Reviews: "Soprano Susan Gonzalez flaunts
her delightful voice with highly idiomatic songs composed by four women.
Joyce Hope Suskind's Six Songs to Poetry of Yeats is beautifully
classical in approach, painting the poet's words in an embellished tonal
context. Calling to mind the lieder of Schubert, Ruth Schonthal's Early
Songs are not neo-Romanic per se, rather the writing seems to literally
turn back the clock, as if they were composed, without cynicism, in an
idealistic past. Elisenda Fábregas also inhabits a graceful and
tuneful environment with her Five Songs for Soprano and Piano.
Full of flourishing accompaniment figures and incautious melodies, the
collection ends with Elizabeth R. Austin's vibrant A Birthday Bouquet."
Randy Nordschow, NewMusicBox, American Music Center
* "Suskind's music is filled with the
delightful and unexpected harmonies one encounters in Dohnanyi and Korngold.
Despite their recent composition, these songs are thoroughly tonal, but
without any of the anachronism or blandness of certain "neoromantic"
composers. ... The [very early] Schonthal songs are very beautiful,
but many composers were writing in a similar idiom. Far from old-fashioned,
they sound similar to contemporary work by Barber, Copland, and Diamond.
They have a curiously American feel, which is odd considering they were
written by a German immigrant to Mexico." Boyer, American
Record Guide.
Recording: Recording and some editing by Joe
Patrych at his studio, Bronx, New York. Final editing and mastering by
Marnie Hall. DDD. Support: This recording is
made possible by The New York State Council on the Arts, a state Agency.
Additional funding was provided by the The Research Foundation of the
City University of New York and individual contributions. Music
Publishers: Suskind: Casia Music Publishing, distributed by Theodore
Presser. Schonthal and Fábregas: Southern Music Company: Art
Songs by American Women Composers, a series edited by Ruth Friedberg.
http://www.southernmusic.com. Austin: American Composers Alliance. Performing
Rights Organizations: Schonthal, ASCAP; others, BMI. Graphic
Design: Marnie Hall. Cover Painting Wasserschlangen
(Sea Serpent) by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) used by permission of Öesterreichische
Galerie Belvedere, Vienna. © 2002, Leonarda Productions, Inc. CDs
made in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.
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