Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999) composed Doce canciones españolas in 1951. It is based on popular texts adapted by Victoria Kamhi. Nine of these are recorded here. His publisher is Schott Music Corp. He was one of Spain's leading composers of the 20th century. The joaquin-rodrigo.com website is beautifully designed and very comprehensive. It is worth visiting.
Henri Duparc (1848-1933) is best known for his 17 songs. He studied piano with Cesar Franck and was one of his first composition pupils. Together with Saint-Saens they founded the Societé Nationale de Musique Moderne in Paris.
Gustav Mahler ( 1860-1911) songs were composed from 1880 to 1889 and published in three booklets in 1892 scored for voice with piano accompaniment. Orchestral versions of a selection of the songs were published by Luciano Berio in 1986.
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) The Mahler songs chosen for this album include three songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, of which the poetry source is a cornucopia of German folk poems of the same name. The poem Fruhlihngsmorgen was written by Richard Leander.
Max Helfman (1901-1963) was born in Poland and immigrated to New York with his family in 1909. He was a talented composer of religious, choral and classical music who worked in New York and Los Angeles. He was the founding dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and later became the founding dean of the School of Fine Arts at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) wrote Kaddisch as the first of Two Hebraic Melodies originally for voice and piano. The songs were commissioned by the soprano Alvina-Alvi of the Imperial St. Petersburg Opera and performed by her and Ravel in 1914 at the Salle Malakoff in Paris.
Howard Rovics (1936- ) began composing while a student at the Manhattan School of Music in the late 1950's where he received a Master of Music degree in piano in 1961 under the tutelage of Robert Goldsand. That Man That Song is a setting of a poem by the Israeli poet Rivka Kashtan. Her poetry provided the text for several major works by Rovics including his holocaust cantata St Jakob's Church in Rothenburg and an opera In and Out of Eden.
Cole Porter (1891-1964) and George Gershwin ((1898-1937), America's most beloved song writers provided much of the repertoire that Christina sang during a time in the late 1980's when she appeared regularly with Howard at Woodstoves, a restaurant in Sherman Connecticut. Howard's cabaret-style art songs grew out of their improvised renditions which he eventually notated fully.
Christina Rovics credits the Britsh bass Raymond Buckingham as the one teacher out of many who helped her to build her vocal technique. He also inspired her passion for teaching. She is a singer who has worked in many genres including sacred music, standard art song literature, cabaret, and new music. After studying at Eastman and Juilliard she spent four years in Mexico City and a year in Newfoundland, where she appeared on CBC radio and TV in art song recitals. She was invited by Gunther Schuller to perform the songs of William Flanagan at Tanglewood in 1981. A talented portrait painter since childhood, the Rovics’ home displays many of her oils, watercolors and pastels.
Howard Rovics is a Professor Emeritus of music having retired from 33 years of college teaching. He devotes his time to composing concert music, freelancing as an organist and accompanying Christina’s voice students.
"Christina and I met in the fall of 1982, connected immediately on the level of shared musical interest and by the spring of 1983 gave our first of many recitals. In the span of over the next 20 years some of these programs were recorded either live or in small recording studios. Recordings helped us to grow and examine our work.
In 1998 and 1999 we produced two commercial CDs under the guidance of North/South Recordings. A few years later Christina decided to retire from public performing while still in good form to devote herself to teaching. Music-making continues as a daily activity with as much intensity as ever.
Now, in the age of self-publishing we are taking this opportunity to share our private collection by way of digital distribution in the form of these offerings. Watch for more in this series from our private archival collection."
HR
Licensing information:
Two Hannah Senesh Poems (Helfman) (TMP#990023)
© Transcontinental Music Publications, All Rights Reserved
Doce canciones espanolas (Rodrigo)
© Schott Music Corp, All Rights Reserved
That Man, That Song (Rovics)
© Howard Rovics Music (BMI), All Rights Reserved
Anything Goes (Porter)
©Warner Chappell Music, All Rights Reserved
In the Still of the Night (Porter)
©Warner Chappell Music, All Rights Reserved
I Concentrate on You (Porter)
©Warner Chappell Music, All Rights Reserved
Embraceable You (Gershwin)
©Warner Chappell Music, All Rights Reserved
I Got Rhythm (Gershwin)
©Warner Chappell Music, All Rights Reserved
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