Thursday, June 28, 2001:The Baltimore Sun
CD Reviews
by Tim Smith
Sun Music Critic
Ricky Ian Gordon
Bright Eyed Joy:The Songs of Ricky Ian Gordon.
Various artists, (Nonesuch 79626)
One of the toughest sells in classical music these days is the
vocal recital. Time was when Audiences had a much bigger appetite for songs by Schubert or Schumann, Debussy or Poulenc - songs that combined poetry and music in a way that made both a higher form of art. Perhaps tastes will change and just as opera suddenly became very hot again, song recitals will be all the rage.
Chances are, if that ever happens it will be because classically
trained singers expand their horizons and open up their programs to a wider range of art song. And they won’t find a better place to start than with the work of Ricky Ian Gordon. Several of today’s finest sopranos, among them Renee Fleming and Harolyn Blackwell, have already made this discovery. Others, including Dawn Upshaw and Audra McDonald, can be heard on this highly engaging collection of Gordon songs, joined by five other vocalists (classical and pop) and first-rate instrumentalists.
Gordon’s style is a disarming fusion of jazz, cabaret and
Broadway-pop idioms with the language of 20th-century tonal classical composers. Resonances of Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein and others can be detected, but without ever detracting from Gordon’s decidedly original voice. His melodic lines take flight easily, naturally, ever responsive to poems by
the likes of Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, James Agee and Dorothy Parker.
Highlights here include the haunting ballad-style “Souvenir” (verses by Millay), sung by Adam Guettel; a Sondheim-esque rouser called “Run Away” with a text by the composer, given a bright-toned performance by Theresa McCarthy; the spiky bouncy “New Moon” (Hughes), set for vocal quartet; a wistful treatment of Parker’s “The Red Dress,” sung by Dawn Upshaw with her typical beauty and telling nuance; a trio of multi-layered poems by Hughes about the South, delivered in richly expressive phrases by Audra McDonald.
4 Stars
