Emerald Ghost – Copland & Galante: Song Cycles (2021) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

The vocal/piano duo Emerald Ghost was formed in 2019 in Bern, Switzerland, and comprises the British soprano Lucy De Butts and the Italian pianist Giovanna Gatto.

“The reviews were so bad, that I decided I must have written a better cycle than I had realized” remarked Aaron Copland wryly to his friend and fellow composer Leonard Bernstein following the first performance of Twelve Poems for Emily Dickinson in 1950. It did not take long for attitudes towards the song cycle to change. William Flanagan argued in 1952 that it was “probably the most important single contribution toward an American song literature that we have to date.”

Copland’s personal introduction to the song cycle is as follows: “These twelve songs were composed at Sneden’s Landing, New York, at various times during the period from March 1949 to March 1950. They are the first works the composer has written for solo voice and piano since 1928. The poems centre about no single theme, but they treat of subject matter particularly close to Miss Dickinson: nature, death, life, eternity. Only two of the songs are related thematically, the seventh and twelfth. Nevertheless, the composer hopes that, in seeking a musical counterpart for the unique personality of the poet, he has given the songs, taken together, the aspect of a song cycle.”

Carlo Galante composed this cycle of nine songs in 2004. It explores the encounter between music and poetry around the theme of night, using the poetry of nine contemporary Italian poets. In the first song we are introduced to “The Lady of the Night”, an arcane presence who will henceforth guide the listener through the various nuances of this journey into darkness and silence. The night is portrayed multifariously as a time of intimacy and lyrical solitude, of visionary and cosmic insomnia, of mundanity and irony; as a time when visions and memories arise that unite the past with the present, and reality with fantasy.

The music becomes an accomplice to this ever-changing portrayal of the night, amplifying and mutating the poetry into precise musical figures, which are in turn transformed in the articulated sound texture of the piano part. The authors of the poetic texts are: Gian Piero Bona, Danilo Bramati, Franco Buffoni, Giuseppe Calliari, Milo De Angelis, Gabriela Fantato, Giancarlo Majorino, Guido Oldani, Giancarlo Pontiggia.

Tracklist:
1. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: Nature, the gentlest mother (04:11)
2. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: There came a wind like a bugle (01:45)
3. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: Why do they shut me out of Heaven? (02:29)
4. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: The world feels dusty (01:46)
5. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: Heart, we will forget him (02:24)
6. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: Dear March, come in! (02:24)
7. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: Sleep is supposed to be (03:10)
8. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: When they come back (02:04)
9. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: I felt a funeral in my brain (02:26)
10. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: I’ve heard an organ talk (02:27)
11. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: Going to Heaven! (02:56)
12. Lucy De Butts – Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: The Chariot (03:30)
13. Lucy De Butts – Nostra Signora degli Insonni: Nostra Signora degli Insonni (02:30)
14. Lucy De Butts – Nostra Signora degli Insonni: Risate nella notte (03:13)
15. Lucy De Butts – Nostra Signora degli Insonni: Inizia dal cervello (02:12)
16. Lucy De Butts – Nostra Signora degli Insonni: Vi aspetto amici su questo approdo (03:18)
17. Lucy De Butts – Nostra Signora degli Insonni: Quando era lontano (02:11)
18. Lucy De Butts – Nostra Signora degli Insonni: Così si scende soli nella notte (03:15)
19. Lucy De Butts – Nostra Signora degli Insonni: Il Sonno (02:48)
20. Lucy De Butts – Nostra Signora degli Insonni: Dialoghetto (02:23)
21. Lucy De Butts – Nostra Signora degli Insonni: Anime del sonno (04:06)

Download:

mqs.link_EmeraldGh0stC0plandGalanteS0ngCycles20212496.part1.rar
mqs.link_EmeraldGh0stC0plandGalanteS0ngCycles20212496.part2.rar