Fern Hill-American Choral Music
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Traditional, Samuel Barber, James Mullholland, Jean Belmont, Williametta Spencer, John (Paul) Corigliano
Label: Nimbus
Magazine Review Date: 3/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 68
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: NI5449
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners |
Williametta Spencer, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor Kansas City Chorale Williametta Spencer, Composer |
| (L') Invitation au voyage |
John (Paul) Corigliano, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor Fern Hill Orchestra John (Paul) Corigliano, Composer Kansas City Chorale |
| (The) Passionate Shepherd to His Love |
Jean Belmont, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor Jean Belmont, Composer Kansas City Chorale |
| (The) Roadside Fire |
Jean Belmont, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor Jean Belmont, Composer Kansas City Chorale |
| Johnny has gone for a soldier |
Jean Belmont, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor Jean Belmont, Composer Kansas City Chorale |
| (A) Red, Red Rose |
James Mullholland, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor James Mullholland, Composer Kansas City Chorale Patricia Higdon, Piano |
| Reincarnation |
Samuel Barber, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor Kansas City Chorale Samuel Barber, Composer |
| Fern Hill |
John (Paul) Corigliano, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor John (Paul) Corigliano, Composer Kansas City Chorale |
| Shenandoah |
Traditional, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor Kansas City Chorale Traditional, Composer |
| Johnny, I hardly knew ye |
Traditional, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor Kansas City Chorale Traditional, Composer |
| I'm goin' away |
Traditional, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor Kansas City Chorale Traditional, Composer |
| Deep River |
Traditional, Composer
Charles Bruffy, Conductor Kansas City Chorale Traditional, Composer |
Author: Peter Dickinson
These Kansas City performers have really taken John Corigliano’s setting of Dylan Thomas’s poem, Fern Hill, to heart by naming the CD and the accompanying orchestra after it. Corigliano’s 18-minute piece has a special position in his output. It was this work that he showed to Samuel Barber who then recommended him to his own publisher. No wonder the composer of Dover Beach and Knoxville: Summer of 1915 liked Corigliano’s 1961 response to Thomas’s landscape poem since it has the easy accessibility of Barber’s own music, although at this stage less individuality. The other Corigliano work is L’invitation au voyage – a setting from 1970 in English (translated by the poet Richard Wilbur) of Baudelaire’s poem best known through Duparc’s song – which shows a large step forward in harmonic command and some luminescent major triads, all beautifully controlled in performance. Both these works are new to the CD catalogue and amplify the picture of Corigliano’s work.
Equally rewarding is Barber’s Reincarnation, also recorded by The Sixteen, but the rest of this anthology is routine stuff consisting of characterless word-setting and nondescript arrangements, apart from Mack Willberg’sI’m goin’ away. This seems a disappointing successor to the group’s Christmas collection, “Nativitas”, although the Corigliano and Barber make it worthwhile.'
Equally rewarding is Barber’s Reincarnation, also recorded by The Sixteen, but the rest of this anthology is routine stuff consisting of characterless word-setting and nondescript arrangements, apart from Mack Willberg’s
Fern Hill-American Choral Music
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