Episode 172. Ned Rorem In Memoriam

Episode 172. Ned Rorem In Memoriam

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Ned Rorem (23 October 1923 – 18 November 2022)

Greetings to all from my former home of Manhattan! Upon landing here a week ago, I was greeted by the news of the death of Ned Rorem, the man previously known as “America’s Greatest Living Composer,” who just last month had celebrated his 99th birthday. Though he won the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1976 for his orchestral work Air Music, Rorem was most celebrated for his vocal music, in particular his art songs. In this episode, I will delve into that aspect of his output, from his earliest published work to his extraordinary late masterpiece Evidence of Things Not Seen. The episode features singers who collaborated closely with the composer, including Phyllis Curtin, Donald Gramm, Beverly Wolff, Regina Sarfaty, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Kurt Ollmann, and others. Many other singers were also drawn to Rorem’s songs, including Leontyne Price, Jan DeGaetani, Martina Arroyo, and Laura Aikin, all of whom are represented here. As celebrated as a frank and forthright diarist and essayist as he was as a composer, Rorem (like his British counterpart Benjamin Britten) had extraordinary taste in the poetry and texts he chose to set. In this episode alone, we hear compositions set to words of Sylvia Plath, Paul Goodman, Walt Whitman, Paul Monette, Theodore Roethke, Frank O’Hara, and others. The episode concludes with a tribute to another musician who died earlier the same day, the American collaborative pianist David Triestram, who accompanies his dear colleague and friend Roberta Alexander in Leonard Bernstein’s poignant and timely song “Some Other Time.”

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Except for the final selection, all works were composed by Ned Rorem

Ned Rorem, Theodore Roethke: From Whence Cometh Song (The Nantucket Songs, No. 1). Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Ned Rorem [1982]

Ned Rorem, Michael Barrett, Steven Blier

Ned Rorem, Theodore Roethke: From Whence Cometh Song (Evidence of Things Not Seen, Part I [Beginnings], No. 1). Monique McDonald, Dolores Ziegler, Rufus Müller, Kurt Ollmann, Michael Barrett [1999]

Leonard Bernstein and Beverly Wolff

Ned Rorem, Theodore Roethke: The Apparition I (Poems of Love and the Rain, No. 5). Beverly Wolff, Ned Rorem [1969]

Ned Rorem, Theodore Roethke: Interlude (Poems of Love and the Rain, No. 9). Jan DeGaetani [1988]

Ned Rorem, Robert Louis Stevenson: Requiem. Martina Arroyo, Donal Nold [1961]

Ned Rorem, Orlando Gibbons: The Silver Swan. Leontyne Price, David Garvey [live from the White House, 08.X.78]

Laura Aikin and Donald Sulzen

Ned Rorem, Marie-Laure de Noailles: Jack l’éventreur. Laura Aikin, Donald Sulzen [2004]

Marie-Laure Henriette Anne de Noailles, Vicomtesse de Noailles, photographed b Man Ray, 1935

Ned Rorem, Elinor Wylie: Little Elegy. Phyllis Curtin, Ned Rorem [1969]

Ned Rorem, Frank O’Hara: For Poulenc. Phyllis Curtin, Ned Rorem [1969]

Ned Rorem, Paul Goodman: What Sparks and Wiry Cries. Phyllis Curtin, Ned Rorem [1969]

Paul Goodman
Phyllis Curtin and Ned Rorem, 2001

Ned Rorem, Sylvia Plath: Lady Lazarus (Ariel, No. 5). Phyllis Curtin, Joseph Rabbai, Ryan Edwards [1973]

Sylvia Plath

Ned Rorem, Walt Whitman: As Adam Early in the Morning. Donald Gramm, Donald Hassard [live Town Hall 24.II.76]

Ned Rorem, Walt Whitman: The Real War Will Never Get in the Books (War Scenes, No. 5). Donald Gramm, Eugene Istomin [1969]

Ned Rorem, Howard Moss: King Midas. The Princess’s Song (No. 7). Sandra Walker, Ann Schein

John Stewart as Nemorino

The King to the Princess, at the Riverbank (No. 10). John Stewart, Ann Schein [1975]

Ned Rorem, Paul Goodman: The Lordly Hudson. Regina Sarfaty, Ned Rorem [1964]

Ned Rorem, Frank O’Hara: In New York and Spain (Four Dialogues, No. 4). Anita Darian, John Stewart, Ned Rorem [1969]

Ned Rorem, John Ashbery: The Grapevine (Some Trees, No. 2). Phyllis Curtin, Beverly Wolff, Donald Gramm, Ned Rorem [1969]

Ned Rorem: Evidence of Things Not Seen, Part III [Endings] (conclusion) [1999]

Rufus Müller

No. 35: Paul Monette: Even Now. Rufus Müller, Steven Blier

Ned Rorem, Michael Barrett, Steven Blier

No. 36: William Penn: Evidence of Things Not Seen. William Penn: Evidence of Things Not Seen. Monique McDonald, Dolores Ziegler, Rufus Müller, Kurt Ollmann, Steven Blier

Ned Rorem and Kurt Ollmann

Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, Adolph Green: Some Other Time (On the Town). Roberta Alexander, David Triestram [1996]

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