The Complete Songs of Virgil Thomson for Voice & Piano (photo: New World Records) |
The
title of the newly-released New World Records CD set “The
Complete Songs of Virgil Thomson for Voice and Piano” says
it all. This is an ambitious, exhaustive and comprehensive effort as
part of the Florestan Recital Project (highlighting art song in the
twentieth century) by artistic co-directors baritone Aaron Engebreth
and pianist Alison d'Amato. The 3-CD set, with a total of
seventy-seven pieces (about three and a quarter hours of music)
presents works ranging from forty seconds (the Benedictus
from his Mass for Solo
Voice) to seven minutes (Les
soirees bagnolaises) in length,
including several previously unpublished works (such as four brief
lullabies) from the Virgil Thomson Papers at Yale. Set to texts by William Blake, Gertrude Stein, Amy Lowell, Georges Hugnet,
Jean Racine, Isaac Watts, Edward Lear, and others, even William
Shakespeare and the Marquis de Sade, they're an incomparable
collection.
Thomson, born in Kansas City (Missouri) in 1896, started
composing while a student at Harvard. For the length of his
subsequent prolific career until his death in 1989, the breadth and
depth of his contributions to the musical world are amazing,
including several operas. So it should come as no surprise that his
art songs are so numerous and varied. With titles such as “The
Courtship of the Yongly-Bongly-Bo” and lyrics such as “I love you
as a sheriff searches for a walnut” (from Kenneth Koch's Love
Song), they illustrate Thomson's wit as well as his way with
chromaticism; as the co-directors note, they also portray his “unique
compositional language and deep personal expression”. Featuring
the aforementioned Engebreth and d'Amato, the set also includes fine
work by soprano Sarah Pelletier, contralto Lynne McMurtry, and tenor
William Hite, with accompaniment by Linda Osborn on piano (as well as
John McDonald on percussion for the additional work Song of
Solomon).
This compilation is a testament to the priceless work
accomplished by Thomson in his time as well as a labor of love on the
part of Engebreth and d'Amato, and certain to be a treasured addition
to any music lover's library of the works of this prolific composer.
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