Today saw the premiere of the Canadian Art Song Project’s second annual commission (My review of last year’s effort).  This time it was Norbert Palej’s Small Songs; a setting of ten texts from Jan Zwicky’s Thirty-seven Small Songs & Thirteen Silences.  It’s an ambitious piece drawing on a wide range of vocal and piano colours and occasionally on non-standard technique.  That said, although sounding like a work from the 21st century it’s really quite accessible to anyone with any familiarity at all with modern art song.  Some passages were really lovely.  I especially like the haunting and clever setting of Small song on being lost which evokes the loneliness of the sea and the self.  The piece that followed; Small song for the moon in the daytime was also rather special ending movingly on “the wind is   nowhere   to be found”.  All in all, great integration of text and music as art song should be.  The composer “warned” us up front that the music was extremely difficult to perform because he was writing it for two very fine musicians.  They didn’t disappoint.  Tenor Lawrence Wiliford used all of his range; dynamically, colourwise and pitchwise to give a very text sensitive reading and he was very well accompanied by long time collaborator Steven Philcox at the piano.

Continue reading →