Name: Beach: Songs by Catherine Bringerud
Brand: Catherine Bringerud
SKU: 636943919125
Price: 9.9 USD
Availability: OnlineOnly
Rating: 3 (252 reviews)

ALBUM

Naxos' American Classics series brings Amy Beach: Songs and thus enters into a territory of vocal repertoire long considered essential to performers of English language art songs, yet never a very crowded field in terms of recordings. Amy Beach: Songs is a generous survey of Beach's songs dating from 1880, when she was 12 years old, to the very last music she wrote before her death at age 77 in 1944.
Beach's songs were never designed to knock your socks off, but the received wisdom that they are nothing more than pleasant parlor tunes wholly reliant on German models isn't right either. Beach's songs are sensitive, poetic, and made with a clear purpose in mind -- to project the texts through clearly stated and memorable melodic content. Mezzo soprano Katherine Kelton does an excellent job here in a wide range of material, the only caveat being that at times she's a little hard to understand, but all of the lyrics are included in the booklet so this is of no great concern. Accompanist Catherine Bringeraud paces all of the music very well and is strongly responsive to Kelton's voice while maintaining a mostly gentle and dignified calm. Kelton's liner notes are excellent and make the case for Beach without overstatement.
Listeners familiar with Beach note a trend toward a deepening harmonic color in the works written from about 1920 forward; they will no doubt delight to discover hints of this late direction already present in songs such as "Come, ah Come" from 1902. That's the benefit of the comprehensiveness of the selection presented in Amy Beach: Songs; the subtle twists and turns in Beach's style and development are outlaid in a way that makes sense and is genuinely easy to grasp. But don't expect to untangle her secrets in one setting -- instant gratification isn't what Beach is about, and repeated listening pays off dividends here. Students of singing will doubtless welcome this release with open arms as Naxos has finally provided a package limited only to Beach's songs that is also, thankfully, a reliable and inexpensive guide to the way a large number of them are supposed to sound.

Beach: Songs

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1. The Rainy Day

2. Ariette, Op. 1, No. 4

3. When Far from Her, Op. 2, No. 2

4. Empress of Night, Op. 2, No. 3

5. Le Secret, Op. 14, No. 2

6. Ecstasy, Op. 19, No. 2

7. Within Thy Heart, Op. 29, No. 1

8. Sleep, Little Darling, Op. 29, No. 3

9. Nacht, Op. 35, No. 1

10. Forgotten, Op. 41, No. 3

11. Dearie, Op. 43, No. 1

12. Far Awa', Op. 43, No. 4

13. The Year's at the Spring, Op. 44, No. 1

14. Ah, Love, But a Day!, Op. 44, No. 2

15. I Send My Heart Up to Thee!, Op. 44, No. 3

16. Come, ah Come, Op. 48, No. 1

17. Canzonetta, Op. 48, No. 4

18. Ich sagte nicht, Op. 51, No. 1

19. Wir drei, Op. 51, No. 2

20. Juni, Op. 51, No. 3

21. Je demande a l'oiseau, Op. 51, No. 4

22. Go Not Too Far, Op. 56, No. 2

23. Shena Van, Op. 56, No. 4

24. Baby, Op. 69, No. 1

25. Hush, Baby Dear, Op. 69, No. 2

26. A Prelude, Op. 71, No. 1

27. O Sweet Content, Op. 71, No. 2

28. Ein altes Gebet, Op. 72, No. 1

29. Der Totenkranz, Op. 73, No. 2

30. The Candy Lion, Op. 75, No. 1

31. A Thanksgiving Fable, Op. 75, No. 2

32. In the Twilight, Op. 85

33. The Host, Op. 117, No. 2

34. May Flowers, Op. 137

35. I Sought the Lord, Op. 142

36. Though I Take the Wings of Morning, Op. 152

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