baritone, vn, cl, vc, pno
Available from Subito Music
Recorded on the album
Susan Kander: Five Movements for my Father (Loose Cans 5050)
Listen:
Performed by:
Keith Phares – baritone
Suzanne Ornstein – violin
Lino Gomez – clarinet
Eric Bartlett – cello
Thomas Schmidt – piano
This song cycle could easily be staged as a monodrama using as little as a few chairs and hats. It tells the story of a man’s life: we meet him as an exuberant college student early in the 20th century, follow him to France as a young poet, return home with the excited GI from WWII. Decades later he looks back over his marriage and finally, as an old man after the turn of the 21st century, he vents his anger and sadness at the current state of his beloved country. The music loosely follows the times and locales, starting in the ultra-romantic swirl of the early 20th century, on to pointillist France, back to swing era USA, before drifting loose into the latter 20th century.
“This work has exceptional interweaving of melodic lines and textures. It touches the audience with a gamut of emotion… keeps the listener… enthralled.”– Anthony Aibel, New York Concert Review