Beginnings, Middles, and Ends
III: Mortality Mansions
Friday, December 3, 2021 7:30PM
Digital Release: Monday, December 20, 2021
First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, 119 Pierrepont St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Two titans of American vocal music, Tom Cipullo and Herschel Garfein, explore the final stages of life through some of their most ambitious and poignant works.
Tom Cipullo: Of a Certain Age
Herschel Garfein: The Luminous Particular*, Mortality Mansions, A Tuesday Spot*
Laura Strickling, Marnie Breckenridge, soprano; Keith Phares, baritone
Mike Brofman, Dimitri Dover, piano
*World Premiere
VI: Fin-du-Siècle
March 4, 2022 7:30PM
Digital Release: Monday, March 21
Brahms’ final Four Serious Songs give a tragic finality to his life and work. Berg’s 7 Early Songs and Strauss’ 4 Last Song, though written 40 years apart, look back on Late Romanticism with aching nostalgia.
V: Testaments
Friday, February 4, 2022 7:30PM
Digital Release: Monday, February 21
Britten’s Songs and Proverbs of William Blake ponders the infinite; Shostakovich’s 7 Romances by Aleksander Blok stares down mortality; Hugo Wolf’s Michelangelo-Lieder is the composer’s final testament before losing his mind.
IV: Evidence of Things Not Seen
Friday, January 7, 2022 7:30PM
Digital Release: Monday, January 24
Ned Rorem’s magnum opus explores the entire breadth of life in this evening-length song cycle. Evidence of Things Not Seen captures everything that makes up the human experience in song.
II: Remembering
Friday, November 5, 2021 7:30PM
Digital Release: Monday, November 22, 2021
Two monumental British song cycles explore the fleeting wonder of youth. Finzi’s A Young Man’s Exhortation is filled with the tenderness of first love, while Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel looks back at youth with bittersweet wisdom.
I: Mörike Liederbuch
Friday, October 1, 2021 7:30PM
Digital Release: Monday, October 18, 2021
Hugo Wolf made his genius known to the world with his first major work, the Mörike Songbook. Composed at age 28, these songs are teeming with youthful energy, passionate drama, and slapstick humor.