Crumb: Three Early Songs

“Given Christine Schäfer's wide-ranging repertoire, this mixing of 17th-century English and 20th-century American songs is no surprise. Her exemplary clarity of tone and diction, and her emotional commitment to both composers, make for a powerful recital.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 ****

“The first part of the disc intersperses Crumb's moderately Coplandesque Three Early Songs (1947) with Purcell favourites like "Sweeter than Roses" and "Music for a While". The sovereign authority of Schäfer's voice and the intensity of her presence makes for a seamless narrative, and the clarity of her diction and innate dramatic sensibility revitalise the Purcell works.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2008

“her voice here retains all of the qualities that made it so special, and her artistry remains undiminished...The generosity of the programme mirrors the same quality in DeGaetani's musical nature...Unreservedly recommended.” International Record Review, November 2011

“Here the best-known work is Crumb's response to the 1969 moon landing, Night of the Four Moons, a typical example of his richly allusive style from that time, with references to Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and Haydn's Farewell Symphony clothing settings of poems by Lorca. The well-crafted Variazioni from 10 years earlier reveals the Schoenbergian raw material from which Crumb's more personal style would be forged, but Otherworldly Resonances for two amplified pianos from 2005 does nothing that the earlier music did not do more vividly and freshly...It's wonderful to hear again the late Jan De Gaetani's performance of Night of the Four Moons; nobody has sung Crumb's music of that period with more intensity or understanding than she did.” The Guardian, 20th June 2008 ***

Star-Child, the 2001 Grammy Winner for Best Contemporary Composition. This work was considered "unrecordable" by Boulez as it calls for multiple orchestras to perform simultaneously with different conductors. Through digital technology, Bridge has provided the first studio recording of this work ever. Thomas Conlin leads the Warsaw Philharmonic to extraordinary heights in Crumb's apocalyptic masterpiece. Mundus Canis (A Dog's World)is a series of short works for guitar and percussion. David Starobin and George Crumb play these 5 works, based on the Crumb family dogs. Crumb and Starobin have since taken this piece on the road for a series of performances both across the USA and around the world. George Crumb calls his Three Early Songs "the sins of his youth." These songs are certainly far from sinful, though stylistically far different from his later work. Crumb performs them on the piano, while his daughter, Ann Crumb, sings the vocal parts.