Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye - American Songs
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: George Gershwin, Stephen Collins Foster, Cole (Albert) Porter, Samuel Barber, Paul Bowles, Charles T(omlinson) Griffes
Label: Classical
Magazine Review Date: 2/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 69
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: SK68339
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (10) Hermit Songs, Movement: No. 6, Sea-Snatch |
Samuel Barber, Composer
Samuel Barber, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: No. 3, I hear an army |
Samuel Barber, Composer
Samuel Barber, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| (4) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Sure on this shining night (wds. Agee) |
Samuel Barber, Composer
Samuel Barber, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Bessie Bobtail (wds. Stephens) |
Samuel Barber, Composer
Samuel Barber, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| Don't bet your money on de Shanghai |
Stephen Collins Foster, Composer
Samuel Ramey, Bass Stephen Collins Foster, Composer Warren Jones, Piano |
| Gentle Annie |
Stephen Collins Foster, Composer
Samuel Ramey, Bass Stephen Collins Foster, Composer Warren Jones, Piano |
| If you've only got a moustache |
Stephen Collins Foster, Composer
Samuel Ramey, Bass Stephen Collins Foster, Composer Warren Jones, Piano |
| Evening song |
Charles T(omlinson) Griffes, Composer
Charles T(omlinson) Griffes, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| (2) Poems, Movement: An old song re-sung (1917) |
Charles T(omlinson) Griffes, Composer
Charles T(omlinson) Griffes, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| (3) Fiona Macleod Poems, Movement: The Lament of Ian the Proud |
Charles T(omlinson) Griffes, Composer
Charles T(omlinson) Griffes, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| Song of the dagger |
Charles T(omlinson) Griffes, Composer
Charles T(omlinson) Griffes, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| (A) Damsel in Distress, Movement: Nice work if you can get it |
George Gershwin, Composer
George Gershwin, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| Shall we dance?, Movement: They all laughed |
George Gershwin, Composer
George Gershwin, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| Girl Crazy, Movement: Embraceable you |
George Gershwin, Composer
George Gershwin, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| Goldwyn Follies, Movement: Just another rhumba |
George Gershwin, Composer
George Gershwin, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| They cannot stop death |
Paul Bowles, Composer
Paul Bowles, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| Blue Mountain Ballads |
Paul Bowles, Composer
Paul Bowles, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| Anything Goes, Movement: Blow, Gabriel, Blow |
Cole (Albert) Porter, Composer
Cole (Albert) Porter, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| Jubilee, Movement: Begin the Beguine |
Cole (Albert) Porter, Composer
Cole (Albert) Porter, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| Seven Lively Arts, Movement: Ev'ry time we say goodbye |
Cole (Albert) Porter, Composer
Cole (Albert) Porter, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
| Fifty Million Frenchmen, Movement: The tale of the oyster |
Cole (Albert) Porter, Composer
Cole (Albert) Porter, Composer Samuel Ramey, Bass Warren Jones, Piano |
Author: Patrick O'Connor
The repertory for basses in solo song recitals is limited – one recalls, for instance, Boris Christoff’s magnificent but gloom-laden evenings of Mussorgsky. Samuel Ramey’s concert of American songs finds him on fine form before a Parisian audience, roused to enthusiasm by an adventurous programme that strays even into the soprano selections, generously transposed down, of the four Cole Porter songs with which he ends his recital.
The opening Barber group kicks off with the short “Sea-snatch” (one of the Hermit Songs, composed for soprano); this, like the James Agee setting, Sure on this shining night, is sung by Cheryl Studer on the complete Barber songs set (DG, 5/94), where Thomas Hampson sings the baritone songs. Ramey’s darker-hued voice lends a more wintry feel to the James Joyce poem, I hear an army as well as to the sad story of mad Bessie Bobtail.
It’s quite a leap to the three Stephen Foster ballads.If you’ve only got a moustache must have brought a touch of vaudeville into the parlours of pre-Civil War America. This, and the rather nasty cock-fighting song, Don’t bet your money at the Shanghai, frame a more typical Foster song, Gentle Annie, a near cousin to the more celebrated Jeannie.
Charles Griffes’s songs have been recorded by Hampson and by Sherrill Milnes, but both of them stuck to his settings of German poetry. Ramey here climaxes with the bloodthirsty Song of the dagger, projecting such lines as “My tears and thy blood shall flow together” with all the operatic fervour at his command.
The groups of show tunes by Gershwin and Porter come either side of the five Paul Bowles songs. Of these the rarest is They cannot stop death to a text by Joe Massey. In the four Blue Mountain Ballads (words by Tennessee Williams) Ramey sounds very straight compared with Jo Ann Pickens on the recent Koch disc of Bowles’s music (7/96).
In the Gershwin group, “Embraceable you” sounds very surprising so low down; when Ramey sings “you alone bring out the gipsy in me” the effect is very different from what one imagines was achieved by Ginger Rogers when she first sang this in Girl Crazy. His version of “Just another rhumba” is notable for the agility he manages in the fast-moving refrain, prompting a built-in encore with the final verse.
“The tale of the oyster”, written by Porter for Fifty Million Frenchmen, was dropped after the opening, considered too risque. Ramey does it with charm and diction that would have pleased the composer. Warren Jones provides a few words to help “Blow, Gabriel, blow” get going. The audience is very enthusiastic, as well they might be, for this is a serious, and at the same time amusing, ride around a century of American song.'
The opening Barber group kicks off with the short “Sea-snatch” (one of the Hermit Songs, composed for soprano); this, like the James Agee setting, Sure on this shining night, is sung by Cheryl Studer on the complete Barber songs set (DG, 5/94), where Thomas Hampson sings the baritone songs. Ramey’s darker-hued voice lends a more wintry feel to the James Joyce poem, I hear an army as well as to the sad story of mad Bessie Bobtail.
It’s quite a leap to the three Stephen Foster ballads.
Charles Griffes’s songs have been recorded by Hampson and by Sherrill Milnes, but both of them stuck to his settings of German poetry. Ramey here climaxes with the bloodthirsty Song of the dagger, projecting such lines as “My tears and thy blood shall flow together” with all the operatic fervour at his command.
The groups of show tunes by Gershwin and Porter come either side of the five Paul Bowles songs. Of these the rarest is They cannot stop death to a text by Joe Massey. In the four Blue Mountain Ballads (words by Tennessee Williams) Ramey sounds very straight compared with Jo Ann Pickens on the recent Koch disc of Bowles’s music (7/96).
In the Gershwin group, “Embraceable you” sounds very surprising so low down; when Ramey sings “you alone bring out the gipsy in me” the effect is very different from what one imagines was achieved by Ginger Rogers when she first sang this in Girl Crazy. His version of “Just another rhumba” is notable for the agility he manages in the fast-moving refrain, prompting a built-in encore with the final verse.
“The tale of the oyster”, written by Porter for Fifty Million Frenchmen, was dropped after the opening, considered too risque. Ramey does it with charm and diction that would have pleased the composer. Warren Jones provides a few words to help “Blow, Gabriel, blow” get going. The audience is very enthusiastic, as well they might be, for this is a serious, and at the same time amusing, ride around a century of American song.'
Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye - American Songs
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