Soprano Fotina Naumenko releases Bespoke Songs, a collection of works she commissioned for voice and ensembles with various instrumentations that set texts by female authors. In pieces by Jonathan Newman, Benedict Sheehan, Carrie Magin, and Jennifer Jolley, Naumenko's crystalline voice leads the ensembles through varied aesthetic territory, displaying a broad snapshot of contemporary vocal ensemble composition.
Soprano Fotina Naumenko releases Bespoke Songs, a celebration of the art of collaborative chamber music featuring voice. Naumenko commissioned four composers to write works setting texts by female poets for the project, highlighting her versatility across an attractive range of aesthetics. Composers Jonathan Newman, Jennifer Jolley, Carrie Magin, and Benedict Sheehan have answered the call by producing works that feature Naumenko’s silken tone, clarion diction, and elegant expression, while drawing on influences from neoromanticism, musical theater, jazz, and minimalism.
Jonathan Newman’s twelve movement title work sets texts by female writers in six languages in total (English, French, Hebrew, Korean, Swedish, and Russian), interweaving poetry written over two millennia with six new poems written by Kristina Faust. Newman’s aesthetic approach evokes Bernstein in its embrace of a diversity of influences across the stylistic spectrum. The work opens with Copland-esque grandeur in “Here is a poem,” returning to similar expansive vistas of sound in “At Winter’s Solstice,” “New Lovers,” “Kärlek,” “One Morning,” and then in a literal reprise for the final movement, “This is my poem.” Newman mines the intersection between music theatre and big band jazz in the piece as well, as in the percolating rhythm section in the “The Admonition,” the veiled blues of “Elegie,” or the slinky wind section unisons in “Is there Ecstasy.” Of the piece, Newman writes, “The result is a poetic narrative of a Love Anticipated, Found, Lived, Lost, and Remembered.” Naumenko navigates the piece’s fluid aesthetic demands and impressively wide register seamlessly, leading the ensemble through a commanding and cohesive performance.
Jennifer Jolley’s Hope is the Thing with Feathers for soprano, flute, and guitar sets three Civil War era Emily Dickinson poems in a straightforward scoring, with the guitar providing harmonic accompaniment and the flute alternating countermelodic and primary material with the voice. The opening song is a somber dirge built around modal harmony that accumulates intensity as the vocal line gradually ascends in register. The second movement title song is brighter, featuring a gentle arpeggiated figure in the guitar that subtly explores modal mixture and chromatic relationships with adjacent keys. “I Dwell in Possibility” opens freely with responsive material between voice and instruments, before it settles into a rolling 12/8 texture.
Carrie Magin’s How to See an Angel opens with an improvisatory bassoon solo that sets a prayerful mood for a text that reads as a guide towards opening oneself to inspiration. The piece is organized in three parts, with slower and more lyrical outer sections framing a rhythmically active, percolating middle section. Magin’s use of the bassoon both as a supportive and soloistic presence is notable for an instrument that often finds its roles in chamber music limited to anchoring the bass.
The final work on the program is Benedict Sheehan’s Let Evening Come for soprano, cello, and harp. Like the guitar in Jolley’s work, the harp often provides the textural foundation, playing a steady rhythmic figure that establishes tempo and harmony. Sheehan breaks this continuity to highlight dramatic moments in the text, such as the fluorishes accompanying the dramatic registral leaps in the vocal part in “Evening Sun” (“And I knew then that I would have to live, and go on living”), or the ascending arpeggiations supporting the climax of “Let Evening Come” (God does not leave us comfortless, so let evening come).
The four works on Fotina Naumenko’s Bespoke Songs are subtle text settings that feature the art of singing in small ensemble contexts. Their instrumentations explore less common formations, and contribute viable new vocal ensemble works especially for instruments like bassoon, guitar, and harp, that are relatively underrepresented in mixed ensemble vocal repertoire, with Naumenko’s artistry shining in each context.
- Dan Lippel
Recorded at Sono Luminus Studio in Boyce, VA in April 2022 and May 2023
Recording producer and editor: Dan Merceruio
Recording engineer, mixing & mastering: Daniel Shores
Cover Image: Bird on Tree / Unsplash
Design, layout & typography: Marc Wolf, marcjwolf.com
Fotina Naumenko, soprano, has been praised for her “radiant voice” (Boston Globe), described as both “angelic” (MusicWeb International) and “capable of spectacular virtuosic hi-jinks” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). Fotina’s singing encompasses a wide variety of vocal genres including art song, oratorio, opera, choral, chamber, and new music, both as a soloist and ensemble singer.
Her performances of David Lang’s just and Castiglioni’s Cantus Planus at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music were hailed as “a beautiful performance” by the New York Times and “a stunner” by the Boston Globe. Fotina was a soloist in the world premiere of Arvo Pärt’s O Holy Saint Nicholas with the Artefact Ensemble in 2021, and was a featured soloist with the Boston Pops in the symphonic premiere of Sondheim on Sondheim, a Sondheim musical revue curated by James Lapine.
Ensemble credits include Grammy® award-winning Conspirare, the Grammy® award-winning Experiential Chorus, Grammy® nominated groups Skylark, Clarion, the Saint Tikhon Choir, and PaTRAM, as well as Cappella Romana, Coro Volante, Alium Spiritum, and the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, among many others.
Fotina has recorded with these groups on the Reference Recordings, Chandos, Cappella Romana, Delos, Pentatone, Ablaze Records, Naxos and Cincinnati Fanfare labels, resulting in one Grammy® win (Ethel Smyth’s The Prison with the Experiential Chorus) and five Grammy® nominations (The Hope of Loving with Conspirare, Kastalky’s Requiem with the Saint Tikhon Choir, Benedict Sheehan’s Liturgy with The Saint Tikhon Choir, It’s a Long Way with the Skylark Ensemble, and Rachmaninoff ’s All Night Vigil with the Clarion Choir).
Fotina is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music (BM), the Cincinnati College-Conservatory (MM, DMA), and is a Fulbright scholar, having completed a post-graduate diploma specializing in Russian vocal music at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia. The culmination of this work was the creation of RussianAriaResource.com, a lyric diction resource for Russian operatic arias. She is passionate about training and mentoring the next generation of singers and serves as Associate Professor of Voice at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA.
Nadège Foofat is a conductor, violinist, violist, and advocate for innovation in music and culture. She has worked with several notable North American orchestras, and was Assistant Conductor to Kent Nagano with the Hamburg Philharmonic Opera and Orchestra. In 2014, Nadège was Associate Conductor for the Naxos recording of Darius Milhaud’s L’Orestie d’Eschyle, which was nominated for a 2015 GRAMMY® Award. From 2009-2014, Nadège was Founder and Music Director of the Esopus Chamber Orchestra, an award-winning professional chamber orchestra based in the Hudson Valley, New York. She is currently the Artistic Director for Classical at the MSV, in Winchester, Virginia.
Clarinetist Garrick Zoeter’s passionate and exciting way with the clarinet has been acknowledged around the world. The Clarinet recently described his playing as “remarkable, his tone is beautiful and he shows complete mastery...” Mr. Zoeter has won numerous competitions both as a soloist and chamber musician, is a founding member of the acclaimed Antares piano quintet, and is a frequent performer with groups such as Trio Solisti, The Audubon String Quartet, The Ensemble for the Romantic Century, the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, the University of Buffalo’s Slee Sinfonietta, The Post Classical Ensemble, the Pressenda Chamber Players, the Monadnock Music Festival, and the New Orchestra of Washington. Mr. Zoeter received his bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School and his master’s degree from Yale University. A committed teacher as well as performer, Mr. Zoeter serves as the Anna Lee Van Buren Professor of Clarinet at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University.
American Saxophonist Timothy Roberts is currently Professor of Saxophone and Chair of the Instrumental Division at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA. He retired as Principal Saxophonist and National Tour Soloist with the Navy Band in Wash, DC, where he was also Coordinator of the Navy’s International Saxophone Symposium, building it into one of the largest saxophone-only events in the world. As one of the Navy’s premier concert soloists, he performed for five U.S. Presidents, many foreign dignitaries, and hundreds of thousands of people throughout all 48 states and around the world from 1987-2011. The Washington Post described his Kennedy Center performance of Ibert Concertino da Camera with the National Symphony Orchestra as “simply stunning.” He was recently featured at the Sydney Conservatorium, the Clarisax Festival in Medellin, Colombia, the World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg, France, and with the Mahidol Wind Symphony in Bangkok, Thailand, while teaching workshops at the Paris National Conservatory and the Conservatorio di Musica G. Verdi di Milano (Italy).
Akemi Takayama, acclaimed as a “true musician” by Isaac Stern, embodies musical dedication. Raised in a household of musicians, she began her violin journey in Japan and honed her skills in the USA. At the Shenandoah University Conservatory of Music, she holds the Victor Brown Endowed Chair and serves as professor, alongside her roles as concertmaster for the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra since 2004, the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra since 2008, and the New Orchestra of Washington since 2010. Her accolades include recognition at the Marlboro Music Festival and Isaac Stern Music Workshop, with top prizes in regional competitions. A former Audubon Quartet member, Dr. Takayama’s artistry shines as a soloist, chamber musician, and esteemed faculty member. She performs on a Gennaro Gagliano violin lent by the Ryuji Ueno Foundation, symbolizing her commitment to musical excellence.
Guitarist Mark Edwards has been hailed by the Montgomery Advertiser as a player who “transfers to another zone, effortlessly strumming, plucking and picking a variety of classical masterpieces with clarity.” Mark has been performing concerts since the young age of 14 and competing since 13. He has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, Philippines, Thailand, and Russia. Most recent seasons include as soloist with the Prince George’s Philharmonic and the National Philharmonic, and all three venues of Carnegie Hall: Weill Hall, Zankel Hall, and Isaac Stern Auditorium. From 1998 to 2015, Mark has earned 34 top prizes in Asia and North America. These prizes include the 2010 Asia International Guitar Competition, the 2009 Montreal International Guitar Competition, the 2008 National Guitar Workshop/National D’Addario Solo Competition, and Le Concours International de Guitare de Lachine in Montreal, Canada. Since 2022, Mark has served as a Senior Scholar Talent Lead to help guide the vertical alignment in the K-12 music program for Success Academy in New York City.
Praised by the South Florida Classical Review for her “dazzling” and “incisive” performance, Karlyin Viña is a dynamic and creative percussionist based in Virginia. Viña serves on the faculties of Shenandoah Conservatory in Virginia during the academic year and at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan during the summer. Karlyn maintains a busy schedule as an orchestral, chamber, and solo percussionist, and has a particular interest in contemporary music. Performance highlights include several seasons with Palm Beach Symphony and Florida Grand Opera, as well as performances with Madera Viva, a bassoon and percussion duo with Dr. Carlos Felipe Viña.
Named “the Celine Dion of classical” by The Huffington Post, world class Canadian pianist Marika Bournaki is known for the combination of her effervescent youth and innovative approach to her art. Her evolution into an esteemed performer was documented by Bobbi Jo Hart, from the age of 12 to 20, for the multi award-winning feature-length documentary “I Am Not A Rock Star”. She appears frequently as a soloist, as a duo with cellist Julian Schwarz, and is a founding member of the Mile-End Piano Trio. Ms. Bournaki is Assistant Professor of Piano Pedagogy and Performance at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA, and is represented by Parker Artists.
Known for her “bold and dramatically characterized playing” (Dallas Morning News), “great artistic sense” and “tone that draws in one’s ear with sounds and ideas that simply cannot be resisted,” (Philadelphia Inquirer) Julietta Curenton has established herself as an educator, soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. Ms. Curenton is the Assistant Professor of Flute at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia. Curenton can also be heard on the groundbreaking Grammy nominated jazz album of Miguel Zenon entitled Alma Adentro, Esperanza Spalding’s Grammy Award winning album Twelve Little Spells and the Smithsonian Folkways Praise the Lord album among her musical family.
Guitarist Colin Davin has emerged as one of today’s most dynamic artists. Performance highlights include concertos with the New Mexico Philharmonic, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and Richmond Symphony; and duo collaborations with guitarist Sharon Isbin, harpist Emily Levin, soprano Estelí Gomez, violinist Tessa Lark, and cellist Edward Arron. Colin appeared as a featured musical guest on the Late Show with David Letterman alongside the late Jessye Norman. He has performed at venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Alhambra Palace, the Paris Conservatoire, the Fridge Fringe in Dubai, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Colin Davin is the Director of Guitar Studio and Associate Professor of Guitar at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia. He has presented masterclasses at The Juilliard School, Aspen Music Festival, Oberlin Conservatory, and more. Colin plays a guitar by Canadian luthier Joshia de Jonge with Augustine Strings.
Bassoonist and educator Ryan D. Romine serves as Associate Professor of Music at Shenandoah Conservatory. His album of French contest pieces, Première, was hailed as “an absolutely brilliant CD...bringing back from oblivion some truly beautiful music, played with precision and lyricism...” and his rediscovery of Jacques Ibert’s Morceau de lecture made international news. He is the author of Bassoon Reimagined: An Extended Technique Sourcebook for Bassoonists and Composers and has worked for many years as the Bassoon Editor for the International Double Reed Society. Originally from Newark, OH, Ryan holds degrees from The Ohio State University and Michigan State University.
Harpist Nadia Pessoa’s career has taken her to stages across North America, Europe, China, and Brazil. She is the recipient of awards from the National Society of Arts and Letters, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and the American Harp Society, and has appeared as a soloist at Lincoln Center, with the Lima Symphony Orchestra, and the Fort Collins Symphony. She can be heard on the GRAMMY award-winning recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, and Faye Webster’s Car Therapy Sessions. Nadia holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of Michigan, and performs with The Washington Ballet, the U.S. Army Band, and other ensembles in Washington, D.C.
Jonathan Newman composes music rich with rhythmic drive and intricate sophistication, creating broadly colored musical works that incorporate styles of pop, blues, jazz, folk, and funk into otherwise classical models. Trained as a pianist, trombonist, and singer, his work is informed by an upbringing performing in orchestras, singing in jazz choirs, playing in marching bands, and accompanying himself in talent shows. His music has been performed by orchestras worldwide, including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the Brussels Philharmonic, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms. Recent work includes JRB Variations for piano, the “imagined ballet” Pi‘ilani and Ko‘olau for wind ensemble, and a Mass for chorus, vocal trio, and chamber orchestra. He and the conductor Nadège Foofat reside with their children in Virginia, where he serves as Director of Composition & Coordinator of New Music at Shenandoah Conservatory.
Composer Jennifer Jolley’s diverse catalog includes choral, orchestral, wind ensemble, chamber, and electronic works. She has been commissioned by ensembles and institutions across the United States, including the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, University of Texas at Austin, Bowling Green State University, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, The Canales Project, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and the University of Cincinnati, among others. She is Assistant Professor of Music at Ohio Wesleyan University. In recent years, Jennifer has been increasingly drawn toward subjects that are political and even provocative. Her 2015 collaboration with librettist Kendall A, Prisoner of Conscience, sets to music statements made by the Russian punk-rock band Pussy Riot as they stood trial in Moscow for “hooliganism” and “religious hatred.” Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble has performed the piece widely and will release a recording in Spring 2018. Jennifer’s 2017 piece The Eyes of the World Are Upon You, commissioned by the University of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble, reflects on the first-ever campus shooting in America, which took place at UT-Austin in 1966. Jennifer’s blog—on which she has catalogued more than 100 rejection letters from competitions, festivals, and prizes—is widely read and admired by professional musicians. She is particularly passionate about this project as a composition teacher, and enjoys removing the taboo around “failure” for her students. In addition to her professorship at Ohio Wesleyan, she is a member of the composition faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp.
Internationally-performed composer Carrie Magin traverses a wide emotional range with her fresh and universal voice. She has been commissioned by the Trombones of the Saint Louis Symphony, the University of Cincinnati’s CCM Chorale, and WQXR New York Public Radio, among others. Her work has also been performed by Boston Opera Collaborative, Buffalo Chamber Players, and Vocalis Chamber Choir. She is Associate Professor and Area Coordinator of Composition and Theory at Houghton University, where she was named the Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts in 2023 and was twice nominated for the Excellence in Teaching Award. She also teaches composition at the renowned Interlochen Arts Camp.
Two-time GRAMMY® nominee and American Prize-winner Benedict Sheehan has been called “a conductor and composer to watch in the 21st century” (ConcertoNet). He is artistic director and founder of Artefact Ensemble and the GRAMMY®-nominated Saint Tikhon Choir. His works have been described as “brilliant” (Choir & Organ), “otherworldly” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), “evocative” (Gramophone), and “simply beyond praise for excellence” (Fanfare). His music is published by Oxford University Press, Artefact Publications, and others, and has been performed by many of the world’s leading ensembles, including Skylark, Conspirare, the Houston Chamber Choir, Cappella Romana, the Kansas City Chorale, and the BBC Singers.
Four famous names—Copland, Barber, Bernstein, and to a lesser extent Ives—occupy the
largest space in 20th-century art songs by American composers. Of these, only Ives wrote in a
Modernist idiom (not all the time). The other three established a tradition of accessible tonal
harmony and melody. It’s this tradition that the four composers in this imaginative and attractive
collection continue. Their songs don’t present the thorny obstacles of New Music in its abstract
experimental mode; therefore, the enticement for fanciers of traditional art songs is definitely
felt.
The commissioner of these three song cycles and a single lengthy song, soprano Fotina
Naumenko, performs them in the spirit of communicating delight and beauty, which matches the
spirit in which they were written.
The longest piece here is the title work, Bespoke Songs, whose 12 poems divide into two
groups, six texts from diverse women poets and six by a single woman poet, New Jersey-born
Kristina Faust. The first thing one notices in Jonathan Newman’s instrumentation for seven
strings, woodwinds, percussion, and piano, is its glowing richness. The first song, Faust’s Here
is a poem, acts as a brief introduction to the 11 poems that follow, while Newman establishes
on the musical side a warm comfort zone.
Newman faces the greatest diversity of voices here, including pivotal women poets
emerging from 16th-century England, France, and Korea. It’s a shame that the booklet contains
no program notes, not even a brief comment from each composer. Newman’s basic idiom is like
Ned Roem inflected with angularity. He gives Naumenko wide intervals to embrace, and the
harmonies are a step more contemporary than Barber’s. Love is an abiding theme in the texts,
which include an excerpt from the biblical Song of Songs, and Newman provides suitably
intimate and tender music, although he is careful to avoid the cliches of sentimental
Romanticism.
All the poets on the program are women, and Jennifer Jolley has set herself the challenge,
previously accepted by Copland, too, of setting Emily Dickinson in a three-song cycle titled
“Hope” is the Thing with Feathers. It’s daunting to create music that expresses Dickinson’s
blend of transcendence, obliqueness, and intimate reflections. Copland’s Twelve Poems of Emily
Dickinson probably veered too much in the direction of Americana, which made her seem quaint,
one thing she certainly wasn’t. A key part of Naumenko’s commissions was to employ different
instrumentations—Jolley chose an intimate duo of flute and guitar.
Jolley was also astute, I think, in avoiding folk elements in favor of an updated style of
cultivated salon music of the kind Dickinson herself would have heard in Boston and Amherst.
Sinuous melody and inwardness serve the three poems very well. I hope that the piece gains
wide acceptance. It’s a lovely addition to the extensive repertoire of Dickinson settings.
The single lengthy song mentioned above, at seven minutes, is How to See an Angel by
Carrie Magin. The poet Dorothy Walters is unknown to me (like all but a handful of the writers
here); the structure Magin uses is 12 short verses, unrhymed, that vary from couplets to
quatrains, with one verse of seven lines. The title is treated literally—these are instructions for
catching a glimpse of an angel, beginning with “Stand very still, Don’t breathe, Or if you do, Do
it silently.” Intentionally or not, the theme and expression feel like Dickinson in reaching for
intimate transcendence. The accompaniment is a quirky duo of bassoon and piano. The
quirkiness helps to add spice to Magin’s lyricism, which brings us closer to Barber than any of
the other composers. The result is quite lovely.
The last of the small song cycles is Let Evening Come, four settings of the notable New
Hampshire poet Jane Kenyon (1947–95). Of the writers represented here, I felt a strong affinity
for Kenyon’s direct gaze at life’s difficulties. For example, here is her description of a woman in
a nursing home: “She is like a horse grazing a hill pasture that someone makes smaller by
coming every night to pull the fences in and in.” The instrumentation selected by composer
Benedict Sheehan is a duo of cello and harp, bridging the soulful and the ethereal. The musical
style could be called pensive but intense lyricism, very effectively done. The clear-eyed
directness in Kenyon’s verse is well matched by the directly expressed moods in Sheehan’s
music.
The linchpin of this recital is the singer, on whom the success of the performance
ultimately rests. Born in Rochester of Russian heritage, Naumenko has a bright, focused
coloratura soprano with a pleasing high extension. Her timbre is attractive, and she sings with
presence as well as good diction, which is unusual for high voices. She is very well credentialed:
she has sung and recorded across a wide range of styles from New Music to Stephen Sondheim.
Tonally, I’m reminded of Hilde Gueden, although Naumenko displays some swing here, which I
doubt that Gudeen possessed. For versatility, Marni Nixon might be a more apt comparison.
These commissions came about during the isolated time of COVID, and in her intense
desire to return to live music with close collaboration, Naumenko turned to performers and
writers who were her colleagues. Her aim has been beautifully achieved here. Individual
response will necessarily be personal, but any listener drawn to the American tradition of art
songs will find ample enjoyment here. The recorded sound is exemplary, as are the skilled
instrumentalists.
Four stars: Lovely singing of art songs in the American tradition
— Huntley Dent, 7.24.2024
Florence Price (1887-1953) has been going through a period of rediscovery, especially since a large collection of her music and writings was found in 2009. Her four symphonies and her piano music have drawn considerable recent attention, but other portions of her oeuvre have not yet become widely known. Among these are her songs – a situation that an Azica release featuring 19 of them (including 16 world première recordings) is intended to help rectify. Ranging in length from one minute to four, these pieces – sung with considerable understanding and feeling by Karen Slack, with subtle and supportive pianistic accompaniment by Michelle Cann – break no particularly new harmonic or expressive ground, and Slack’s focus on their emotional elements tends to result in less-than-clear pronunciation of some of the texts. But lyricism and emotive elements are front-and-center in most of the songs, particularly effectively in Ships That Pass in the Night, Who Grope with Love for Hands, and Beyond the Years. The gentleness of There Be None and the rocking motion of What Do I Care for Morning and Youth are interestingly contrasted with the unexpected drama of The Dawn’s Awake. Among other notable elements in this recital are the quiet sadness of Little Things, the sylvan sound of the accompaniment in Your Leafy Voice, the wistfulness tinged with faint regret of I Remember, and the unexpected pacing changes of Interim. Each of the remaining songs also has attractive elements: Desire, Bright Be the Place, Pittance, The Sum, Sacrament, Winter Idyl, Spring, and Song Is So Old. Musically, the songs are a bit formulaic: virtually all begin with a scene-setting piano solo of a few bars, after which the voice enters and dominates throughout. Emotionally, the songs – whose words come from a number of different sources – mostly involve a focus and rumination on quotidian events and an interpretation of them: nothing here really soars or delves deeply into the realm of the philosophical, with the result that everything is comparatively approachable (as art songs go), but the totality of material is somewhat lacking in variety. Certainly these are not mere pleasantries or salon music, but neither are they works that plumb any particular emotional or philosophical depth or make any significant musical points. All are worth hearing, especially given the high quality of the performances here, but none seems to have significant staying power – at least, none of the 19 seems significantly more noteworthy than any other, although all provide further evidence that Price was adept at writing well-crafted and convincing music.
If the Price songs showcase the music of a woman composer whose work is still undergoing exploration, those on a New Focus Recordings CD featuring soprano Fotina Naumenko focus on texts by women, in various chamber-music settings. The most-elaborate piece on the disc is Bespoke Songs by Jonathan Newman. It includes 12 songs in six languages: English, French, Hebrew, Korean, Russian, and Swedish. And it has extensive accompaniment for Naumenko’s voice: clarinet, alto and soprano saxophones, violin, cello, guitar, piano and percussion; Nadège Foofat directs the ensemble. Six of the dozen poems are new ones, written by Kristina Faust; others are old, dating back as much as 2,000 years. At every opportunity, Newman looks for ways to stretch the art-song concept: heavy rhythms in The Admonition, bluesy sounds in Elegie, wind-and-percussion combinations in Is There Ecstasy, a broad scale in the opening Here Is a Poem and the concluding This Is My Poem, and so forth. Depending on one’s predilections, the result of all this is either an attractively diversified group of settings or a rather scattered and uneasy stylistic mixture. Naumenko, in any case, clearly believes in the piece and varies her vocals to accommodate the many harmonic, rhythmic, textual and lingual changes. Much more modest is “Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers, Jennifer Jolley’s set of three Emily Dickinson poems for soprano, flute (Julietta Curenton), and guitar (Colin Davin). Dickinson is one of the most-frequently-set poets when it comes to English-language art songs, and the three selections of poetry here are scarcely unfamiliar, but Jolley does a good job of keeping the words understandable while creating an attractive aural background – especially in the title song, placed second in the sequence. How to See an Angel by Carrie Magin is a single extended song for soprano, bassoon (Ryan Romine), and piano (Marika Bournaki). The bassoon is especially prominent here, notably in the slower outer sections that frame a brighter middle portion; the extended bassoon solo that opens the entire work is a particularly effective mood-setter. The CD concludes with the four poems of Benedict Sheehan’s Let Evening Come, scored for soprano, cello (Julian Schwarz), and harp (Nadia Pessoa). The pleasant delicacy of the instruments complements and offsets vocal material that is crepuscular, bordering on dark, throughout, even in the intended uplift of the title song (last of the four). The words are clearly important to Sheehan, whose settings and choice of instrumental accompaniment allow them to come through with considerable clarity; in addition, the comparative lack of ornamentation in the vocal part lets the meanings of the texts emerge clearly. Naumenko alters her vocal style, intensity and accentuation according to the needs of each composer’s work, singing all the material with the sensitivity and conviction needed to display these chamber works with vocals as effectively as possible.
— Mark Estren, 8.15.2024
Sensual doesn’t so much ooze as burst in ecstatic luminosity from Fotina Naumenko’s soaring, swooping soprano. The recital comprises 20 works specially commissioned by Naumenko from four composers. Each takes a cue from a verse by poets selected by the soprano and relates to settings and emotions awakened by the global pandemic. The album takes its title from a cycle of twelve – Bespoke Songs –composed by Jonathan Newman, set to the poetry of Kristina Faust.
Two shorter cycles comprise a work by Jennifer Jolley (“Hope” Is The Thing with Feathers – poetry by Emily Dickenson), and one by Benedict Sheehan (Let Evening Come with texts by Jane Kenyon). These cycles bookend Carrie Magin’s work (How to See An Angel set to Dorothy Walter’s poem). The commissions were initiated during the global pandemic and reflect the angst that was imposed on a human psyche which still cries out for healing.
The work of artists of the first order were driven not only to deeper reflection, but also to surface for air with the singular impulse to heal others with art. This Naumenko certainly does with uncommon erudition. Her instrument is gorgeous: lustrous, precise and feather-light. Her musicianship is fierce as she digs into the expression of every word, giving every phrase a special grace. The accompanying musicians bring a deeply interiorised reading that complements Naumenko’s execution.
— Raul da Gama, 10.06.2024
New Focus Recordings is an artist led collective label featuring releases in contemporary creative music of many stripes, as well as new approaches to older repertoire. The label was founded by guitarist Dan Lippel, composer Peter Gilbert in 2004, and composer/engineer Ryan Streber in 2004, formed …Read More …
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