Episode 458. From Ear to Ear: A Conversation with Steven Blier
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Today a new segment of Countermelody Conversations that has been months in the offing! One of the ineffable delights of hosting Countermelody over the years is the connection it has brought me with my listeners, fans, and subjects, including some extraordinary (and sometimes famous) musicians and people. One of the podcast’s most devoted fans is a man that I have held in adulation for years: pianist and educator Steven Blier, co-founder of the New York Festival of Song, now concluding its 38th season. Powered by Blier’s vision, musical insight, and an intrepid sense of stretching boundaries, NYFOS has revolutionized the genre of the song recital. Last November, Steven’s extraordinary memoir, From Ear to Ear: A Pianist’s Love Affair with Song, was published to great acclaim by W.W. Norton. A few years ago I, as the host of Countermelody, received a fan letter from this man whom I have admired for decades. Since then, I pay him a visit whenever I return to New York and have also taken in every NYFOS concert I possibly can. This past February, almost exactly two months ago, in the depths of New York’s ungodly deep freeze and the week before NYFOS’s powerful concert entitled “Fugitives,” I paid a visit to Steve at the Upper West Side apartment he shares with his husband Jim, and we resumed our ongoing conversation about music and song. And this time I brought my mic along! Our widen-ranging and in-depth conversation covers the gamut from many topics and personalities discussed in the book, punctuated throughout by fascinating musical examples, including by frequent NYFOS collaborators Kate Lindsey, Theo Hoffman, Cyndia Sieden, William Sharp, and Julia Bullock, with special focus on the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. As a lover of great singers of the past, I am also deeply moved and amused by our discussions of Steve’s encounters with Valerie Masterson, Martha Schlamme, Patricia Brooks, and others. I am naming this week “Steven Blier Week” at Countermelody, for on Friday I shall bring you “The Art of Steven Blier,” an additional episode featuring nearly forty years of recorded performances of Steven Blier, both live and in the studio.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Georg Jokl, Fritz Lampi: Abendlied. Kate Lindsey, Steven Blier [2009]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Ángel de Saavedra]: Pace, pace, mio Dio (La forza del destino). Hana Janků, František Jílek, Brno State Theatre Opera Orchestra [1970]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Adami [after Alfred Maria Willner, Heinz Reichert]: Chi il bel sogno di Doretta (La Rondine). Patricia Brooks, Orchestra conducted by Rex Koury [1972]
Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer: Lazybones. Hoagy Carmichael [1933]
Francis Poulenc, Guillaume Apollinaire: Hôtel (Banalités, FP 107/2). Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc [1950]
Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht: Barbara-Song (Die Dreigroschenoper). Martha Schlamme, arranged and conducted by Samuel Matlovsky [1962]
George Harrison, John Lennon, arr. Steven Blier: Taxman. Theo Hoffman, Andrew Owens, Steven Blier, Alex Levine, Ruben Rengel, Sam Weber [2024]
George Harrison, arr. Steven Blier: While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Julia Bullock, Theo Hoffman, Steven Blier, Alex Levine, Ruben Rengel [2024]
Paul Bowles, Gertrude Stein: April Fool Baby. William Sharp, Steven Blier [1987]
Steven Blier, Michael Barrett, Leonard Bernstein, Judy Kaye, and William Sharp
Leonard Bernstein: Prelude (Arias and Barcarolles). New York Festival of Song [Steven Blier, Michael Barrett, Judy Kaye, William Sharp] [1990]
Richard Strauss, Achim von Arnim: Der Stern, Op. 69/1. Cyndia Sieden, Steven Blier [1991]
William Bolcom, H.D. [née Hilda Doolittle]: Never More Will the Wind (I Will Breathe a Mountain). Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Steven Blier
Arthur Sullivan, W.S. Gilbert: Poor wand’ring one (The Pirates of Penzance). Valerie Masterson, Kenneth Alwyn, Bournemouth Sinfonietta [1983]
Riccardo Zandonai, Maurizio Vaucaire, Carlo Zangarini [after Pierre Louÿs]: A fine di dicembre (Conchita). Gloria Davy, Loris Gavarini, Orchestra Sinfonica Città di Sanremo [live 23.III.61]
Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin: One Life to Live (Lady in the Dark). Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Steven Blier [live 1993]
