convention and meticulous in her production, she speaks directly to a marginalized black, queer audience about empowerment and self-determination.
William Bolcom, composer
Our very first Artist of the Month is a longtime friend of NYFOS: Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom. He answers our questions about song, singers, and his history with Steve in advance of our NYFOS@Juilliard concert in celebration of his 80th birthday.
Edvard Grieg: Ein Traum
My parents were both of Norwegian heritage, and hailed from Minnesota. They met as grad students at the Eastman School of Music, and spent their careers as music educators. Needless to say, our house was filled with music, and I was introduced to the works of Edvard Grieg at an early age. Later in life when I began to sing his songs, I could feel myself tapping a rich vein of familiarity and love. Grieg is the foremost Norwegian composer, and his songs stand out as premiere examples of the Scandinavian contribution to the art form.
John Musto: Litany
“Litany”, from John Musto’s masterful set of songs Shadow of the Blues is, in...
Joni Mitchell: Hejira
After weighing endless options, I finally flipped a coin and selected the title song from “Hejira”. It’s vintage Joni and from the period just before her voice began to fray due to her obsessive love affair with American Spirit cigarettes.
Annie Ross: Twisted
After I finally accepted the fact that I had no future as a rock singer, I switched to jazz, which is a bit easier on the voice. I am still very nostalgic for this period of my life. I was like a kid in a candy store and couldn’t get enough of discovering new artists, especially singers—female, preferably.
Sting: Fragile
My parents were professional musicians who kept throwing instruments at me to see which one would stick, so I learned to play multiple instruments but none of them well. Eventually I realized that my true instrument was in my throat, and my teenage rebellion took the form of choosing to go into the very form of music they found the least appealing—rock.
Leonard Bernstein: A Julia de Burgos
This particular song portrays the voice of a woman who has broken free of societal roles and expectations. She sings that through her art, she is authentically herself and is not at the ownership or disposal of anyone or anything. Julia de Burgos was a Puerto Rican civil rights activist who lived from 1914-1953. Traveling between Puerto Rico, New York, and Cuba, she was fully involved in the nationalist philosophies that defined her life.