Roberta Alexandra - Songs my Mother taught me
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Traditional, Vittorio Giannini, Albert Hay Malotte, Ernest Charles, Olive Dungan, John Jacob Niles, Oscar Rasbach, Charles Gilbert Spross, Richard Hageman, Roger Quilter, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Randall Thompson, Sergey Rachmaninov
Label: Etcetera
Magazine Review Date: 7/1999
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 73
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: KTC1208
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| When I have sung my songs |
Ernest Charles, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Ernest Charles, Composer Roberta Alexander, Soprano |
| Clouds |
Ernest Charles, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Ernest Charles, Composer Roberta Alexander, Soprano |
| Youth |
Ernest Charles, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Ernest Charles, Composer Roberta Alexander, Soprano |
| Let all my life be music |
Charles Gilbert Spross, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Charles Gilbert Spross, Composer Roberta Alexander, Soprano |
| Do not go, my love |
Richard Hageman, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Richard Hageman, Composer Roberta Alexander, Soprano |
| Music I heard with you |
Richard Hageman, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Richard Hageman, Composer Roberta Alexander, Soprano |
| Tell me, oh blue, blue sky |
Vittorio Giannini, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Vittorio Giannini, Composer |
| Sing to my heart a song |
Vittorio Giannini, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Vittorio Giannini, Composer |
| It is a spring night |
Vittorio Giannini, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Vittorio Giannini, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 11, Spring waters (wds. Tyutchev) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (3) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Love's philosophy (wds. Shelley: 1905) |
Roger Quilter, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Roger Quilter, Composer |
| Velvet shoes |
Randall Thompson, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Randall Thompson, Composer Roberta Alexander, Soprano |
| When I am dead, my dearest |
Oscar Rasbach, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Oscar Rasbach, Composer Roberta Alexander, Soprano |
| Life and Death |
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Composer |
| Go 'way from my window |
John Jacob Niles, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano John Jacob Niles, Composer Roberta Alexander, Soprano |
| Eternal life |
Olive Dungan, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Olive Dungan, Composer Roberta Alexander, Soprano |
| (The) Lord's Prayer |
Albert Hay Malotte, Composer
Albert Hay Malotte, Composer Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano |
| I must walk that lonesome valley |
Traditional, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Traditional, Composer |
| Deep River |
Traditional, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Traditional, Composer |
| Didn't it rain |
Traditional, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Traditional, Composer |
| Sometimes I feel like a motherless chile |
Traditional, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Traditional, Composer |
| My Lord, what a morning |
Traditional, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Traditional, Composer |
| Give me Jesus |
Traditional, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Traditional, Composer |
| His name so sweet |
Traditional, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Traditional, Composer |
| Ride on, King Jesus |
Traditional, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Traditional, Composer |
| O what a beautiful city |
Traditional, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Traditional, Composer |
| My soul's been anchored in de Lord |
Traditional, Composer
Brian Masuda, Piano Roberta Alexander, Soprano Traditional, Composer |
Author:
‘There is simply no way to describe this music other than Songs my Mother taught me,’ writes the soprano in her introductory notes. In that case it will have to do, though since Sutherland used the title on the same pretext in 1973 it has lost some of its freshness. Roberta Alexander Senior was a singer and a teacher of singing. Her repertoire appears to have been wide, but it was the ‘myriad of lesser-known American composers’ that attracted her daughter when making ‘this trip down memory lane’. It is mildly startling to find Quilter and Rachmaninov among them, though at least Rachmaninov became an American citizen and the argument advanced in the poem Quilter set as Love’s philosophy holds that everything is really part of everything else anyway.
And of course nothing of this would matter if, having heard the record, one could simply come up with a recommendation. I found enjoyment limited. This is a fine, vibrant, full-bodied voice but for almost a decade now its most pleasing area has been the middle register, whereas in this recital she keeps resolutely to high keys, and the upper notes, which might still be exciting if more sparingly used, rather forfeit their welcome.
Even that might have passed without much comment had the programme been differently selected and ordered. There are too many end-of-group or end-of-recital songs: too many thumping-and-pounding accompaniments for the pianist, too much high-rise clamour for the voice. After two climactic songs by Vittorio Giannini, which make one think of Rachmaninov, along comes Rachmaninov himself with a rush of passionate urgency in Spring waters, and the song by Quilter which follows is not one of the many gentle pieces that might have been chosen but the exuberantLove’s philosophy. Most attractive, very probably, is the quieter mood and mellower voice of John Niles’s Go ’way from my window.
Brian Masuda’s playing remains largely a source of pleasure despite the reverberant acoustic and the intimate association the recording brings us into with the piano and its pedalling mechanism.'
And of course nothing of this would matter if, having heard the record, one could simply come up with a recommendation. I found enjoyment limited. This is a fine, vibrant, full-bodied voice but for almost a decade now its most pleasing area has been the middle register, whereas in this recital she keeps resolutely to high keys, and the upper notes, which might still be exciting if more sparingly used, rather forfeit their welcome.
Even that might have passed without much comment had the programme been differently selected and ordered. There are too many end-of-group or end-of-recital songs: too many thumping-and-pounding accompaniments for the pianist, too much high-rise clamour for the voice. After two climactic songs by Vittorio Giannini, which make one think of Rachmaninov, along comes Rachmaninov himself with a rush of passionate urgency in Spring waters, and the song by Quilter which follows is not one of the many gentle pieces that might have been chosen but the exuberant
Brian Masuda’s playing remains largely a source of pleasure despite the reverberant acoustic and the intimate association the recording brings us into with the piano and its pedalling mechanism.'
Roberta Alexandra - Songs my Mother taught me
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