Songs by William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Lori Laitman and John Musto.
Stephen Powell Baritone
The Composers Piano
Charles Neidich Clarinet
Jason Vieaux Guitar
Amy Schroeder Violin
Andrew Yee Cello
Attacca Quartet
Acis APL00689
Full Price
The Review
This collection is something of a treasure, not just because Stephen Powell sings the songs superbly but because in so many of them he is accompanied by the composers. We know we are getting what the composers intended: especially valuable in the case of the pieces by Ricky Ian Gordon, which are mostly first recordings.
The oldest and most famous of them is William Bolcom, who was born in 1938. I remember going to interview him getting on for forty years ago (although, oddly, I can’t remember whether it was in London or New York). I also remember wishing quickly that I’d known more of his music before I turned up because my preconceptions were entirely wrong. Bolcom’s songs have the wit of a cabaret composer with the subtlety one would expect of a pupil of Milhaud and Messaien. Billy In The Darbies, with string quartet, captures these two worlds perfectly; at 8 minutes almost a modern solo cantata setting text from Hermann Melville’s original of Billy Budd. He’s one of the 9 symphonies club, along with 4 operas, but the volumes of songs written with the lyricist Arnold Weinstein have been the works that have caught the imagination of performers. Song of Black Max (as told by the de Kooning boys), from 1978, is already a modern classic.
The other composers are my close contemporaries (John Musto, born 1954, Lori Laitman, 1955 and Ricky Ian Gordon, 1956) and it is my loss that I have not heard much of their music before. All are accomplished, following in the tradition inherited from Samuel Barber, largely avoiding the lure of Sondheim. There are some stand-out songs here: Gordon’s tormented Father’s Song, to his own text, and The Good Death from Rappahannock County, Laitman’s romantic If I…, from Four Dickinson Songs, and The Wind Sighs, from her opera Ludlow (2012). There are some substantial groups too. Laitman’s Men With Small Heads sets four idiosyncratic poems by Thomas Lux, explorations of childhood reminiscences. Musto’s The Brief Light (2011) is six songs for voice and guitar from the poetry of James Laughlin. They have an easy grace, syncopated by the guitar, beautifully played as one would expect from a performer as expert as James Vieaux.
This is a recital of high distinction. Stephen Powell has an even tone, rich and full throughout the range but he is careful not to be too operatic and overpowering. Powell has the technique to sustain any line he chooses without effort, while (thank heavens) his diction is immaculate. The composers, I’m sure, went home happy from the sessions, convinced he’d done their music justice.
SM