Sings Vernon Duke

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Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

The soprano mines the catalogue of Broadway/classical composer Vernon Duke, reviving overlooked works and performing beloved numbers like "Autumn in New York."  The Chicago Sun-Times decided, "No one of her generation handles the Great American Songbook with Upshaw's care."

Description

Dawn Upshaw’s 1994 music theater collection I Wish It So established the Metropolitan Opera soprano as a singular interpreter of music from the Broadway stage. That award-winning disc might have included the work of another unclassifiable composer, except that his wide-ranging output of undiscovered songs seemed to call out for its own album.

Vladimir Alexandrovitch Dukelsky (1903–69) was born into a White Russian family at a railway station near Minsk. He was dubbed Vernon Duke by his friend George Gershwin, who championed his work, along with Serge Koussevitsky, who commissioned his First Symphony.

Best remembered for “April in Paris” and “Autumn in New York”—heard here in orchestrations by Danny Troob and Jonathan Tunick—Duke lived and worked in New York’s theater heyday, while also maintaining his classical credentials. He collaborated with top lyricists like Ira Gershwin, Yip Harburg, and Ogden Nash, employing a sophisticated harmonic vocabulary and a melodic daring that were far ahead of their time. He continued both his classical and Broadway work in New York and California into later life, but many of his rich and varied work is all but forgotten today.

The selection of songs on Dawn Upshaw Sings Vernon Duke evolved over nearly a two-year period, and came to include several tunes unheard in over fifty years. Beautiful ballads (“Born Too Late,” “Words Without Music”) sit alongside humorous novelty songs (“Swattin’ the Fly”) and jazz-inflected tunes (“Not a Care in the World”). The haunting “Round About” (published only in a condensed version) was one of the most challenging songs to restore. Producer Tommy Krasker found a forgotten patter section at the Warner Bros. warehouse in Secaucus and lost lyrics at the New York Public Library, allowing the song to be heard in its original form for the first time since it was introduced in 1946. Other songs receive their first recordings here.

Dawn Upshaw Sings Vernon Duke reunites her with Krasker and conductor Eric Stern; guest artists Fred Hersch and John Pizzarelli; and a team of talented orchestrators—in the rediscovery of a composer whose theater and art songs may finally have found their time. Duke’s widow, Kay Duke Ingalls, opened up her own personal archive, as well as a closed collection at the Library of Congress to make this recording possible.

“Every dogma has its day, but good music lives forever,” wrote Vernon Duke. Or, to quote Bernard Holland in a New York Times review of a March 1998 Library of Congress concert: “The best of this music goes beyond entertainment … Listening to Duke songs convinced me, at least, that forced to choose, I would trade all of Henry Cowell and Virgil Thompson, most of Hindemith and even a little Brahms for the first eight bars of ‘April in Paris.’”

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by Tommy Krasker
Engineered by John McClure
Recorded March 1998 at The Hit Factory, New York City
Assistant Engineers: Ethan Schofer, Chuck Bailey
Edited by Paul Zinman, SoundByte Productions, New York City
Mixed at Avatar Studios, New York City
Assistant Engineer: Rory Romano
Mastered by Ric Wilson, Digisonics, Northridge, CA, and Robert C. Ludwig, Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME
Music Preparation: Donald Oliver & Evan Morris: Chelsea Music Service, Inc.
Orchestral Contractor: John Miller

Design by Barbara deWilde
Photographs of Dawn Upshaw by Hollister Dru Breslin

John Pizzarelli appears courtesy of RCA Records
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

Nonesuch Selection Number

79531

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
ns_album_artistid
115
ns_album_id
302
ns_album_releasedate
ns_genre_1
0
ns_genre_2
0
Album Status
Artist Name
Dawn Upshaw
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Dawn Upshaw, vocals
Fred Hersch, piano (3, 7, 11, 12)
John Pizzarelli, vocals, guitar (11)
Drew Gress, bass (11)
Tom Rainey, drums (11)
Eric Stern, piano (13)
John Manasse, clarinet (13)
Richard Rodney Bennett, piano (13)
Orchestra conducted by Eric Stern

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597953121BUN
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
603497076260
  • 79531

News & Reviews

  • Caramoor, the cultural arts venue on an 80-plus-acre estate in Katonah, New York, has announced its 2022 summer season, including performances by several Nonesuch artists: Molly Tuttle, Kronos Quartet, Dawn Upshaw, Rhiannon Giddens, Caroline Shaw, and Rachael & Vilray. "This summer is one of the most dynamic in our history," exclaims Caramoor’s President and CEO Edward J. Lewis III. "Our incredible lineup of artists and repertoire includes voices from an array of backgrounds, eras, and lived experiences, reflecting a broad diversity of audiences from our stages."

  • Carnegie Hall has announced its 2021–22 concert season, sharing plans to reopen its landmark concert venue to the general public in October, and among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are Sō Percussion with Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish, and Kronos Quartet; as well as Youssou N'Dour. The season also features works by composers including Caroline Shaw, John Adams, Nico Muhly, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Michael Gordon.

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  • About This Album

    Dawn Upshaw’s 1994 music theater collection I Wish It So established the Metropolitan Opera soprano as a singular interpreter of music from the Broadway stage. That award-winning disc might have included the work of another unclassifiable composer, except that his wide-ranging output of undiscovered songs seemed to call out for its own album.

    Vladimir Alexandrovitch Dukelsky (1903–69) was born into a White Russian family at a railway station near Minsk. He was dubbed Vernon Duke by his friend George Gershwin, who championed his work, along with Serge Koussevitsky, who commissioned his First Symphony.

    Best remembered for “April in Paris” and “Autumn in New York”—heard here in orchestrations by Danny Troob and Jonathan Tunick—Duke lived and worked in New York’s theater heyday, while also maintaining his classical credentials. He collaborated with top lyricists like Ira Gershwin, Yip Harburg, and Ogden Nash, employing a sophisticated harmonic vocabulary and a melodic daring that were far ahead of their time. He continued both his classical and Broadway work in New York and California into later life, but many of his rich and varied work is all but forgotten today.

    The selection of songs on Dawn Upshaw Sings Vernon Duke evolved over nearly a two-year period, and came to include several tunes unheard in over fifty years. Beautiful ballads (“Born Too Late,” “Words Without Music”) sit alongside humorous novelty songs (“Swattin’ the Fly”) and jazz-inflected tunes (“Not a Care in the World”). The haunting “Round About” (published only in a condensed version) was one of the most challenging songs to restore. Producer Tommy Krasker found a forgotten patter section at the Warner Bros. warehouse in Secaucus and lost lyrics at the New York Public Library, allowing the song to be heard in its original form for the first time since it was introduced in 1946. Other songs receive their first recordings here.

    Dawn Upshaw Sings Vernon Duke reunites her with Krasker and conductor Eric Stern; guest artists Fred Hersch and John Pizzarelli; and a team of talented orchestrators—in the rediscovery of a composer whose theater and art songs may finally have found their time. Duke’s widow, Kay Duke Ingalls, opened up her own personal archive, as well as a closed collection at the Library of Congress to make this recording possible.

    “Every dogma has its day, but good music lives forever,” wrote Vernon Duke. Or, to quote Bernard Holland in a New York Times review of a March 1998 Library of Congress concert: “The best of this music goes beyond entertainment … Listening to Duke songs convinced me, at least, that forced to choose, I would trade all of Henry Cowell and Virgil Thompson, most of Hindemith and even a little Brahms for the first eight bars of ‘April in Paris.’”

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Dawn Upshaw, vocals
    Fred Hersch, piano (3, 7, 11, 12)
    John Pizzarelli, vocals, guitar (11)
    Drew Gress, bass (11)
    Tom Rainey, drums (11)
    Eric Stern, piano (13)
    John Manasse, clarinet (13)
    Richard Rodney Bennett, piano (13)
    Orchestra conducted by Eric Stern

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Produced by Tommy Krasker
    Engineered by John McClure
    Recorded March 1998 at The Hit Factory, New York City
    Assistant Engineers: Ethan Schofer, Chuck Bailey
    Edited by Paul Zinman, SoundByte Productions, New York City
    Mixed at Avatar Studios, New York City
    Assistant Engineer: Rory Romano
    Mastered by Ric Wilson, Digisonics, Northridge, CA, and Robert C. Ludwig, Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME
    Music Preparation: Donald Oliver & Evan Morris: Chelsea Music Service, Inc.
    Orchestral Contractor: John Miller

    Design by Barbara deWilde
    Photographs of Dawn Upshaw by Hollister Dru Breslin

    John Pizzarelli appears courtesy of RCA Records
    Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz