Neruda Songs

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Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

Peter Lieberson composed this Grammy-winning work, based on Pablo Neruda’s poems, for his wife, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, before the mezzo-soprano’s untimely passing. The Washington Post calls it “one of the most extraordinarily affecting artistic gifts ever created by one lover to another.”

Description

2007 Grammy Award Winner

"Neruda Songs—a setting of five love poems on deep and wrenching subjects such as passing delight, memory, fear of separation and transcendence beyond death—is one of the most extraordinarily affecting artistic gifts ever created by one lover to another…they are just as universal as they are shatteringly personal.”—Washington Post

Composer Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, written for and performed by his late wife, the great mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson are settings of poems by the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. They were first heard on the East Coast Thanksgiving weekend 2005, with James Levine conducting the Boston Symphony in the orchestra’s acoustically renowned Symphony Hall. The November 26 performance was recorded, and was released by Nonesuch Records on December 19, 2006, marking the Boston Symphony’s first recording with Levine since he became music director.

“I discovered the love poems of Pablo Neruda by chance in the Albuquerque airport. The book had a pink cover and drew me in. As I glanced through the poems I immediately thought that I must set some of these for Lorraine,” the composer says. “Years later the opportunity came when the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra co-commissioned this piece from me, to be written specifically for Lorraine.”

Lieberson continues, “Each of the five poems that I set to music seemed to me to reflect a different face in love’s mirror. The first poem, ‘If your eyes were not the color of the moon,’ is pure appreciation of the beloved. The second, ‘Love, love, the clouds went up the tower of the sky like triumphant washerwomen,’ is joyful and also mysterious in its evocation of nature’s elements: fire, water, wind, and luminous space. The third poem, ‘Don’t go far off, not even for a day,’ reflects the anguish of love, the fear and pain of separation. The fourth poem, ‘And now you’re mine. Rest with your dream in my dream,’ is complex in its emotional tone. First there is the exultance of passion. Then, gentle, soothing words lead the beloved into the world of rest, sleep, and dream. Finally, the fifth poem, ‘My love, if I die and you don’t,’ is very sad and peaceful at the same time. There is the recognition that no matter how blessed one is with love, there will still be a time when we must part from those whom we cherish so much. I am so grateful for Neruda’s beautiful poetry, for although these poems were written to another, when I set them I was speaking directly to my own beloved, Lorraine.”

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Recorded live at Symphony Hall, Boston, MA, on November 25–26, 2005
Producer: Dirk Sobotka
Recording Engineer: John Newton
Edited by Dirk Sobotka at Soundmirror, Boston, MA
Mixed and Mastered by Mark Donahue at Soundmirror
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

All music written by Peter Lieberson
All lyrics from Cien sonetos de amor by Pablo Neruda, © Fundación Pablo Neruda, 1959.

Design by Barbara de Wilde
Photographs by Richard Avedon, “Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, American mezzo-soprano, October 1, 2003” © 2003 The Richard Avedon Foundation

Nonesuch Selection Number

79954

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
ns_album_artistid
199
ns_album_id
651
ns_album_releasedate
ns_genre_1
0
ns_genre_2
0
Album Status
Artist Name
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano
The Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Levine

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597995428BUN
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
075597995466
  • 79954

News & Reviews

  • In celebration of Nonesuch Records' 60th anniversary, the label has partnered with photographer Michael Wilson—who has exquisitely captured dozens of Nonesuch artists over the past quarter-century—to produce Michael Wilson / 25 Years: A Nonesuch Collection, an extremely limited quantity of 100 box sets containing newly created prints from his Nonesuch archive, out now. You can take a quick look inside here. Designed by the Grammy-winning team at SMOG Design, each box comprises twenty 12" x 12" prints, numbered and signed by the photographer. Artists featured are Allen Toussaint, Ambrose Akinmusire, Audra McDonald, Bill Frisell, The Black Keys, Brad Mehldau, David Byrne, Dr. John, Emmylou Harris, Frederic Rzewski, Jeremy Denk, Kronos Quartet, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Manuel Galbán and Ry Cooder, Philip Glass, Randy Newman, Rhiannon Giddens, Stephin Merritt and Lemony Snicket, Steve Reich, and Timo Andres, who wrote a note for the box.

  • For Nonesuch Records' 60th anniversary, the label has partnered with photographer Michael Wilson—who has exquisitely captured dozens of Nonesuch artists over the past quarter-century—to produce Michael Wilson / 25 Years: A Nonesuch Collection, 100 box sets of 20 newly created prints from his Nonesuch archive, due September 13. Here, Wilson shares stories from the photo sessions behind the images in the box, with Allen Toussaint, Ambrose Akinmusire, Audra McDonald, Bill Frisell, The Black Keys, Brad Mehldau, David Byrne, Dr. John, Emmylou Harris, Frederic Rzewski, Jeremy Denk, Kronos Quartet, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Manuel Galbán and Ry Cooder, Philip Glass, Randy Newman, Rhiannon Giddens, Stephin Merritt and Lemony Snicket, Steve Reich, and Timo Andres.

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  • About This Album

    2007 Grammy Award Winner

    "Neruda Songs—a setting of five love poems on deep and wrenching subjects such as passing delight, memory, fear of separation and transcendence beyond death—is one of the most extraordinarily affecting artistic gifts ever created by one lover to another…they are just as universal as they are shatteringly personal.”—Washington Post

    Composer Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, written for and performed by his late wife, the great mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson are settings of poems by the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. They were first heard on the East Coast Thanksgiving weekend 2005, with James Levine conducting the Boston Symphony in the orchestra’s acoustically renowned Symphony Hall. The November 26 performance was recorded, and was released by Nonesuch Records on December 19, 2006, marking the Boston Symphony’s first recording with Levine since he became music director.

    “I discovered the love poems of Pablo Neruda by chance in the Albuquerque airport. The book had a pink cover and drew me in. As I glanced through the poems I immediately thought that I must set some of these for Lorraine,” the composer says. “Years later the opportunity came when the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra co-commissioned this piece from me, to be written specifically for Lorraine.”

    Lieberson continues, “Each of the five poems that I set to music seemed to me to reflect a different face in love’s mirror. The first poem, ‘If your eyes were not the color of the moon,’ is pure appreciation of the beloved. The second, ‘Love, love, the clouds went up the tower of the sky like triumphant washerwomen,’ is joyful and also mysterious in its evocation of nature’s elements: fire, water, wind, and luminous space. The third poem, ‘Don’t go far off, not even for a day,’ reflects the anguish of love, the fear and pain of separation. The fourth poem, ‘And now you’re mine. Rest with your dream in my dream,’ is complex in its emotional tone. First there is the exultance of passion. Then, gentle, soothing words lead the beloved into the world of rest, sleep, and dream. Finally, the fifth poem, ‘My love, if I die and you don’t,’ is very sad and peaceful at the same time. There is the recognition that no matter how blessed one is with love, there will still be a time when we must part from those whom we cherish so much. I am so grateful for Neruda’s beautiful poetry, for although these poems were written to another, when I set them I was speaking directly to my own beloved, Lorraine.”

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano
    The Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Levine

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Recorded live at Symphony Hall, Boston, MA, on November 25–26, 2005
    Producer: Dirk Sobotka
    Recording Engineer: John Newton
    Edited by Dirk Sobotka at Soundmirror, Boston, MA
    Mixed and Mastered by Mark Donahue at Soundmirror
    Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

    All music written by Peter Lieberson
    All lyrics from Cien sonetos de amor by Pablo Neruda, © Fundación Pablo Neruda, 1959.

    Design by Barbara de Wilde
    Photographs by Richard Avedon, “Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, American mezzo-soprano, October 1, 2003” © 2003 The Richard Avedon Foundation