Poems of Love and the Rain/From an Unknown Past

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Writing in CD Review, Peter Golub has noted of Rorem's "Poems of Love and the Rain": "Most importantly, the composer has given us-regardless of its overall structure-an astonishingly beautiful collection of songs. STOP ALL THE CLOCKS (first version) and THE AIR IS THE ONLY (second version) are among the finest American art songs ever written. Beverly Wolff's performance is stunning. She unleashes the full range of her considerable musical and emotional power. Combined with Rorem's pianism, it makes for a compelling listening experience.

Tracks:

Prologue: From the Rain
Stop All the Clocks
The Air Is the Only
Lov's Stricken 'Why'
The Apparaition
Do I Love You
In the Rain
Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain
Interlude
Song For Lying In Bed During a Night Rain
In the Rain
Do I Love You
The Apparition
Love's Stricken 'Why'
The Air Is the Only
Stop All the Clocks
Epilogue: From the Rain
Parting
Flowers For the Graces
Love
An Absent Friend
The Lover In Winter Plaineth For the Spring
Hey Nonny No!
My Blood So Red
Suspiria
The Miracle
Tears
Crabbed Age And Youth

Album Description

Writing in CD Review, Peter Golub has noted of Rorem's "Poems of Love and the Rain": "Most importantly, the composer has given us-regardless of its overall structure-an astonishingly beautiful collection of songs. STOP ALL THE CLOCKS (first version) and THE AIR IS THE ONLY (second version) are among the finest American art songs ever written. Beverly Wolff's performance is stunning. She unleashes the full range of her considerable musical and emotional power. Combined with Rorem's pianism, it makes for a compelling listening experience.

Customer Reviews:

Exquisite.......1999-11-18

Rorem is one of the premier writers of art songs in this century. In Songs of Love and the Rain, he sets to music 9 texts about the loss of love and uses a great gimmick: after piece nine, he repeats the first eight in reverse order with new settings, and in many cases you'll be hard pressed to decide which you like better. The poets include e.e. cummings (two wonderful versions of Funeral Blues), Emily Dickinson and Jack Larson. The CD features the great Beverly Wolf, who premiered the cycle, with Rorem on piano.

The madrigals are a bit lighter, even witty, as Rorem sets some medievals texts with harmonies and answering sections that comment on them. And again, the performances are letter perfect.

If you're a fan of Rorem or the 20th Century art song, you have to own this CD.

Track Listings: