Much is made in the
notes to this recording about the novelty
of British musicians performing American
music. Yet Ned Rorem himself spent his
seminal years in France, and W.H. Auden
so broke with the idea of nationality
that he lived most of his adult life
outside England. Composers may be influenced
by folk music, but good composers are
not slaves to genre. In our modern age,
national stereotypes aren’t meaningful.
Hearing the disc itself,
I’m not convinced that the performers’
nationality has much to do with their
work. Sara Fulgoni’s talents in particular
have gained her plenty of attention
internationally. Rorem’s settings of
the Santa Fe Songs were a commission
for the Santa Fe Music Festival, which
is large and nationally regarded. The
poet Witter Bynner was no insular regional
poet. His connection with Santa Fe was
that he’d lived in New Mexico for many
years, but was a cosmopolitan who counted
D.H. and Frieda Lawrence among his friends
and moved in the artist communities
of the South-West. A native New Yorker,
he had also lived in China and Japan,
learning the languages and cultures
thoroughly. He became a leading translator
of Chinese and Japanese verse. To this
day, Bynner’s translations of the Tao
Te Ching and other classics are standard
texts.
The poems Rorem set
are well observed vignettes of human
life. When an American setting is depicted,
as in Santa Fe, the poem is essentially
about Mexican subculture. Rorem’s settings
are rich and expressive. The piano plays
a simple, steady pulse against an exotic
long line of violin, viola and cello
in Opus 101. It’s almost oriental. Yet
it aptly reflects the line "He
not only plays one note but holds another
note away from it". Even more deliberately
"oriental" is Rorem’s decoration
of Sonnet. He hovers into the
pentatonic on the line "beneath
whose mould we too shall one day be
spent", reinforcing the imagery
with a keening violin line against the
warmly lyrical melody. It reminds me
strongly of the "orientalism"
of Fauré or Maurice Delage, modern
music playing with exotic themes. Rorem
recognized Bynner’s achievements.
Water Hyacinths
is a soliloquy for unaccompanied voice,
framed by dark-hued cello. In contrast,
the nervous discords and whispered,
breathless singing in Yes I hear
them show a completely different
side of both poet and composer. I’ve
followed Fulgoni’s career for many years
and enjoy her work. But she’s up against
formidable competition in Susan Graham,
whose Songs of Ned Rorem were
a huge success a few years ago. There’s
really no comparison. Graham’s version
of Sonnet, The Wintry Mind,
Opus 101 and The Sowers is
really in an altogether more exalted
league, clearer, more defined, more
natural and warm.
The Auden songs are
certainly much more of a muchness, in
the sense that most employ a jerky,
vocal line which rises and descends
within a phrase in a strange sort of
counter rhythm of its own, against the
verse. It does capture the edginess
of Auden’s personality, but there’s
more to Auden than that. Rorem thus
shapes a mysterious, meandering violin
introduction for Lay your sleeping
head, my love. It becomes a gentle,
melodic plaint for solo voice curling
up and down the scale. The melody is
taken up by piano, playing note by note,
with an almost childlike simplicity.
This is a beautiful song, which Lemmings
manages well, but, as with the Santa
Fe Songs, there are other tenors who
could turn it into magic. The song lies
at the heart of the cycle, dividing
the jerky songs with three more where
the dissonances are mixed with longer,
more keening lines.
The only reason, alas,
for getting this recording is to hear
the Santa Fe Songs and Auden Songs as
whole cycles. I suspect that a different
performance of the Auden Songs would
highlight the subtle differences between
them. The notes in the booklet describe
the Santa Fe Songs in comparison to
the Auden cycle as "the last word
in laid back Americana" ... "looser
and more ambulatory". I’m not so
sure. Its very contrasts give it spice,
and an awareness of Bynner’s non-parochial
personality adds to an appreciation
of Rorem’s musical intentions. In short,
a disappointing recording not helped
in the least by the booklet notes.
Anne Ozorio
Christopher Lemmings (tenor); Sara Fulgoni (soprano);
Chamber Domaine 
