American Classics - Beach: Songs / Kelton, Bringerud

Regular price $19.99
Label
Naxos
Release Date
October 19, 2004
Format
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    Featuring
    • COMPOSER
      BEACH AMY
    • PERFORMER
      Katherine, Catherine, Kelton, Bringerud
    Product Details
    • RELEASE DATE
      October 19, 2004
    • UPC
      636943919125
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      8559191
    • LABEL
      Naxos
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
    Works
    1. Songs (4), Op. 1: no 4, Ariette

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    2. Songs (3), Op. 2: no 3, Empress of Night

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    3. Songs (3), Op. 19: no 2, Ecstasy

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    4. Songs (3), Op. 41: no 3, Forgotten

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    5. Burns Songs (5), Op. 43: no 1, Dearie

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    6. Burns Songs (5), Op. 43: no 4, Far awa'!

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    7. Browning Songs (3), Op. 44: no 1, The year's at the spring

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    8. Browning Songs (3), Op. 44: no 2, Ah, love but a day

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    9. Songs (4), Op. 51: no 2, Wir drei

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    10. In the twilight, Op. 85

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    11. I sought the Lord, Op. 142

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    12. Though I Take the Wings of Morning, Op. 152

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    13. Songs (3), Op. 2: no 2, When far from her

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)

    14. Songs (4), Op. 14: no 2, Le secret

      Composer: Amy Marcy Beach

      Performer: Catherine Bringerud (Piano), Katherine Kelton (Mezzo Soprano)


Amy Beach's songs are pleasant enough, and certainly well-crafted, with smartly chosen texts--Burns, Longfellow, Browning, Shelley, and some lesser-known poets, including Beach herself. But most of their appeal lies with the composer's deftness in borrowing from and incorporating the styles of major artists such as Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, Richard Strauss, and Debussy into her writing. She even takes directly from Beethoven in her quite lovely song "The Rainy Day". In other words, there's nothing really original here, but melodically and in terms of overall accessibility and singability, Beach understood the genre and knew how to create music that nearly everyone--singers as well as listeners--could enjoy. There are lullabies, German lied, and French chansons, as well as a nod or two to English and American parlor-song. And we're fortunate to have as our interpreter a singer who is one of the world's experts in this repertoire: mezzo-soprano Katherine Kelton did her doctoral dissertation on Beach's songs. She exhibits a voice of rich color and easy, inviting expressiveness, and her technique effortlessly conveys the varied moods and cleverly imitative styles so that we can just sit back and appreciate each one of these charming if not particularly profound works. Beach's piano accompaniments are carefully thought-out and add essential, characterful aspects of tone, color, and texture that are often very technically challenging. Catherine Bringerud is completely at home with this music and at one with Kelton's vocal interpretations. The sound is complementary to vocal and instrumental timbres and presents the performances in realistic perspective. Fans of American song--and especially of Amy Beach (who did much of her writing just down the road from where I'm writing this review, at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, NH)--shouldn't miss this interpretively considerate, solidly performed recital.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com