Description

For Del Tredici, Victorian sensibility has yielded to urban contemporary realities – tormented relationships, personal transformations, and the joys and sorrows of gay life. Gay Life, in fact, happens to be the title of his song cycle premiered in May 2001 by the San Francisco Symphony, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and baritone William Sharp. (In its December 2001 issue, Out Magazine cited Gay Life in naming the composer one of its people of the year.) Performance artist John Kelly created an hour-long theatrical piece around eight of Del Tredici’s songs. The latter work, Brother, was commissioned by both the NEA and the Rockefeller Foundation and also premiered in May 2001, in New York City. Del Tredici’s most recent CD, released by Composers Recordings, Inc. (CRI), is a song collection entitled “Secret Music,” which New Yorker critic Alex Ross, Fanfare’s Robert Carl and critic-at-large Jason Serinus all hailed as one of the best new-music albums of the year 2001. Commenting on Del Tredici’s new vocal outpouring, San Francisco critic Marilyn Tucker was moved to write that it “must surely herald a bright new era for the neglected tradition of song composition.”

DAVID DEL TREDICI: Two Song Cycles for voice and piano. Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter (1998/2001) with Hila Plitmann, sop. & David Del Tredici, piano; Chana’s Story (1998) with Miriam Abramowitsch, mezzo-sop. & David Del Tredici, piano. Notes by David Del Tredici. Recording premieres. Total time: 72:58. (DDD) UPC # 017685-11522-6

Sound Clips (MP3):

1. Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter I- Children – Hila Plitmann

2. Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter II- A Giant Wave – Hila Plitmann

3. Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter III- A Few Romances – Hila Plitmann

4. Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter IV- Walking – Hila Plitmann

5. Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter V- Rebellion – Hila Plitmann

6. Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter VI- A Good Cry – Hila Plitmann

7. Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter VII- A Point of Contention – Hila Plitmann

8. Lament For The Death Of A Bullfighter VIII- Sweeter – Hila Plitmann

9. Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter IX- David – Hila Plitmann

10. Chana’s Story I- The Fever of Love – Hila Plitmann

11. Chana’s Story II- Eating Babies – Hila Plitmann

12. Chana’s Story III- Tired Sex – Hila Plitmann

13. Chana’s Story IV- The Stutter – Hila Plitmann

14. Chana’s Story V- Clear and Cold – Hila Plitmann

15. Chana’s Story VI- Alone on the Mountain – Hila Plitmann