Customer Reviews

Samuel Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915; Dover Beach; Hermit Songs; Andromache's Farewell

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This fabulous collection is required listening for anyone who loves Barber's music and/or great singing. Naturally Leontyne Price is wonderful in the HERMIT SONGS, likewise Fischer-Dieskau in Dover Beach -- but don't overlook Steber's historic performance of KNOXVILLE, which she commissioned, nor Arroyo's dramatic tour-de-force in the powerful ANDROMACHE'S FAREWELL, a late work. The Samuel Barber Foundation website (samuelbarber.org) will soon be operating with news/reviews of new & reissued recordings of Barber's work.

Essential Barber. Steber's "Knoxville" is the earliest recording. She commissioned it, if I'm not mistaken. Her feeling for the text, her phrasing of it is remarkable. Her diction is perfect. The rest of this collection is an American treasure. Too bad it doesn't include Samuel Barber's recording of himself singing "Dover Beach", but barring that DFD's is the best on records. Leontyne Price's "Hermit Songs" are the classic recording. How could you go wrong?

This is a delightful recording! First, "Knoxville"'s lyrics are from "A Death In The Family", by James Agee -- one of the most evocative prose writers. Second, Barber's composition is wonderfully sympathetic with Agee's lyrics. Third, Ms Steber's dynamic voice alternately stands out from the orchestra, then melds into it, as the focus of the lyrics changes. (Listen to the way that the line "Now is the night one blue dew." flows from her voice to the woodwinds: dreamy.) The flip side is equally delightful, and on the whole probably a bit more light hearted (if not as introspective) as the first. I especially love the song "A Monk And His Cat": thanks to the magic of Mr. Barber and Ms. Price, a 12th(?) century monk, obviously besotted by his cat, speaks clearly to us all these centuries later. . . .and isn't it wonderful to hear the composer himself accompany Ms. Price? You will love this CD. (Report back here, if you're not satisfied.)

My first experience with Barber was Price's recording of "Knoxville", and it will always remain, for me, the definitive recording of that work. The version here is certainly good, but it misses the lyrical charm that Price brings to the piece. As far as I know, the Price version is out of print (along with, to my horror, her amazing work on Antony and Cleopatra, Barber's woefully underrated opera), but if you ever get the chance, track it down.

These are all essential recordings, of course, for the reasons other reviewers mention. I'll simply point out that this recording of Dover Beach (also available in other issues) with the Juilliard and F-D is the notorious one where he gets the words wrong. Instead of singing, "On the French coast the light gleams and is gone..." he gives it as "...French toast..." Of course, he delivers this beautifully.

Samuel Barber was not a Southerner, but he wrote a work which plausibly sums up something sublime in the Southern experience, by way of Agee. It is a work that can easily bring tears in a sensitive person, and Steber's performance, with a bright bell-like loudness at one moment contrasting with the most transcendent pianissimos leaves a sensitive guy with no place to hide. This is music that tugs at every heart string, and strikes every chord of beauty. The performance is so great that when she reaches the words "Now is the night, one blue dew" you almost can't believe the hushed, interior effect she suddenly achieves. I cannot help feel that Barber got something out of Agee's prose that metamorphosed the beauty that was already there.
If you don't cry during this performance you must have a heart of stone. Yes, it is heavy with some sort of cultural nostalgia, but it surpasses that limitation. This performance of this work is the American experience see sub specie aeternitatis.

This CD contains what is without question the finest recording of Barber's Knoxville Summer of 1915 ever made, the 1950 Columbia effort. No other recording comes close. Steber commissioned this work in 1948 and her voice--clearly at its peak on this recording--is one of the great American voices of the 20th century. Her rendering of this masterwork literally brings one to tears, as it has never been equaled.

Samuel Barber was a 20th century American composer whose music was fairly popular in it's day and still remains in the repitiore. Baber is most well-known for his sad and moving "Adagio for Strings". Barber also composed a lovely violin concerto and a rather athletic piano concerto and piano sonata; it is the voice, though, where Barber is at his best. "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" vividly conjures images of quaint old American life as it also captures the innocence and pure-ness of childhood, and impending despair. I also like the way that the music in "Knoxville" seems to float up and down, much like the warm, gentle air on a summer evening.

"Dover Beach" is another beautiful work that is also powerful and moving. The "Hermit Songs" took me more time to get used to, but now I am also able to recognize some beautiful things there also.

Here, Barber reveals his greatness as a composer who is both "Romantic" and "Modern"; lush and lyrical, but also quite sophisticated and intellectual. Sometimes he leans towards things complex, but never leaves his romantic sense of lyricism and a basic feeling of melancholy that underscores most of what he composes.

The only down-side to this product is that liner notes do not include lyrics.