Daron Hagen’s The Art of Song is a cycle of 24 songs for voices (various) and piano grouped thematically into four “seasons”.  The texts are drawn from a wide variety of sources from Sappho to Donald Trump via, among others, Dante, Blake, Rossetti and Yeats plus various modern poets including members of the composer’s family.

“Summer” deals with the political degradation of the United States since the civil war.  Hence the ark from Whitman and Crane to McCarthy and Trump.  It’s textually and musically complex with pieces being “mashed up”.  Fort example lines from Stephen Crane’s “War is Kind” are interlaced with Yeats’ “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”.

“Autumn” deals with love, aging and acceptance of self and death.  There are some very evocative texts here including a celebration of the last tomato of fall and Sappho on the strength and frailty of love.  “Winter” deals primarily with faith and the loss of innocence.  There’s a punchy, dissonant setting of “Western Wind” and a haunting version of the Old Irish “Summer is Gone” among other things.  “Spring” deals with witness, remembrance and mourning; from youth to death.  From a group of New York music theatre artists to Dante Aligheri.

Musically it’s hard to describe.  It’s largely tonal but with considerable complexity and the composer isn’t afraid of dissonance.  He just uses it sparingly.  Often two (or more) vocal lines are given quite different treatments simultaneously.  Since there are six voices and piano involved there are lots of options.

It’s performed by Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest (Gilda Lyons and Rebecca Myers – soprano, Elisa Sutherland and  Meg Bragle – mezzo-soprano, James Reese – tenor, Steven Eddy – baritone and Laura Ward – Piano).  It’s a skilful and nuanced performance that does justice to a really interesting collection of texts with complex and varied settings.

It was recorded in 2022 in the Gould Rehearsal Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia.  The recording is clear and well balanced and there’s nothing to muddy the text.  It will be released on January 12th 2024 as a physical CD, MP3 and FLAC; CD quality and 96kHz/24 bit.  I listened to the high res version.  There’s a booklet with full texts, bios etc.

Catalogue information: Naxos American Classics 8559919