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American Classics - William Bolcom

Measha Brueggergosman, Ilona Davidson (soprano), Joan Morris (mezzo-soprano), Nathan Lee Graham (baritone), Thomas Young (tenor), Tommy Morgan (harmonica), Peter Ruth (harmonica, vocals)

University of Michigan School of Music Symphony Orchestra & Musical Society, Leonard Slatkin

This is a magnum opus that occupied Bolcom for 25 years, starting as early as 1956. He's drawn on a wide range of musical styles to parallel Blake's method of moving from sophisticated to almost... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 28th Mar 2005
Catalogue No: 8559216-18
Label: Naxos
Series: American Classics
Length: 2 hours 16 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

July 2005

Editor's Choice
Grammy Awards

48th Awards (2005)

Best Choral Performance
Grammy Awards

48th Awards (2005)

Best Contemporary Classical Composition
Grammy Awards

48th Awards (2005)

Classical Album of the Year

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Bolcom: Songs of Innocence and of Experience (William Blake)

Work length51:21

$22.00

$28.60

Christine Brewer (soprano), Marietta Simpson (contralto), Joan Morris (mezzo-soprano), Measha Brueggergosman (soprano), Ilana Davidson (soprano), Linda Hohenfeld (soprano), Carmen Pelton (soprano), Peter Ruth (harmonica), Jeremy Kittel (violin), Nmon Ford (baritone), Nathan Lee Graham (vocals), Thomas Young (tenor), Tommy Morgan (harmonica)
Michigan University Choir, Michigan University Chamber Choir, Michigan University Musical Society Choral Union, Michigan State University Children's Choir, Michigan University Orpheus Singers, Contemporary Directions Ensemble, Michigan University Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin
Recorded: 08 April 2004
Recording Venue: Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Part 1: Introduction

Track length3:06

$1.00

$1.30

Part 1: The Ecchoing Green

Track length2:32

$1.00

$1.30

Part 1: The Lamb

Track length3:19

$1.00

$1.30

Part 1: The Shepherd

Track length2:13

$1.00

$1.30

Part 1: Infant Joy

Track length1:58

$1.00

$1.30

Part 1: The Little Black Boy

Track length4:06

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: Laughing Song

Track length0:33

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: Spring

Track length1:45

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: A Cradle Song

Track length4:04

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: Nurse's Song

Track length1:35

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: Holy Thursday

Track length1:08

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: The Blossom

Track length0:40

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: Interlude

Track length0:25

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: The Chimney Sweeper

Track length3:14

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: The Divine Image

Track length3:48

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: Nocturne

Track length2:04

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: Night

Track length5:00

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: A Dream

Track length1:41

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: On Another's Sorrow

Track length1:52

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: The Little Boy Lost

Track length2:48

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: The Little Boy Found

Track length1:56

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: Coda

Track length1:34

$1.00

$1.30

Bolcom: Songs of Experience, Volume I

Work length42:51

$17.00

$22.10

Christine Brewer (soprano), Marietta Simpson (contralto), Joan Morris (mezzo-soprano), Measha Brueggergosman (soprano), Ilana Davidson (soprano), Linda Hohenfeld (soprano), Carmen Pelton (soprano), Peter Ruth (harmonica), Jeremy Kittel (violin), Nmon Ford (baritone), Nathan Lee Graham (vocals), Thomas Young (tenor), Tommy Morgan (harmonica)
Michigan University Choir, Michigan University Chamber Choir, Michigan University Musical Society Choral Union, Michigan State University Children's Choir, Michigan University Orpheus Singers, Contemporary Directions Ensemble, Michigan University Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin
Recorded: 08 April 2004
Recording Venue: Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Part 1: Introduction

Track length2:17

$1.00

$1.30

Part 1: Hear the Voice of the Bard

Track length2:54

$1.00

$1.30

Part 1: Interlude

Track length0:51

$1.00

$1.30

Part 1: Earth's Answer

Track length4:53

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: Nurse's Song

Track length1:09

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: The Fly

Track length1:43

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: The Tyger

Track length1:49

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: The Little Girl Lost

Track length1:09

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: In the Southern Clime

Track length2:08

$1.00

$1.30

Part 2: The Little Girl Found

Track length4:46

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: The Clod and the Pebble

Track length1:47

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: The Little Vagabond

Track length2:30

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: Holy Thursday

Track length2:44

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: A Poison Tree

Track length2:09

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: The Angel

Track length3:15

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: The Sick Rose

Track length3:13

$1.00

$1.30

Part 3: To Tirzah

Track length3:34

$1.00

$1.30

Bolcom: Songs of Experience, Volume II

Work length42:35

$16.00

$20.80

Christine Brewer (soprano), Marietta Simpson (contralto), Joan Morris (mezzo-soprano), Measha Brueggergosman (soprano), Ilana Davidson (soprano), Linda Hohenfeld (soprano), Carmen Pelton (soprano), Peter Ruth (harmonica), Jeremy Kittel (violin), Nmon Ford (baritone), Nathan Lee Graham (vocals), Thomas Young (tenor), Tommy Morgan (harmonica)
Michigan University Choir, Michigan University Chamber Choir, Michigan University Musical Society Choral Union, Michigan State University Children's Choir, Michigan University Orpheus Singers, Contemporary Directions Ensemble, Michigan University Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin
Recorded: 08 April 2004
Recording Venue: Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Part 4: The Voice of the Ancient Bard

Track length2:24

$1.00

$1.30

Part 4: My Pretty Rose Tree

Track length1:44

$1.00

$1.30

Part 4: Ah! Sun-Flower

Track length2:30

$1.00

$1.30

Part 4: The Lilly

Track length1:35

$1.00

$1.30

Part 5: Introduction

Track length0:50

$1.00

$1.30

Part 5: The Garden of Love

Track length2:03

$1.00

$1.30

Part 5: A Little Boy Lost

Track length2:27

$1.00

$1.30

Part 5: A Little Girl Lost

Track length4:43

$1.00

$1.30

Part 5: Infant Sorrow

Track length2:23

$1.00

$1.30

Part 5: Vocalise

Track length2:58

$1.00

$1.30

Part 6: London

Track length3:52

$1.00

$1.30

Part 6: The School-Boy

Track length3:22

$1.00

$1.30

Part 6: The Chimney Sweeper

Track length1:20

$1.00

$1.30

Part 6: The Human Abstract

Track length3:21

$1.00

$1.30

Part 6: Interlude - Voces Clamandae

Track length1:32

$1.00

$1.30

Part 6: A Divine Image

Track length5:31

$1.00

$1.30

Reviews
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Reviews

2010

This is a magnum opus that occupied Bolcom for 25 years, starting as early as 1956. He's drawn on a wide range of musical styles to parallel Blake's method of moving from sophisticated to almost folk idioms. In some features – diatonic writing, English text and children's voices – Britten's Spring Symphony is in the background, but Bolcom is defined by the styles he juxtaposes with carefully calculated transitions in between.
Some of the most memorable moments involve popular idioms, evoking his ragtime performances or the songs he recorded so vividly with his wife Joan Morris. The word-setting is straightforward, reflecting the strophic poems, and refreshingly free from elaboration. The Songs of Innocence are charming and pastoral but in the Songs of Experience there's real anger at the human predicament.
This recording is based on a live performance with massive forces comprising 10 soloists, three choirs totalling almost 350 singers and a full symphony orchestra plus a harmonica and various extra electronic players and percussion.
Nathan Lee Graham is an actor-singer who can project his catchy tunes and spoken poems; Joan Morris exercises all her magic in a range of styles, but Thomas Young seems too consistently declamatory. Christine Brewer is magisterial in numbers that reflect the modernistic side of Bolcom, and Carmen Pelton has a rare purity of sound.
This unique Blake spectacular makes a cumulative impact that represents Bolcom's wide stylistic embrace at its most ambitious.

American Classics - William Bolcom

3 CDs

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