New from Art Song Colorado: “El Rebelde,” release date August 5, 2022
Baritone Andrew Garland performs music by Gabriela Lena Frank, including the world premiere recording of Cantos de Cifar y el Mar Dulce (Songs of Cifar and the Sweet Sea)
Album includes more music by Frank, and Shostakovich’s Spanish Songs
“Andrew Garland sang with vocal allure and dramatic urgency.” — Alex Ross, The New Yorker
The acclaimed baritone Andrew Garland is front and center on a new album of songs by Gabriela Lena Frank and Dmitri Shostakovich on Art Song Colorado’s label (DASP 005, release date August 5, 2022). “El Rebelde” (“The Rebel”) brings together the vocal compositions of Frank and Shostakovich, two composers who transformed Spanish language song through their innovative settings.
Along with the pianist Jeremy Reger, Garland performs Cantos de Cifar y el Mar Dulce (Songs of Cifar and the Sweet Sea) in its world premiere recording. Cifar is a setting of a collection of poems by the Nicaraguan poet Pablo Antonio Cuadra that recounts the odyssey of a harp-playing mariner who travels the waters of Lake Nicaragua. Eight songs are contained on this album, and Frank intends to ultimately set all 30 poems of this saga.
Also on this album is Las Cinco Lunas de Lorca (The Five Moons of Lorca), with tenor Javier Abreu and Cuatro Canciones Andinas (Four Andean Songs), both by Frank; and Spanish Songs Op. 100 by Dmitri Shostakovich.
Lorca, with text by the Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz, describes the assassination of the literary giant Federico García Lorca in the Spanish Civil War. Texts for Four Andean Songs draw on traditional poetry of the Quechua people, descendants of the ancient Incas. The Peruvian folklorist José María Arguedas collected and translated these poems from Quechua into Spanish. Shostakovich’s songs are traditional Spanish tunes in simple arrangements: Spanish culture through a Russian lens.
Garland says he admires Frank’s music for its "driving rhythms, the jazz harmonies, the non-classical vocal techniques, the Spanish language, the high F#s and Gs." He continues, "Besides her innovative music-making, I adore Gabi’s philosophy: when western “classical music” assimilates another culture, it must make both cultures equal: one culture can’t dominate the other."
Contact ClassicalCommunications@gmail.com to request a physical CD or digital copy of this recording.
"[Lena Frank is] one of the 35 most significant women composers in history" — The Washington Post
Track List
Gabriela Lena Frank: Cantos de Cifar y el Mar Dulce (Songs of Cifar and the Sweet Sea)
[01] I. El nacimiento de Cifar
[02] XV. Me diste oh Dios! una hija
[03] XVIII. Primer parte: El rebelde
[04] XVIII. Segune parte: Tomasito, el cuque
[05] XVIII. Tercer parte: El Niño
[06] XXII. Primer parte: Eufemia
[07] XXII. Segund parte: En La Vela del Angelito
[08] XXX. Pescador
[09] Gabriela Lena Frank: Las Cinco Lunas de Lorca
Gabriela Lena Frank: Cuatro Canciones Andinas
[10] Despedida
[11] Yo Crio una Mosca
[12] Carnaval de Tambobamba
[13] Yunca
Dmitri Shostakovich: Spanish Songs, Op. 100
[14] Prashai Granada (Farewell, Granada)
[15] Zvyozochki (Starry Eyes)
[16] Pyervaya Fstryecha (First Meeting)
[17] Ronda (Round Dance)
[18] Chernookaya (Dark Eyes)
[19] Son (Dream)
Total Time = 68:31
Biographies
Baritone Andrew Garland has performed recitals at Carnegie Hall, the New York Festival of Song, the Ravinia festival, Cleveland Art Song Festival, Bard Festival, Vocal Arts DC, college campuses around North America, and venues in Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Turkey. He has premiered works by Heggie, Bolcom, Paulus, Steven Mark Kohn, Hoiby, Cipullo, and Gabriela Frank. He has performed in concert with the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Baroque, Handel and Haydn, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and leading opera roles at Seattle Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Minnesota Opera, and many others. Garland teaches on the voice faculty at the University of Colorado.
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