Album Notes

The poems of Earth and Paradise are some of the lesser known works of the Victorians Christina Rossetti and Anne Bronte, as well as the Romantics Thomas Beddoes and Thomas Hood. These are texts which transcend the often-criticized sentimentality of the time and evoke a strong emotion. Rossetti, famous for her elegiac, nearly morbid poetry, nevertheless was capable of the innocent exuberance of "A Birthday." And Anne Bronte, long considered the least of the Bronte's literary talents, demonstates in "My Soul is Awakened" a directness and power of expression never surpassed by her more famous sisters. Kersten's song-cycle is balanced on the one side by the first five depictions of "Earth" - romantic love and loss, nature in both joyous and pastoral images, and death; and on the other side by Rossetti's mysterious and ecstatic dream-vision, represented in the long last song, "Paradise."

"With "Earth and Paradise," a song-cycle inspired by poetry of the Victorian era, Kersten's music, always interesting and provocative, has become a rarity; it has shed any hints of being derivative, and has stepped, by virtue of its originality and freshness, across an important threshold into the realm of elegantly crafted, inspired art."
- from the Reno Gazette Journal review of the premiere performance of "Earth and Paradise", Jan. 27, 1992

Born in Nevada, soprano Lori Trustman received her Masters of Music at Yale in 1997, and has since performed major roles in New York, including Micaela in Carmen, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Vivian in the world premiere of Guinevere at Lincoln Center. Besides her work in opera, she has performed solos in Mozart's C Minor Mass and Requiem, the Bach Christmas Oratorio, and many others.