White Moon
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Joseph Schwantner, Claudio Monteverdi, Peter Warlock, Henry Purcell, Ruth Crawford (Seeger), John Dowland, George (Henry) Crumb
Label: Nonesuch
Magazine Review Date: 1/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 47
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 7559-79364-2

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Sleep |
Peter Warlock, Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Margo Garrett, Piano Peter Warlock, Composer |
Alceste, Movement: Gentle Morpheus, son of night |
George Frideric Handel, Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Orpheus Chamber Orchestra |
(L')Incoronazione di Poppea, '(The) Coronation of Poppea', Movement: Addio Roma |
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer
Claudio Monteverdi, Composer Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Odair Assad, Guitar Sérgio Assad, Guitar |
(5) Songs, Movement: White moon |
Ruth Crawford (Seeger), Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Margo Garrett, Piano Ruth Crawford (Seeger), Composer |
(2) Poems of Agueda Pizarro |
Joseph Schwantner, Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Joseph Schwantner, Composer Margo Garrett, Piano |
(The) Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires, Movement: Weepe you no more sad fountaines |
John Dowland, Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano John Dowland, Composer Sérgio Assad, Guitar |
Bachianas brasileiras No. 5, Movement: Aria: Cantilena |
Heitor Villa-Lobos, Composer
Cello Ensemble Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Heitor Villa-Lobos, Composer |
Nights of the Four Moons, Movement: La luna está muerta, muerta |
George (Henry) Crumb, Composer
David Starobin, Banjo Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Eric Bartlett, Cello George (Henry) Crumb, Composer James Baker, Percussion Susan Rotholz, Piccolo Susan Rotholz, Flute |
(The) Fairy Queen, Movement: See, even Night herself is here |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Henry Purcell, Composer Odair Assad, Guitar Sérgio Assad, Guitar |
Author:
Perhaps others will respond more readily to the singer’s manner, which is intimate, sweet and rather winsome. The style favours a speech-inflected production in which notes swell or retract, and where a whole phrase is rarely ‘bound’ by the old-fashioned (or time-honoured) means of legato. Compare, for instance, Upshaw’s singing of Night’s solo in The Fairy Queen (“See even now”) with either Nancy Argenta in the Christie recording (Harmonia Mundi, 1/90) or Norma Burrowes with Britten (Decca, 5/92): there the melodic line is preserved with an evenness of production and (though these are both light voices) a well-nourished tone, far more satisfying, to my ears, than the confiding manner and pallid coloration of this present performance. Certainly the American pieces seem to be better suited. The “flimmering” shafts of White Moon and still more the affectionate mood of Black Anemones are well captured. I have not been able to see the scores of these, or of Night of the Four Moons, but the performances suggest a sympathetic understanding and a sense of imaginative involvement. Crumb’s own involvement with Lorca’s poetry may be familiar to readers through the
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