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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific Songs, Great Artistry, September 24, 2000
This review is from: My Native Land (Audio CD)
In an effort to promote American culture abroad, I purchased this CD as a gift for a European friend. After two weeks of previewing it in my home, I'm keeping it for myself! Simply put, I can't remember the last time I have enjoyed a disc of songs as much as this one. No one is more surprised than me, since in the past I haven't always warmed to Larmore's singing, live or on record. Even here there are times when her vocal idiosyncrasies get in the way of what she wants to do. The lower register often takes on a strangely occluded quality, while some of her high notes slice the air with piercing shrillness. It's a highly accomplished voice that, to my ears, lacks consistent beauty. But to be fair, for much of this disc she sounds perfectly fine: a handsome, pleasingly dark sound, notable for its flexibility and legato. What earns her five stars, however, is her artistry. She brings an arrestingly broad range of responses to this music. Like the nation that produced them, American songs are highly diverse, drawing from folk, European, religious, and pop idioms, to name just a few. Larmore is in full command of this diversity and alters her tone and delivery to bring each number home. Furthermore, she seems really to have read and thought about the texts. Every word counts. When the music can handle it, she lays it on thick and "acts" her way through the song, such as in Copland's "Ching a Ring" or Heggie's "Barb'ry Allen." But she wisely knows when to to hold back and let the melody carry the point, as in Barber's famous "Sure on this Shining Night" or Ives's "My Native Land." (Many accomplished Lieder singers never learn this lesson.) Once or twice she's a little off target (the first track, unfortunately), but this disc gave me a new respect for her art. It helps that she's chosen such a fascinating group of songs. The Copland and Barber are well known, and recently Heggie is on everyone's lips, but much of the rest rarely makes it to disc. I particularly liked the gorgeous Aborn numbers, with their wistful sentimentality, and the quirky Duke pieces. Hundley's "Astronomers" is a haunting, unforgettable piece. Her inclusion of three Ives songs reminds us that it's time singers of her caliber returned to his oeuvre. Many of her choices stress different kinds of longing, that most American of emotions, but there's enough of a variety to prevent sameness. She also shines in several "patter songs," delivered with lightning wit. Palloc performs his role admirably. I enthusiastically recommend this disc. Brava Jennifer!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent recording, lots of photos, partial texts., June 8, 2005
This review is from: My Native Land (Audio CD)
I defer to the excellent review below, and to that in the December 1997 Gramophone 12/1997. Just a brief note for purchasers that, for reasons not totally justified by copyright concerns, only nine of the thirty sung texts are reproduced in the original Teldec release booklet - and none at all in the Elatus reissue. Generous total timing 74'58.
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2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good Intro to American Art Songs, April 1, 2006
This review is from: My Native Land (Audio CD)
'My Native Land', a collection of 30 pieces sung by mezzo soprano Jennifer Larmore, accompanied on piano by Antoine Palloc is an excellent tutorial in the American art song. As the introduction states, the art song is as much or more at home in America than any other form of 'classical' music. This became quite clear to me the moment I realized that Stephen Foster's songs were as much of the style of Shubert as they were of native American gospel songs.
This makes it especially odd that there are no Stephen Foster songs on this album. I take this to be an effort on the part of the artist and her producers to focus on less familiar material and thereby educate us about Jake Heggie, Lee Hoiby, John Duke, Richard Hundley, Lora Aborn, John Jacob Niles, Robert Abramson and Charles Naginski and thereby concentrating on 20th century composers joining the better known Charles Ives, Samuel Barber, and Aaron Copeland.
Larmone is not my favorite mezzo and, like another reviewer, have found her doing things I did not totally enjoy, but it seems as if the material in this album fits her to a Tee. It makes me wish she would do a Stephen Foster album.
Recommended.
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