Track Listing
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- Monday, January 30, 2012
Carnegie Hall Announces 2012–2013 Season, Featuring Performances, Works by Several Nonesuch Artists
Carnegie Hall has announced its 2012–13 season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Kronos Quartet, Richard Goode, Dawn Upshaw, and Alarm Will Sound, as well as world and New York premiere performances of works by Steve Reich, Timothy Andres, and Donnacha Dennehy. In addition, John Adams will lead a Professional Training Workshop for emerging talents through Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute.
- Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Donnacha Dennehy's "Grá agus Bás" One of NPR Music's 25 Favorite Albums of 2011, "A Revelation"
Donnacha Dennehy's Nonesuch debut album, Grá agus Bás, has been named one of NPR Music's 25 Favorite Albums of the 2011 (So Far). NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas calls it "a revelation." She describes the title piece as "haunting and utterly bracing"; the second piece, That the Night Come, was set for "Upshaw and her silvery, glistening voice in bracing, rich, complex and just plain gorgeous displays." Tsioulcas will "be listening to this for a long time to come."
About this Album
For the first time on record, singer Dawn Upshaw, called “the greatest American vocal recitalist working today” (Washington Post), lends her voice to two masters of the Baroque era, in a recording of music by J.S. Bach and Henry Purcell called Angels Hide Their Faces. Joined by Arthur Haas (continuo and organ), Myron Lutzke (baroque cello), and a distinguished supporting ensemble, Grammy Award winner Dawn Upshaw, widely acknowledged for her skills in diction and interpretation of text, distinguishes herself in this repertoire as a fluent interpreter of English.
The Purcell songs, selected from his vast output, are ones that have been personal favorites of Upshaw, especially "The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation,” which she has performed frequently in recital. “The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation,” with text by Nathan Tate, Purcell’s librettist for Dido and Aeneas, is also the largest Purcell piece on the record. Other songs include “An Evening Hymn,” from a collection of sacred songs, “Music for a While,” and the popular “If Music Be the Food of Love.”
As well-documented as Bach’s enormous output has been, his dramatic cantata Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut was lost until the early 20th century. Composed in Weimar in 1714 to a text by Georg Christian Lehms, the piece was originally scored for mezzo-soprano and later transposed up for soprano. Upshaw’s present performance of Bach’s Cantata BWV 199 is rooted in a number of recent staged performances of the work directed by Peter Sellars, a close colleague with whom Upshaw has shared five full-scale collaborations.
Credits
MUSICIANS
Dawn Upshaw, soprano
Purcell songs
Myron Lutzke, cello (1-5, 14-16)
Arthur Haas, harpsichord (1-5, 14-16)
Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut
Krista Bennion Feeney, violin I
Linda Quan, violin II
Lois Martin, viola
Myron Lutzke, cello
John Feeney, bass
Peggy Pearson, oboe
Arthur Haas, organ
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by Max Wilcox
Purcell selections recorded April 2000 at the American Academy of Arts & Letters, New York City
Bach Cantata BWV 199 recorded May 1997 at SUNY, Purchase, New York
Engineered by Paul Zinman
Edited by Max Wilcox and Dirk Sobotka
Mixed at SoundByte Productions, New York City
Mastered at SoundByte Productions, New York City
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
Tracks 1-5, 14-16 by Henry Purcell; tracks 6-13 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Cover design by Barbara deWilde
Cover art: Wounded Angel (1903) by Hugo Simberg, courtesy of the Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, from photograph by Hannu Aaltonen, courtesy of the Central Art Archives
