The legendary Silvestre Revueltas
—whose centenary will be celebrated the last day of 1999—is honored by an all-too-rare recording of his engaging
Five Children's Songs. Soprano Kathleen L. Wilson, a staunch advocate for the Latin American Art Song, deftly captures the spirit of these charming and effective works inspired by texts of the great Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Ms. Wilson and trumpeter Robert Stibler also bring to life three of my songs based on the poetry of three New York writers.
The North/South Consonance Ensemble is featured in premiere recordings of two works by American composers who hail from contrasting geographical and aesthetic territories. From Maine, Elliott Schwartzgives us his engaging Elan. From Los Angeles, Daniel Kessner offers us his virtuosic Two Visions, a work written especially for our concert series. Mr. Kessner honored the Ensemble by conducting these pieces in addition to collaborating—as flutist!—with North/South's marimba soloist Frank Cassara in a performance of William Toutant's lively Bagatelle.
To complement the album, the great Texas-based trombonist Don Lucas teams up first with me and then with percussionist Alan Shinn in performances of Mary Jeanne van Appledorn's Passages and Passages II.
The listener will be pleasantly surprised by the diversity evident in the compositions recorded on this disc. Not only do these recent works represent a wide variety of aesthetic viewpoints, but each work effectively meets the compositional challenges posed by its chosen medium.
Great care was taken to preserve the integrity of the concert hall ambiance when this album was recorded and mastered. Indeed, you will find that we successfully captured both the natural resonance of the concert hall and the wide dynamic range of the music without distortion. Please use a moderate volume setting when playing this disc.
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