Song of the Day: June 30

Written by Michael Barrett

Associate Artistic Director, NYFOS

In category: Song of the Day

Published June 30, 2015

(from Michael Barrett)

Lorraine Hunt first came to the Moab Music Festival in 1997. She was fresh off her triumph at the Santa Fe Opera where she had premiered Peter Lieberson’s “Ashoka’s Dream”. She had also, she confided to me, fallen in love with the composer. This was an exciting time for Lorraine. Her career was path was on a meteoric rise, and she had met the love of her life. It was a fairly relaxed, neurosis free few weeks, and Lorraine delivered her finest work (which we all came to expect).

Here is the first of Brahms’ Two Songs  Op. 91 for mezzo, viola and piano. It’s entitled “Gestillte Sehnsucht” (Quieted Longing). Yours truly is at the piano, and my wife Leslie Tomkins is the violist matching Lorraine’s artistry and phrasing like a musical soul sister. Lorraine was a violist too, and we had all grown up in the Bay Area, so it was a comfortable and deep collaboration. Lorraine later told us that this was the eighth time she had performed these songs that year, and this was her favorite. Ours too.

Lorraine’s next visit to the Moab Music Festival was in 1999. Peter Lieberson was with  her, and they had become engaged. Gestillte Sehnsucht indeed.

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