Format Details:
Release Date: 10 January 2020
Label: Odradek Records
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 0855317003899
Description
An exquisite recital of songs on the theme of travel, given insightful, powerful interpretations by the American baritone Will Liverman and pianist Jon King.
'Whither Must I Wander' takes its name from one of the 'Songs of Travel' by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a song cycle that is at the heart of this release. From the trudging 'Vagabond' to the more playful 'Roadside Fire' and the radiance of 'Youth and Love', Vaughan Williams explores every bittersweet nuance of journeying.
The album also features the exhilarating vigour of Frederick Keel's 'Three Salt-Water Ballads', and the magnificent 'King David' by Herbert Howells. We then travel from England across the Atlantic to hear American songs by Aaron Copland, with one of his 'Old American Songs', the serene 'At the River', and by contemporary composer Steve Mark Kohn, whose 'Ten Thousand Miles Away' uses traditional folk song to navigate the emotional strains of missing a loved-one far away.
Liverman and King end their recital with the Goethe-inspired 'Wanderer's Night Song' by Russian composer Nikolai Medtner, and with the beautiful 'Mondnacht' by Robert Schumann.
Will Liverman, an ambassador for diversity in the arts, grew up surrounded by gospel music in the Pentecostal Churches of Norfolk, Virginia. His musical education in piano and vocal studies enabled him to visit the Metropolitan Opera aged 15, a transformative moment that inspired Liverman to pursue singing as a career, with such success that he made his own Metropolitan Opera debut in recent years. Jon King is an American pianist and choral conductor, disciplines which he has studied to Doctorate level at the Universities of Michigan and Maryland. King has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor in an array of venues, including London's Wigmore Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Tracklisting
Nuno Côrte-Real, Ensemble Darcos & Coro Ricercare
Artur Pizarro, Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal, Julia Jones
Jenaer Philharmonie, Simon Gaudenz
Carion Wind Quintet
Johannes Fleischmann
Tony Addison Sextet
Vasco Pimentel Trio
Franco Mezzena & Elena Ballario
Sarah Hennies
Donna McKevitt
Eric Guo, Oh! Orchestra, Vaclav Luks
Arthur Rubinstein (piano), Lodz Philharmonic Orchestra, Henryk Czyz
Hyuk Lee (piano), Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrzej Boreyko
Ensemble de Caelis
Zemlinsky Quartet, Paolo Giacometti
Laurence Kilsby & Ella O'Neill
