Barbara Hendricks Sings Copland & Barber

Aaron Copland (Composer), Samuel Barber (Composer), Michael Tilson Thomas (Conductor), London Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Barbara Hendricks (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Barbara Hendricks
• Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Michael Tilson Thomas
• Composer: Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber
• Audio CD (March 21, 2006)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B000CNEO16
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #547,979 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Quiet City, for English horn, trumpet & strings (from the incidental music)

2. Poems (8) of Emily Dickinson for voice & orchestra (arr. from 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson): No. 1 Nature, the gentlest mother

3. Poems (8) of Emily Dickinson for voice & orchestra (arr. from 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson): No. 2 There came a wind like a bugle

4. Poems (8) of Emily Dickinson for voice & orchestra (arr. from 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson): No. 3 The world feels dusty

5. Poems (8) of Emily Dickinson for voice & orchestra (arr. from 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson): No. 4 Heart, we will forget him

6. Poems (8) of Emily Dickinson for voice & orchestra (arr. from 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson): No. 5 Dear March, come in!

7. Poems (8) of Emily Dickinson for voice & orchestra (arr. from 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson): No. 6 Sleep is supposed to be

8. Poems (8) of Emily Dickinson for voice & orchestra (arr. from 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson): No. 7 Going to Heaven!

9. Poems (8) of Emily Dickinson for voice & orchestra (arr. from 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson): No. 8 The Chariot

10. Adagio for strings (or string quartet; arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11

11. Songs (4), for voice & piano, Op. 13: No. 1 Nocturne

12. Songs (4), for voice & piano, Op. 13: No. 3 Sure on this shining night

13. Knoxville: Summer of 1915, for high voice & orchestra (rev. for voice & chamber orchestra), Op. 24

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine "Knoxville" and an incredible bargain, September 12, 2008

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This review is from: Barbara Hendricks Sings Copland & Barber (Audio CD)

The beauty of this 1995 CD is that it forms a satisfying concert that can be listened to from beginning to end. The two instrumental works, Copland's 'Quiet City' and Barber's evergreen Adagio for Strings, are sensitively performed by the LSO and Tilson Thomas -- both are straightforward readings, lacking Bernstein's authority and magic but fine nonetheless. I get bored during Copland's Emily Dickinson song cycle, which strikes me as being very little about what the poems say and more about the composer's patented plains-and-Shakers style. The performance, however, is evocative and lyrical.

Soprano Barbara Hendricks hits her stride with the two Barber songs, and everything sails beautifully after that. She was in her mid-forties at the time, but the voice sounds untouched by age; you do have to like her steady fast vibrato, similar to Leontyne Price's but more pronounced. I also wish Hendricks hadn't been placed so far from the microphone. Hers is by no means a sizable voice, and if she had stood closer, we could appreciate her diction, which is very clear in the concluding 'Knoxville: Summer of 1915.' Hearing the text of James Agee's prose poem, the introduction to his shattering novel, 'A Death in the Family,' is half the joy, but many sopranos swallow the words -- not Hendricks, especailly in the opening half before the vocal line flies too high for good enunciation.

In any event, these small details apply only to those of us who own multiple versions of Barber's vocal masterpiece. Overall, this is a beautiful CD -- a sleeper, as one early reviewer said of the full-priced version.