Tag Archives: Robert Louis Stevenson

Episode 182. Dorothy Maynor (Black History Month 2023)

February 3, 2023African American Singers, Art Song, BHM2023WK1, Black History Month, Broadway, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicArpad Sandor, Carousel (Rodgers & Hammerstein), Cecil Cohen, Claude Debussy, Countee Cullen, David Oppenheim, Die Zauberflöte, Dorothy Maynor, Elijah (Mendelssohn), Felix Mendelssohn, Frank Black, Franz Schubert, Friederich von Florow, Friedrich von Matthisson, George Frideric Handel, George Schick, Georges Bizet, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustave Charpentier, Howard Barlow, Johann Sebastian Bach, L’enfant prodigue (Debussy), Leonard De Paur, Leopold Stokowski, Louise, Ludwig van Beethoven, Oscar Hammerstein II, Pierre Monteux, R. Nathaniel Dett, Richard Rodgers, Richard Strauss, Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Semele (Handel), Serge Koussevitzky, St. Matthew Passion, Sylvan Levin, Victor Hugo, Wilhelm Müller, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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I lead off my new episodes for Black History Month 2023 with one of the most glorious voices ever captured on recordings, Dorothy Maynor (03 September 1910 – 19 February 1996), one of the most glorious lyric soprano voices ever captured on recording. Discovered by Serge Koussevitzky in the late 1930s and championed by him and a host of other conductors (including Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy), she became renowned as a recitalist but, because of restrictions of the era placed upon Black singers, never sang on any operatic stage. Nevertheless, her studio recordings of arias by Mozart, Debussy, and Charpentier are legendary. Our appreciation of Maynor the singer is greatly enhanced by the presence of live radio recordings as well as a recently-issued live 1940 song recital from the Library of Congress. It is one of the great injustices of musical history that gifted Black singers of Maynor’s caliber from that era were outrightly denied the opportunity to perform in staged opera performances at venues like the Metropolitan Opera. Dorothy Maynor nonetheless persevered and left an incredible legacy, and not just a vocal one: in 1963, the year of her retirement from singing, she founded the Harlem School of the Arts, for which, before she stepped down as President in 1979, she raised more than $2 million dollars for the construction of a new facility for the institution. She also was the first African American singer to perform at a presidential inaugural (both for Harry S. Truman in 1949 and Dwight D. Eisenhower four years later), as well as the first African American to sit on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Opera. This episode features Maynor in live, studio, and radio recordings of repertoire by Bach, Handel, Schubert, and Mendelssohn, as well as some of the finest recordings of spirituals ever made. Also heard are the songs of three Black composers, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Cecil Cohen, and R. Nathaniel Dett, the latter of which Maynor studied with at the Hampton Institute, whose work Maynor frequently programmed on her recitals. The episode opens with a joyous birthday tribute to next week’s subject, Martina Arroyo, whose 1974 album of spirituals was backed by the Choir of the Harlem School of the Arts conducted by Maynor herself.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available and further bonus content including interviews and livestreams is planned for the upcoming season.

Episode 172. Ned Rorem In Memoriam

November 25, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, NYCO Divas, Queer Pride, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAdolph Green, Anita Darian, Ann Schein, Betty Comden, Beverly Wolff, David Triestram, Dolores Ziegler, Donal Nold, Donald Gramm, Donald Sulzen, Eugene Istomin, Frank O’Hara, Howard Moss, John Ashbery, John Stewart, Joseph Rabbai, Kurt Ollmann, Laura Aikin, Leonard Bernstein, Marie-Laure de Noailles, Martina Arroyo, Monique McDonald, Ned Rorem, Paul Goodman, Paul Monette, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Phyllis Curtin, Regina Sarfaty, Robert Louis Stevenson, Roberta Alexander, Rufus Müller, Ryan Edwards, Sandra Walker, Steven Blier, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, Walt Whitman, William Penncountermelody

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Greetings to all from my former home of Manhattan! Upon landing here a week ago, I was greeted by the news of the death of Ned Rorem, the man previously known as “America’s Greatest Living Composer,” who just last month had celebrated his 99th birthday. Though he won the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1976 for his orchestral work Air Music, Rorem was most celebrated for his vocal music, in particular his art songs. In this episode, I will delve into that aspect of his output, from his earliest published work to his extraordinary late masterpiece Evidence of Things Not Seen. The episode features singers who collaborated closely with the composer, including Phyllis Curtin, Donald Gramm, Beverly Wolff, Regina Sarfaty, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Kurt Ollmann, and others. Many other singers were also drawn to Rorem’s songs, including Leontyne Price, Jan DeGaetani, Martina Arroyo, and Laura Aikin, all of whom are represented here. As celebrated as a frank and forthright diarist and essayist as he was as a composer, Rorem (like his British counterpart Benjamin Britten) had extraordinary taste in the poetry and texts he chose to set. In this episode alone, we hear compositions set to words of Sylvia Plath, Paul Goodman, Walt Whitman, Paul Monette, Theodore Roethke, Frank O’Hara, and others. The episode concludes with a tribute to another musician who died earlier the same day, the American collaborative pianist David Triestram, who accompanies his dear colleague and friend Roberta Alexander in Leonard Bernstein’s poignant and timely song “Some Other Time.”

Episode 31. Janet Baker (Mezzo Madness II)

April 19, 2020Art Song, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Needle Drop, SchubertAnthony Lewis, Ariodante Dopo notte, Brahms Komm bald, Carmen, Che farò senza Euridice, Das Lied von der Erde, Die Götter Griechenlands, Dominick Argento, Dusty Springfield, Eduard Mörike, Edvard Grieg, Ernest Lush, Fauré Le Secret, Friedrich Rückert, From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, Gabriel Faure, Geoffrey Pratley, George Frideric Handel, Georges Bizet, Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice, Gustav Mahler, Handel Ariodante, Handel Tamerlano, Hugo Wolf, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, Johann Mayrhofer, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Josef Krips, Kathleen Raine, Kerstin Meyer, London Bach Society, Mahler Das Lied von der Erde, Mahler Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, Mahler Rückert-Lieder, Mahler Von der Schönheit, Marjory Kennedy-Fraser, Martin Isepp, Matthäus-Passion, Maurice Ravel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Mörike-Lieder, Orfeo ed Euridice, Paul Hamburger, Paul Steinitz, Peter Aston, Rafael Kubelik, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ravel Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, Raymond Leppard, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rückert-Lieder, Schubert Abendstern, Songs of Travel, St. Matthew Passion, Stan Vincent, Tchaikovsky Adieu forêts, The Maid of Orleans, Virginia Woolf, Wolf Verborgenheitcountermelody

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Few singers have more affected my life in a more fundamental way than the great Janet Baker. This episode seeks to pay humble tribute to that exceptional artist. I have sought long and hard to find repertoire and performances that my listeners might not have heard before. While this is not an exhaustive survey (methinks a second JB episode is lurking around the corner), I do touch on many of the cornerstones of her repertoire, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Gabriel Fauré, Dominick Argento, and Gustav Mahler. I also feature composers less often associated with her, including Edvard Grieg, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Hugo Wolf, and Peter Aston. Her musical collaborators represented in the episode include Martin Isepp, Paul Hamburger, Josef Krips, Rafael Kubelik, Colin Davis, Geoffrey Parsons, Anthony Lewis, and Michael Tilson Thomas, among others. I present to you The High Priestess of Song. (I also pay passing tribute to the Swedish mezzo-soprano Kerstin Meyer, who died this past week at the age of 92, and Dusty Springfield, whose 81st birthday we celebrated posthumously this week.)

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glories of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great classical and opera singers of the past and present with the help of guests from the classical music field: singers, conductors, composers, coaches, agents, and voice teachers. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. Please visit the Countermelody website (www.countermelodypodcast.com) for additional content. And please head to our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/countermelody to pledge your support at whatever level you can afford.