What She Saw is a new album of vocal music by New York composer Douglas Anderson. There are two works on the record. There’s a cycle of eleven Cassandra Songs for mezzo-soprano and piano and a monodrama for mezzo-soprano, piano and percussion called Through/In.
The Cassandra Songs each set an episode in Cassandra’s life dwelling, inevitably, on the “always right but never believed” motif and the ill treatment that gets her. The texts, by Andrew Joffe, are really rather good and they get a somewhat atonal setting; especially in the piano line. The vocal style varies from conversational to declamatory. The settings are actually quite varied though very much in the same sound world. It’s well performed by mezzo-soprano Rachel Arky and pianist Elizabeth Rodgers. The recording. was made in 2023 at Martin Patrych Memorial Studios in the Bronx an it’s clean and well balanced.
Breathe is a new recital CD from Korean soprano Hera Hyesang Park. It’s a generous 79 minutes of music; most of it with orchestral accompaniment. There’s one piece for soprano and cello octet and also a few numbers where she’s joined by mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo.
Having been impressed by violist Matthew Lipman at the two OPUS IV concerts earlier this week I decided to check out his CD, Ascent, which consists of a number of works for viola and piano with pianist Henry Kramer (currently faculty at Université de Montréal).
Not so long ago if one wanted to do interesting electronic music things one needed a studio full of enormously expensive equipment, access to which was likely restricted to a fortunate few. Now with a few relatively inexpensive mikes, a laptop and some speakers one can create all kinds of cool stuff and perform it in almost any venue. The recording ‘m going to talk about here was made a few years ago but it’s good and pretty typical of what I’m talking about.
Problematica is an upcoming solo CD with some interesting twists from Canadian cellist+ India Gailey. I can’t call it a solo cello CD because Gailey contributes vocals as well as some truly virtuosic cello playing and there’s lots of electronics and electronic processing involved. There are also some unusual presentation options. There are seven works by younger Canadian composers on the disk and recording engineer John DS Adams of Stonehouse Sound makes a major contribution.
L’Étoile du Nord is an 1854 opera written by Meyerbeer for the Opéra-Comique. It follows on from a series of successful grand operas for L’Opéra de Paris. To some extent it’s an attempt to create something lighter than the early works but the composer doesn’t quite seem able to let go and the work combines comic and serious elements in a way I cannot describe as successful. Format wise it’s pretty much an opéra-comique with no ballet (though some folk/social dancing) and spoken dialogue. 
I’m guessing that most people are at least somewhat familiar with Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Die Dreigroschenoper which exists in several English translations including, sadly, the most commonly encountered one; the heavily bowdlerised version used on Broadway, which is source of the awful version of “Mac the Knife” inflicted on an unsuspecting world by sundry crooners. There’s now a very interesting French version which has been recorded for CD
Michael Hersch is a very distinct musical voice. His subject matter tends to be disturbing and his musical style is abrasive. One of his most recent works is the one act opera Poppaea which is based on the life of historical Poppaea after the point at which the Monteverdi opera leaves off. Strictly, it’s not set in Nero’s Rome but rather in a time and place inspired by it. The very effective libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann includes a distinctly non-classical take on space and time. It’s an exploration of overweaning ambition and where it leads which is about as relevant to today’s world as any theme could be.
Unremembered is a cycle of thirteen songs by Sarah Kirkland Snider to poems by Nathaniel Bellows about his childhood in rural Massachusetts. But this is the darker side of childhood. There are ghosts, witches and houseguests freezing to death. It’s not Anne of Green Gables with baked beans!
Ecstatic Science is the fourth album from New York sextet yMusic. They are a young group of really excellent instrumentalists noted for their collaborations with composers who defy easy classification. There is plenty for a composer to work with in terms of palette. The group consists of Alex Sopp – flute, Mark Dover – clarinet, CJ Camerieri – trumpet and horn, Rob Moose – violin and guitar, Nadia Sirota – viola and Gabriel Cabezas – cello. The music on the record is all by young(ish) American composers noted for their eclectic styles. So everybody involved is a first rate classically trained musician who isn’t afraid to go to non-traditional places. 
operaramblings 